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The New Science of How and Why we Dream
by Andrea RockComment: If you're looking for a new-age type book about dream
interpretation, look elsewhere, but if you're interested in the
physiology of why, and how we dream and a history of dream research,
interspersed with many fascinating facts to entertain and amuse -
this is the book for you.
Rock starts with the discovery of the REM phase of sleep by a
University of Chicago graduate student (Eugene Aserinsky) who regularly wired up his 8
year old son with electrodes while he slept, in the interest of science. She then
goes on to describe William Dement's research into the five stages
of normal sleep - he converted part of his apartment into a lab and
had members of the Rockette's dance troupe sleepover wired up to his
machines; cash for sleeping held great appeal to these young
dancers! Further experiments on animals showed that they dream too,
and babies also.
That's just a few of the highlights from chapter one - which you can
read for yourself at BookBrowse. The rest of
the book is equally fascinating.
This review first ran in the March 2, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.
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Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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