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. The book encourages us all to change the way that we talk about sleep, arguing that there are many benefits to exchanging sleep stories – socially, culturally and in terms of our wellbeing. For insomniacs, the bed is a cruel tormentor; for those of us with parasomnias, the bed is a haunted crypt. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. Apart from interesting discussions about various parasomnias, Alice has a variety of annecdotes that range from hilarious, creepy, and even some that actually made me cry.

AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **’Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine … a remarkable debut. In the course of the book, Vernon draws on her own long history of troubled sleep, as well as upon cultural and scientific resources, to show what such events say about people, time periods, and humanity as a whole. It maybe wants to deliver too much on too many topics, and their treatment is uneven in depth and analysis. Read more about the condition New: An item that is still in its original shrink wrap from the manufacturer and the original manufacturer’s seal (if applicable) has not been removed.This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees. Parasomnias are surprisingly common and will be experienced by as many as 70% of people at some point in our lives. A welcome addition to the vast library it cites and celebrates, Vernon's work is a compelling guide to the uncanny grammar of our dread and desire.

This was exactly the type of book I wish I had access to when I first started getting sleep paralysis. On the other hand, it sometimes veers into unconfortably personal material that feels like a live therapy session happening in front of our eyes, with the author figuring things out as they come up. On one hand, they bring a human touch into this largely academic work, and the mixing of the two is intriguing.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. After Ralph’s mother kills herself in the basement, his wife Abby stays up all night scrubbing away the blood, little knowing that a far more onerous task awaits: exorcising Laura’s ghost.

She is also interested in comics, especially regarding depictions of the body, and gave a talk on her work in this area at the Wellcome Collection in March 2020. The narrator on this occasion, whilst I can't speak for her other work, Her reading on this was insufferable. Vernon's own testimony and experience with parasomnias is sprinkled throughout the book, and I want to applaud her bravery for being so open about such a vulnerable topic. Vernon expertly blends history with science, interweaving her own personal experiences with that of the terrible events of the Salem Witch Trials and the Victorian love affair with the macabre among others.It considers case studies, surveys, works of literature, paintings, and movies, with the knowledge that parasomnias tell stories about the people who experience them and about the sociocultural contexts they exist in. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. A wonderful deepdive into the world of dreams and the science to explain them throughout the centuries. We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer.

All in all, I think this book did exactly what it sought out to do - offer the reassurance that we are not alone. It is curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine – and, if you're a sufferer too, wonderfully reassuring. When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. The passion in which Vernon pursues discussion to be normalised surrounding our sleeping patterns is something that I think we can all take away from with a sense of positivity, as after all, we all have sleep. By directly confronting her own strange and frightening nights for the first time, Vernon encourages us to think about the way troubled sleep has impacted our imaginations.Parasomnias have also been the subject of extensive scientific investigations with many medical theories and treatments recommended over the centuries. The book has left me feeling I need more answers about the workings of the human brain, which is a positive outcome. Dr Alice Vernon completed her PhD, investigating representations of insomnia in fiction, in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University under the supervision of Dr Jacqueline Yallop. Vernon hasn’t experienced every type of parasomnia, but she gives detailed examples of the ones that are part of her sleep history, including sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and hypnopompic hallucinations.