This is a quirky, amusing, information-packed book for all lovers of sleep. It's a celebration of nature's greatest free gift, the perfect companion for the bedside table. It's the book to curl up with before falling asleep. It looks at the history, culture, folklore, language and science of sleep. Did you know that the siesta was once a British tradition? Why do we say 'sleep like a top'? Does counting sheep work? What are the very best sleeps? Who invented pyjamas? If dogs sleep so much, why are they always yawning? What are the best films about sleep? Do today's children have less sleep than Edwardian children? Does booze help or hinder sleep? Not only is sleep a great natural pleasure, it's also essential to good health. The book examines how a lack of sleep is increasingly seen as a health risk. Sleep is also the place of dreams and nightmares. Why are so many dreams the same and what are the archetypal recurring dreams? What is the origin of the word 'nightmare'? And what do Bugs Bunny, the surrealists and Freud have to do with dreaming? Sleep is there to be enjoyed. It's not worth getting into bed for anything else.

“A strange and dreamy voice . . . , like an Italo Calvino short story, curiously translated from some lost, obscure language.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love An utterly charming study of the history of lying down—which is more complicated than you might think We spend a good third of our lives lying down: sleeping, dreaming, making love, thinking, reading, and getting well. Bernd Brunner’s ode to lying down is a rich exploration of cultural history and an entertaining collection of tales, ranging from the history of the mattress to the “slow living movement” to Stone Age repose—when people did not sleep lying down—and beyond. He approaches the horizontal state from a number of directions, but never loses his keen sense for the odd or unusual detail. Far from being a pose of passivity or laziness, lying down can be a protest, a chance to gather thoughts or change your point of view—the other side to our upright, productive lives. Brunner makes an eloquent case for the importance of lying down in a world that values ever-greater levels of activity, arguing that time spent horizontally offers rewards that we’d do well not to ignore.

We have spent decades optimising our waking hours, but what about the precious hours after we doze off (or try to)? The Magic of Sleep tells you everything you've ever wanted to know about sleep but were too tired to ask. As the most active time for our brains and the most important element to a calmer, happier life, sleep has become the topic of our times. Drawing on the success of Calm, the #1 app for sleep, meditation and relaxation, Michael Acton Smith writes the ultimate guide to good sleep. Beautifully illustrated and packed with fascinating facts and anecdotes, this book contains life-changing tips. At once a bedside companion and a sleeping aide, The Magic of Sleep will be your solution to a better sleeping life, improving each of your waking hours. - Reduce your sleepless nights by finding the perfect soundtrack for dozing off - Learn the new science of sleep, including how to create ideas while you're asleep - Discover the best recipes for home-made drinks that will make you drowsy - Get to know your subconscious by starting a sleep journal and exploring lucid dreaming It's time to optimize sleep.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a sleeping disorder that affects millions of people but which has only recently come to widespread public attention. Fortunately, an effective therapy called continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can treat it. Simply blowing air into people's noses at night gives them new, improved rest and silences their characteristic snoring. Unfortunately, the adjustment period for this therapy is not of short duration, and most people give up in the early stages, before they can reap maximum, if any, benefit. Who can blame them? They must admit to snoring and then wade through a morass of tests and insurance red tape, all to obtain the pleasure of wearing a not-so-form-fitting mask every night-one guaranteed to thwart alien abductions. Author Mike Moran, who also suffers from Obstructive Sleep Apnea, offers a comforting and humorous resource for everyone dealing with the difficulties of this disorder-and its treatment. This Book Blows is for all the true "hose heads" who need to know they aren't alone in their quest for a good night's sleep!

A funny large picture book about bedtime rituals!

Quentin Jacobson has spent a lifetime loving Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo has disappeared.