A clinical neurologist takes readers on a tour of the sleeping brain—its wonders and its horrors.
What happens to our brain at night? Are we ever really fully asleep? Do we sometimes confuse our waking and sleeping states? Dr. Guy Leschziner is a clinical neurologist and a global authority on narcolepsy, sleep walking, and night terrors. Patients come to him when they are experiencing the very worst elements of these conditions and have been unable to find a cure. Some patients arrive in his office to talk about problems that seem funny—like the man who regularly wakes up in the middle of the night and tries to order in pizza using his slipper as a phone. Others tell him about experiences that are the stuff of nightmares. One patient, in a state of deep sleep, gets dressed, unlocks her car and drives for several miles before returning to bed. Another lashes out violently at his wife sleeping beside him. Some experience frightening hallucinations just as they nod off while other sleepers experience pain that feels like their legs are being stung all over by bees.
For these people sleep has become a living nightmare. In prose evocative of the great books of Oliver Sacks, Guy Leschziner takes readers on a fascinating journey through the nocturnal brain and its varied states to illustrate the neuroscience behind what happens when we put our heads down on our pillow, close our eyes and go to sleep…
- ISBN10 1250202701
- ISBN13 9781250202703
- Publish Date 23 July 2019 (first published 7 March 2019)
- Publish Status Unknown
- Imprint St. Martin's Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 368
- Language English