Understanding Sleep and Dreaming - Paperback

by William H. Moorcroft (Author)

An updated edition of Moorcroft's 2003 volume, this new work reflects recent scientific advances in the area of sleep and disorders. As in the previous book, Understanding Sleep and Dreaming, this new edition serves as a compact overview for now sleep experts, covering 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. It also 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 private practices or researchers. It is an excellent text for courses on sleep at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The section on sleep labs will show how computers have replaced former models of data collection and storage; includes the new area of the genetics of sleep; add a new box on teen sleep; insert a new box on the emerging information about how technology use affects sleep; emphasize the controversy over rampart, wide-spread sleep deprivation; and include a new box covering the connection between sleep loss and weight gain. Additional inclusions might incorporate current "hot topics," such as the effect of shift work on sleep, sleep problems in adolescents, and nightmare treatment for people suffering from PTSD.

Back Jacket

Sleep is compelling--we cannot do without it. Until recently there have been many mysteries and misunderstandings about sleep and the dreams that accompany it. In recent years scientists have turned greater attention to sleep and dreaming resulting in greater understanding of what they are and how they work, leading to more informed speculations about their functions.

The updated Second Edition of Understanding Sleep and Dreaming distills what has been discovered about--and dispels misunderstandings about--the range of physiological and psychological phenomena associated with these vital functions. Geared toward student readers but also informative for professional and general readers, this accessible book delves into all major aspects of sleep, its stages, and its deprivation; takes a developmental view of sleep patterns and needs; and reviews modern theories of dreaming. The author writes with the blended perspective of a professor, researcher, and clinician, featuring vivid details, arresting examples, the minimum of jargon, and a gentle dose of levity. Along the way, the book offers fascinating glimpses into diverse topics such as animal sleep and dream behavior, the history of sleeping arrangements, and why we yawn. Also among the topics examined are:

• What transpires in a sleep lab.
• The scientific measurement of sleep and sleepiness.
• The relationships between the brain, the body, and sleep.
• The effects of sleeplessness on the human body and cognition.
• What people dream about and why they dream.
• The functions of dreams and dreaming.
• Sleep disturbances and disorders: insomnia, sleep apnea, nightmares, narcolepsy, sleep walking, sleep-eating, and more.

Such breadth and depth of coverage suits the Second Edition of Understanding Sleep and Dreaming to students and teachers, clinicians and researchers, practitioners and professionals--anyone desiring to be informed about these most basic of human activities.

Author Biography

William H. Moorcroft received his Ph.D. in psychobiology from Princeton University. He started a sleep research laboratory at Luther College in which he studied various aspects of sleep and dreaming. Since his retirement from teaching and research he shifted into a clinical practice of helping people with insomnia, bad dreams and nightmares, and young children with sleep problems by changing thoughts and behaviors rather than drugs. To date he has helped close to 500 people to sleep better. Dr. Moorcroft continues to study, lecture about, write about, and treat sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders.