The Mind at Night: The New Science of How and Why We Dream

Though highly scientific in details and explanations, this book is neither a dense science textbook, nor a dream interpretation book. If a reader is looking for answers as to why they continuosly dream of shooting stars or an in-depth analysis of the parts of the brain, they will be disappointed to find that that information is not included within these pages. However, as described in the title, Rock successfully explains precisely how and why we dream in a thorough and understandable manner. Here, Rock aims to change the discussion from an “either, or” argument to a “both, and” argument in her book.Overall, Rock did an excellent job of maintaining the balance between textbook and interpretation book. That being said, there were definitely some highs and lows to Rock’s writing. The most useful tool employed was that of fascinating examples. Whether they were shocking facts, crazy statistics, interesting experiments, or compelling stories, Rock was able to maintain interest among the ongoing, length scientific terms. However, though I appreciated the wide variety of examples, some tended to sound weak, cliche, and predictable. Some were so cliche that it was hard to believe they were true, while others were so overused that they became monotonous. Regardless of those minor missteps, Rock successfully constructed a book that stays true to its title, providing clear and concise answers as to how and why we dream. After reading Rock’s work, I was able to get a better understanding of dreams as they relate to brain functions, sleep disorders, mental health, the use of memory, lucid dreaming, and the history of scientific discovery. I highly recommend this easily understandable book to anyone with a moderate interest in the mind and conscience that is searching for more than just a science textbook or dream interpretation book.

This was not what I was expecting. I stopped at page 91.There is a lot about the history of experiments, but it just isn't going anywhere.

As a young person who is fascinated by sleep, I found this book to be very digestible, pretty well written, and rich with good information presented in excellent narrative form. I appreciate that it wasn't just a piling of ground up data, stacked over in pages without style or story. That made it far more interesting than similar books that write as if the human mind is a computer that simply wants to download the most efficiently packed megabyte of data. Very informative on the science and art of dreaming. I found the chapter about the Hobbs person rather intolerable, but that was mainly because the scientist was so horribly closed minded. I think the author chose a well rounded cast of people to cover, over all.

Actually interesting book. Got it for a class but actually enjoyed reading parts of it.

I very much enjoyed this book on the history of dream research - it was written in an engaging style, and brought the stories of sleep research to life. This is not a how-to book on getting those much-needed zzzz's, but it is a interesting snapshot of a group of diverse men and women who were drawn to investigating sleep and why we dream.As much of a page-turner as you can expect for a book about academic research ... I stayed up late several nights to finish it!

It's basically a summary of contemporary research. That's fine, but I was hoping for something a little more actionable. The conclusion seems to be that dreaming is essential for healthy brain function, but there not much to do about it other than get a good night's sleep and let it happen. Ironically, I ended up paying less attention to my dreams after reading this book, since the research seemed to unanimously agree that there is no insight within them to be leveraged in waking life. Oh well, it was worth a try I guess.

I started reading this in high school and used it often as a reference for dream studies. I was worried I'd lose it when I graduated. Thankfully, I was smart enough to get a picture of the title. This book is easy to understand and easy to get lost in. The information is laid out in a manner that's easy for the average individual to grasp and builds on itself.

Beautifully and thoughtfully written, packed with scientific data, poignant anecdotes regarding the scientists themselves, and every major player in sleep science covered. A major work. Would love a second edition but this is still foundational for those interested in dreaming and sleep science.

A remarkable academic book and survey of current dream research. A little heavy going-and repetitive in places but thoroughly worth the effort. (I have a collection of my own dreams from 1984 to the present, with my interpretations. Except for the current notebook, I would be happy to send them to any serious researcher. Contact: [email protected])

Perfect. Exactly what I was looking for!

～REM睡眠・徐波睡眠の発生機構から始まって、夢内容の実証的な分析にまで言及している。フロイトやユングの理論の誤りと正しさについて考え直すことができる点を高く評価したい。地下の睡眠研究室にこもって昼夜逆転の生活を送り続けている研究者たちの熱意には頭が下がる。夢が記憶形成に重要な役割を果していること、一日の記憶が個人の歴史に取り込まれて行～～くために睡眠が必要であること、夢の非合理性は個々の記憶の連関と関係していることなどが述べられる。2003年までの研究業績が非常に分かりやすくまとめられている。科学者とサイエンスライターは全く違った才能であることを思い知らされた。夢に興味のある方々にぜひ推薦したい～