Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It
** AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **

'Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut.' SUNDAY TIMES

Alice Vernon often wakes up to find strangers in her bedroom.

Ever since she was a child, her nights have been haunted by nightmares of a figure from her adolescence, sinister hallucinations and episodes of sleepwalking. These are known as 'parasomnias' - and they're surprisingly common.

Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. Night Terrors, her startling and vivid debut, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly odd 'cures' like magical 'mare-stones', to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD. 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.

Night Terrors aims to shine a light on the darkest parts of our sleeping lives, and to reassure sufferers from bad dreams that they are not alone.

1141666090
Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It
** AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **

'Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut.' SUNDAY TIMES

Alice Vernon often wakes up to find strangers in her bedroom.

Ever since she was a child, her nights have been haunted by nightmares of a figure from her adolescence, sinister hallucinations and episodes of sleepwalking. These are known as 'parasomnias' - and they're surprisingly common.

Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. Night Terrors, her startling and vivid debut, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly odd 'cures' like magical 'mare-stones', to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD. 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.

Night Terrors aims to shine a light on the darkest parts of our sleeping lives, and to reassure sufferers from bad dreams that they are not alone.

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

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

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

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

by Alice Vernon

Paperback

$18.99 
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Overview

** AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **

'Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut.' SUNDAY TIMES

Alice Vernon often wakes up to find strangers in her bedroom.

Ever since she was a child, her nights have been haunted by nightmares of a figure from her adolescence, sinister hallucinations and episodes of sleepwalking. These are known as 'parasomnias' - and they're surprisingly common.

Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. Night Terrors, her startling and vivid debut, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly odd 'cures' like magical 'mare-stones', to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD. 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.

Night Terrors aims to shine a light on the darkest parts of our sleeping lives, and to reassure sufferers from bad dreams that they are not alone.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781785788680
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Publication date: 10/12/2023
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr Alice Vernon is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, where she teaches students the fundamentals of storytelling. Her research focuses on representations of sleep in science and culture. This is her first book.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Not guilty on grounds of unconsciousness 29

3 Bedroom ghosts 61

4 Hag-ridden 89

5 Night terrors 123

6 Narrating dreams 157

7 Lucid dreaming 199

Conclusion 227

Acknowledgements 233

References 235

Notes 243

Index 253

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