The Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams provides comprehensive coverage of the basic neuroscience of both sleep and dreams for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. It details new scientific discoveries, places those discoveries within evolutionary context, and links established findings with implications for sleep medicine. This second edition focuses on recent developments in the social nature of sleep and dreams. Coverage includes the neuroscience of all stages of sleep; the lifespan development of these sleep stages; the role of non-REM and REM sleep in health and mental health; comparative sleep; biological rhythms; sleep disorders; sleep memory; dream content; dream phenomenology, and dream functions. Students, scientists, and interested non-specialists will find this book accessible and informative.

"A truly comprehensive, scientifically rigorous and utterly fascinating account of when, how, and why we dream. Put simply, When Brains Dream is the essential guide to dreaming." —Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep Questions on the origins and meaning of dreams are as old as humankind, and as confounding and exciting today as when nineteenth-century scientists first attempted to unravel them. Why do we dream? Do dreams hold psychological meaning or are they merely the reflection of random brain activity? What purpose do dreams serve? When Brains Dream addresses these core questions about dreams while illuminating the most up-to-date science in the field. Written by two world-renowned sleep and dream researchers, it debunks common myths that we only dream in REM sleep, for example—while acknowledging the mysteries that persist around both the science and experience of dreaming. Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold bring together state-of-the-art neuroscientific ideas and findings to propose a new and innovative model of dream function called NEXTUP—Network Exploration to Understand Possibilities. By detailing this model’s workings, they help readers understand key features of several types of dreams, from prophetic dreams to nightmares and lucid dreams. When Brains Dream reveals recent discoveries about the sleeping brain and the many ways in which dreams are psychologically, and neurologically, meaningful experiences; explores a host of dream-related disorders; and explains how dreams can facilitate creativity and be a source of personal insight. Making an eloquent and engaging case for why the human brain needs to dream, When Brains Dream offers compelling answers to age-old questions about the mysteries of sleep.

"This monograph was stimulated by the extraordinary growth now apparent in an area, generally identified as sleep and dream research, for this recent concentration of scientific effort offers a singular example of the power that basic research can exert in penetrating the problems of mental health and illness. In the past year alone, the National Institute of Mental Health supported over 60 projects related in whole or in part to studies of sleep and dreams, with awards totaling over $2 million. The work of many of these NIMH investigators is included in this summary, which extends beyond the Institute's program insofar as necessary to indicate the major trends of work in the area. The report cannot, of course, encompass the classical studies already summarized in published literature, nor even provide comprehensive survey of present-day sleep research, for although much of the scientific data on sleep have been generated during the last dozen years, significant references in this field now number in the many thousands. The mosaic of disciplines contributing to the study of sleep contains such diverse fields as psychiatry, and mathematics, psychology, and biochemistry, physiology, and anthropology. Nevertheless, ferment about the subject matter and a spirit of cooperation across traditional disciplinary lines have made it possible to knit together data that might otherwise have lain unrelated in a variety of laboratories. During the past year, individual summaries of many of the projects cited here were distributed to scientists working in the field of sleep and dreams. Many of the recipients felt that up-to-date reports, especially in a field of such dynamic activity, represented a unique solution to the problem of scientific information exchange. Such communication, it was felt, provided a quick look at work in progress that might prevent duplication of effort and stimulate pertinent contacts among scientists, thus aiding them in their work. It is hoped that this monograph will be a further part of that process."--Foreword.

"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

Designed primarily as a text this volume is an up-to-date and integrated overview of physiological sleep mechanisms, brain function, psychological ramifications of sleep, dimensions of dreaming, and clinical disorders associated with sleep. It is accessibly written with specially boxed material that enhances the text. Authored by a researcher/clinician/professor with more than 25 years of experience in sleep studies, Understanding Sleep and Dreaming provides a solid basis for those who are not expert in this area. It offers a good foundation for those who will continue sleep studies, while at the same time offering enough information for those who will apply this knowledge in other ways such as clinicians in their individual practices or researchers for whom sleep may be part of a specific study. It is an excellent text for courses on sleep at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

"This reference covers all of the major topics concerning dreaming and sleep, based on the latest empirical evidence from sleep research as well as drawn from a broad range of disciplinary contexts, including history, and anthropology"--Provided by publisher.