Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It

(Hardback)

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Description

Ever since she was a child, Alice Vernon has slept strangely. From episodes of sleepwalking to hallucinations of sinister figures in her bedroom, her nights are often eventful and sometimes frightening. She's not the only one.

Drawing on scientific, historical and literary sources, as well as her own experiences, sleep historian Vernon explores the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly strange 'cures', like peacock's dung and magical mare stones, to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way we explore the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD.

Parasomnias are not as uncommon as we think, but we don't talk about them enough. Night Terrors aims to shine a light on the darkest parts of our sleeping lives.

Reviews

Fascinating - just don't read it at bedtime. * The Observer *
Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut. * Sunday Times *
By writing this gruelling, honest book, Alice Vernon has done her small bit to try to puncture the power of nightmares. * Daily Mail *
In a discourse fired by lively inquiry and personal anecdote, [Vernon] looks to art, literature and science to demonstrate the profound effect these eerie and surprisingly common nocturnal states have had on the human imagination. Fascinating - just don't read it at bedtime. * The Observer *
Fascinating ... a rich, immersive study of not just nightmares but the full range of parasomnias - the strange sleep disorders that can afflict us. ... [Vernon] can really write. ... This book felt like an extended hand to me. It is curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine - and, if you're a sufferer too, wonderfully reassuring. It is a remarkable debut. * Sunday Times *
A vivid history of sleep disorders ... a candid, intense look at what keeps people up at night. * Publishers Weekly *

Author Bio

DR. ALICE VERNON is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University where she teaches students the fundamentals of storytelling. Her research focuses on representations of sleep in science and culture. This is her first book.