The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep

by Guy Leschziner

Overview

A renowned neurologist shares the true stories of people unable to get a good night’s rest in The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep, a fascinating exploration of the symptoms and syndromes behind sleep disorders.


For Dr. Guy Leschziner’s patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep—and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock’s days and nights.

Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while “sleep-eating.” The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hypersexuality while awake.

With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250756978
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	158,052
Product dimensions:	5.37(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

DR. GUY LESCHZINER is a consultant neurologist and sleep physician, and clinical lead for one of the largest sleep services in Europe, based at Guy’s Hospital in Central London. He sees patients with a range of sleep disorders, including narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome, sleep apnoea, and nocturnal epilepsy and is actively involved in research and teaching. He has also presented on the radio and have worked in television, all related to sleep.

Table of Contents

1 Greenwich Mean Time
2 I n the Still of the Night
3 Disney Was Right
4 Rumblings
5 The Sleep-Talking Bus Driver
6 Weak With Laughter
7 Buzzing Bees
8 Seized by the Throat
9 Floating Eyeballs
10 Jekyll and Hyde
11 The Waking Effects of Coffee
12 A Peculiar Fairytale
13 Inception
Epilogue: Some General Thoughts on Sleep

Editorial Reviews

The Nocturnal Brain combines two of my favorite things — humanity and medical science. Dr Leschziner weaves wonderful stories that highlight how sleep disorders affect the lives and health of patients and their families. Along the way we are guided into the fantastic science of sleep. What a wonderful journey!” —Meir Kryger MD FRCPC, Professor, Yale University, author of Mystery of Sleep

“[R]evealing and informative … Readers will find Leschziner’s stories fascinating, and might even pick up a few tips for getting a more restorative night’s sleep in the process.”—Publishers Weekly

“A fine popular-science account of sleep, mostly about when it goes wrong. … a useful entry in sleep-disorder literature.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Leschziner’s engaging style strikes just the right balance between storytelling and popular science and will appeal to a broad audience.” —Library Journal

“Lively … Whether you personally suffer from a sleep disorder, love someone who does, or simply enjoy learning more about the human brain, this fascinating book will definitely not put you to sleep.” —Spirituality & Health Magazine

From the Publisher

04/01/2019

In this revealing and informative debut, British neurologist and sleep physician Leschziner brings readers into the lab to learn about all manner of sleep disorders experienced by people he’s treated, his methods of treating them, and the role sleep plays in health. Disorders discussed range from the relatively common sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, and narcolepsy, to more unusual ones like those suffered by Vincent, diagnosed with non-24-hour rhythm disorder, which results in an ever-shifting sleep pattern; Adrian, a man who collapses into sleep whenever he laughs; and Tom, a “sexsomniac” who sometimes makes unwelcome, aggressive, and, in comparison with his waking personality, out of character sexual advances against his partners while asleep. Leschziner uses these and other cases to not only define the disorders in relatable ways, but to outline his plan of treatment for each patient and extrapolate the significance for sleep in its largest sense: its importance in everyone’s lives. Readers will find Leschziner’s stories fascinating, and might even pick up a few tips for getting a more restorative night’s sleep in the process. George Lucas, Inkwell (on behalf of Luigi Bonomi Associates). (July)

Publishers Weekly

2019-04-28
A fine popular-science account of sleep, mostly about when it goes wrong.

"We think of sleep as a tranquil act, when our minds are stilled and our brains are quiet," writes Leschziner, a consulting neurologist and sleep physician at Guy's Hospital in London. He continues, "the only awareness we might have of something happening in the night are the fragments of a dream." Of course, like the author, most readers know that this is not the case. The author follows a straightforward format. Each chapter features a patient who describes their miseries, usually accompanied by frustrating visits to a clueless family doctor. The author investigates, makes the correct diagnosis, and describes the sometimes-happy outcome, all accompanied by asides to the reader explaining the science. Many sleep disorders are forms of brain disease. Narcolepsy, which causes intense daytime sleepiness, may be caused by the lack of a chemical that regulates wakefulness. Some problems occur when systems are out of sync. Dreaming occurs during a sleep stage when the body is paralyzed—which is why it's difficult to cry out or move during a nightmare. Without paralysis, dreamers get up and do bizarre things. When paralysis occurs during waking, victims fall down; it's called cataplexy. Even in a healthy brain, sleep and wakefulness are not clearly separate states, so almost everyone experiences lucid dreaming, odd sensory experiences that verge on hallucinations. Problems arise when parts of the brain controlling movement and emotion wake while regions influencing rational thinking remain asleep. Sleepwalking is the best known phenomenon, but there are others, including sleep talking, sleep eating, and night terrors. Cures do occur, and many disorders respond to lifestyle changes, but others require the permanent use of drugs and/or devices. Most American writers would deal with the cost of treatment, but Leschziner works under the British National Health Service, so readers must be satisfied with entertaining stories and a painless education on the nature of sleep and its malfunctions.

Not groundbreaking but a useful entry in sleep-disorder literature.

Kirkus Reviews