Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.72 (888 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0312327439 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 432 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-03-22 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Paul Martin's Counting Sheep answers these questions and more in this illuminating work of popular science. Does 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. Even the wonders of yawning,
"The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams" Joel M. Kauffman A very good subtitle for this encyclopedic book, also the title of this review, which could have included the words "and everything that can go wrong with sleep and the lack of it". Easy to read, exhaustively referenced (but without numbered references), Martin's dry humor is sparse at the beginning, but expands nicely as the book progresses. There are no picures, tables or graphs. For my taste, too ma. An Encyclopedic Sleep Manifesto Stephanie Silva "The mere presence of an alarm clock implies sleep deprivation." What's the purpose of sleeping and dreaming? Some would just as well ask what's the purpose of wakefulness, or elegant dining, and I've been happily one of them since I was kid who early understood the delicious and miraculous sensuality of that mere third of our lives spent sleeping and dreaming. (Some of us wish it was an acceptably hig. "Scientific and Artistic Appreciation for Sleep" according to Rob Hardy. We spend about a third of our lives sleeping, but we don't like to admit it. We are likely to praise the person who skimps on sleep in order to get the duties of the rest of life, "real life," done. Scientific sleep research was not even considered until recent decades. Correcting this sort of neglect of a biological necessity is one of the purposes of _Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Slee
From Publishers Weekly Scientist Martin (The Healing Mind) is on a mission to cure our "sleep-sick society" and convince us, for our own good, to start taking sleep more seriously. Applying scientific fact, theory and experiment, Martin demonstrates the similarity between sleeplessness and drunkenness; the links between the hours modern schoolchildren keep and ADHD; the role of sleeplessness in man-made disasters; and how sleeplessness and night shift work can contribute to serious illness. When he discusses dreaming, Martin touches on the habits and beliefs of traditional societies as revealed by anthropologists, and neatly debunks Freud's interpretation of all dream imagery as sexual. Martin highlights extreme abuses of sleep deprivation in torture and in warfare, while also celebrating sleep's creative power, telling of musicians who have woken up humming melodies and the scienti