Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and DreamsDoes the early bird really catch the worm, or end up healthy, wealthy, and wise? Can some people really exist on just a few hours' sleep a night? Does everybody dream? Do fish dream? How did people cope before alarm clocks and caffeine? And is anybody getting enough sleep? Even though we will devote a third of our lives to sleep, we still know remarkably little about its origins and purpose. Paul Martin's Counting Sheep answers these questions and more in this illuminating work of popular science. Even the wonders of yawning, the perils of sleepwalking, and the strange ubiquity of nocturnal erections are explained in full. To sleep, to dream: Counting Sheep reflects the centrality of these activities to our lives and can help readers respect, understand, and extract more pleasure from that delicious time when they're lost to the world. |
Contents
A Third of Life 35734 | 3 |
Sleepy People | 19 |
Dead Tired | 52 |
The Golden Chain | 74 |
The Shapes of Sleep | 89 |
Morpheus Undressed | 113 |
Strange Tales of Erections and Yawning | 132 |
Friends and Enemies of Sleep | 142 |
From Egg to Grave | 221 |
The Reason of Sleep | 240 |
Bad Sleepers | 257 |
Dark Night | 271 |
Pickwickian Problems | 291 |
And So to Bed | 315 |
An Excellent Thing | 330 |
Blessed oblivion | 343 |
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Common terms and phrases
accidents ADHD adults alcohol alertness animals average awake babies Behav behaviour Biol body temperature breathing caffeine cent century circadian rhythm Clin co-sleeping coffee daytime sleepiness depression disrupt sleep dreamer drink drivers drugs early effects example experience fall asleep fatigue feel go to bed hormone Horne J. A. hours a day human hypnagogic impaired infants insomnia lack of sleep less sleep light London lucid dreams melatonin memory minutes morning muscles narcolepsy Neurosci night night's sleep nightmares nocturnal erections Nocturnal penile tumescence noise normal NREM obstructive sleep patients penile performance physical Physiol Psychiatry Psychol rats REM sleep risk Saint-Denys scientists shift sleep apnoea sleep deprivation sleep disorders sleep disturbances sleep inertia sleep loss sleep paralysis sleep patterns sleep problems Sleep Res sleeper sleepwalking slept slow-wave sleep snoring species spend stimulation suffering symptoms syndrome tired tiredness upper airway volunteers waking William Shakespeare yawning
References to this book
Il valore del silenzio: sconfinamenti tra pedagogia e comunicazione Giovanni Fiorentino Limited preview - 2003 |