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

Product Information

Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD.

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. It maybe wants to deliver too much on too many topics, and their treatment is uneven in depth and analysis. Its approach is multidisciplinary, featuring both scientific explanations for the phenomena and brief examinations of how they have been perceived throughout history. 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.Famous novels such as ‘Dracula’, ‘Jane Eyre’ and the Brother Cadfael mysteries all make reference to parasomnias, as does Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. Here’s me thinking it’s a good idea to read a book about nightmares and all things creepy that go bump in the night right before bed. The author grips the reader with the first page with her beautifully descriptive writing that remains engrossing until the end, and yet manages to balance with perfection emotions of humour, sadness and fear. Historical accounts also reveal some particularly odd cures, such as magical ‘mare-stanes’ which were circular eroded rocks occasionally embedded with human teeth, said to prevent sleep paralysis.

Like Alice I’ve seen ghost like people standing over me when I’m in that barely awake moment and experienced the weight of something holding me down when I was in bed by myself one time. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.The narrator on this occasion, whilst I can't speak for her other work, Her reading on this was insufferable. I know it informs her own sleep issues at times, but it still felt a little odd that it kept coming back to that. It is curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine - and, if you're a sufferer too, wonderfully reassuring.