Beyond the Book: Background information when reading The Mind at Night

Beyond the Book

This article relates to The Mind at Night

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

'Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.' -- William Dement.

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This article relates to The Mind at Night. It first ran in the March 2, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.