Paul Martin
Список книг автора Paul MartinCounting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams
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?
Making Happy People: The nature of happiness and its origins in childhood
All parents want their children to be happy – but no parent knows how to guarantee it. Now this groundbreaking book explores the ways in which parents can influence their children’s happiness, providing a positive framework for emotional growth.Happiness is simultaneously the most sought after and the most elusive human property. But it is also poorly understood. Making Happy People breaks new ground in two ways: by offering a scientific perspective on a subject often dominated by philosophers, artists and self-help gurus; and by looking at the origins of happiness in the individual.Essential reading for everyone who wants to be happier, or to make others happy, this remarkable book combines the latest research with indispensable advice to illuminate a little explored subject of large importance.
Sex, Drugs and Chocolate: The Science of Pleasure
Is pleasure selfish and are we selfish to pursue it, scientifically speaking?'I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,The lullings and relishes of it' George HerbertThis is a book about the lengths people will go to nuzzle out some pleasure – and the scientific reasons that lie behind those impulses, written in an accessible and entertaining way.Paul Martin looks at changing attitudes to pleasure over the centuries, including religious and philosophical lawgiving on the subject, before moving on to the scientific hardwiring that supports all this human frenzy. He looks too at chemical pleasures, at our attempts to bottle the pleasure-giving principle for easy access and regular self-medication – from caffeine to heroin, from tobacco to glue. Which brings us to addiction, and the darker side of pleasure's many moons – before coming back full circle to the therapeutic bliss of pleasure, its key role in an individual's health, and that least-promoted, most-undervalued but most satisfying daily pleasure of all – sweet sleep.
