The Nocturnal Brain
Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A renowned neurologist shares the true stories of people unable to get a good night’s rest in The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep, a fascinating exploration of the symptoms and syndromes behind sleep disorders.
For Dr. Guy Leschziner’s patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep—and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock’s days and nights.
Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while “sleep-eating.” The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hypersexuality while awake.
With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this revealing and informative debut, British neurologist and sleep physician Leschziner brings readers into the lab to learn about all manner of sleep disorders experienced by people he's treated, his methods of treating them, and the role sleep plays in health. Disorders discussed range from the relatively common sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, and narcolepsy, to more unusual ones like those suffered by Vincent, diagnosed with non-24-hour rhythm disorder, which results in an ever-shifting sleep pattern; Adrian, a man who collapses into sleep whenever he laughs; and Tom, a "sexsomniac" who sometimes makes unwelcome, aggressive, and, in comparison with his waking personality, out of character sexual advances against his partners while asleep. Leschziner uses these and other cases to not only define the disorders in relatable ways, but to outline his plan of treatment for each patient and extrapolate the significance for sleep in its largest sense: its importance in everyone's lives. Readers will find Leschziner's stories fascinating, and might even pick up a few tips for getting a more restorative night's sleep in the process. George Lucas, Inkwell (on behalf of Luigi Bonomi Associates).
