Summary and Reviews of The Mind at Night by Andrea Rock

The Mind at Night by Andrea Rock

The Mind at Night

The New Science of How and Why we Dream

by Andrea Rock
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
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  • First Published:
  • Mar 1, 2004, 256 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2005, 240 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Accessible and engaging, The Mind at Night shines a bright light on our nocturnal journeys, while revealing the crucial role dreams could play in penetrating the mystery of consciousness.

What neuroscience tells us about dreams and the very nature of consciousness.

Over the past few decades, there has been a revolution in scientific knowledge about why we dream, what's actually happening to the brain when we do, and what the sleeping mind reveals about our waking hours. Beginning with the birth of dream research in the 1950s, award-winning science reporter Andrea Rock traces the brief but fascinating history of this emerging scientific field. She then takes us into modern sleep labs across the country, bringing the scientists to life as she interprets their intellectual breakthroughs and asks the questions that intrigue us all: Why do we remember only a fraction of our dreams? Why are dreams usually accompanied by intense emotion, such as fear or anxiety? Can we really control our dreams without waking up? Are universal dream interpretations valid? Is dreaming our way of consolidating long-term memories and filtering the day's mental detritus? Can dreams truly spark creative thought or help solve problems? Accessible and engaging, The Mind at Night shines a bright light on our nocturnal journeys, while revealing the crucial role dreams could play in penetrating the mystery of consciousness.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

If you're looking for a new-age style 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 who regularly wired up his 8 year old son with electrodes in the interest of science. She then describes 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, as do babies.

That's just a few of the highlights from chapter one (exclusively excerpted at BookBrowse). The rest of the book is equally fascinating.
..continued

Full Review (179 words)

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

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Beyond the Book



In the early 1950s Eugene Aserinsky discovered the stage of sleep known as rapid eye movement (REM) which is characterized by vivid dreaming.  William Dement, a fellow graduate student, then described the five stages of normal sleep, laying the foundation for all sleep research since then.  The next generation of researchers mostly debunked Sigmund Freud's theories about dreaming, while today's researchers have new technology available to them, such as MRI scans, to further expand our understanding.  

Interesting Link:
A 1997 paper by William Dement about the importance of sleep and sleep disorders

'...

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