Counting Sheep [Paperback]

Paul Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2003

A brilliant overview of that most vital, most underrated and most elusive of human activities, sleep. Using the approach and skills he deployed to such successful effect on the relationship between mind and body in the prize-winning 'The Sickening Mind', likeable British popular science author Paul Martin here tackles the science of that most mysterious, elusive and alluring of human activities, sleeping, and draws on both cutting-edge neuroscience and classic literature to do so. We spend one third of our lives asleep, but know hardly anything about it, and can remember so little of it as we come out of it. Why? Are dreams the place we go to resolve our problems, emasculate our fears and rehearse our hopes? Why are we paralysed when we dream? Why did sleep evolve? And is anybody getting enough sleep?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scientist Martin (The Healing Mind) is on a mission to cure our "sleep-sick society" and convince us, for our own good, to start taking sleep more seriously. Pithy, wry and earthily humorous, this book is Martin's manifesto for a healthier society. He systematically critiques how our culture encourages us to skimp on sleep (usually so that we can work longer hours), and he rues the bad example of our befuddled, jet-lagged politicians. Applying scientific fact, theory and experiment, Martin demonstrates the similarity between sleeplessness and drunkenness; the links between the hours modern schoolchildren keep and ADHD; the role of sleeplessness in man-made disasters; and how sleeplessness and night shift work can contribute to serious illness. Martin highlights extreme abuses of sleep deprivation in torture and in warfare, while also celebrating sleep's creative power, telling of musicians who have woken up humming melodies and the scientists who benefited from the problem-solving qualities of deep REM sleep. When he discusses dreaming, Martin touches on the habits and beliefs of traditional societies as revealed by anthropologists, and neatly debunks Freud's interpretation of all dream imagery as sexual. A writer fully in command of his subject and his style, Martin reveals just how deeply and madly we pay for our collective indifference to the value of so simple a pleasure as a good night's sleep.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As Martin catalogs what science has learned about sleep, he also exhibits a penchant for literary epigrams, cuing a discussion of insomnia or sleep's quality of escapism with a theme-setting quotation from Shakespeare, Milton, or Dickens. This arts-and-sciences combo lends fluidity to his presentation, as does his style of making a simple question (e.g., How much sleep do people need?) every subtopic's point of departure. Apparently urbanites are not getting enough sleep, and have not since the invention of electric lighting upset the dusk-to-dawn sleeping pattern of preindustrial societies. Martin chalks up the nefarious effects, including traffic and industrial accidents, impaired learning, and health problems. Our frenetic civilization also, Martin avers, deprives people of sleep's delights of restfulness and dreaming. In his synopses of sleep research, Martin exudes a sociable, we're-in-this-together demeanor that is appealing to readers, especially those willing to stand back and consider in detail how they fall asleep and dream. If in need of a popular-science introduction to slumbering, libraries can't go wrong with Martin's offering. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo (April 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006551726
• ISBN-13: 978-0006551720
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,082,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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