Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams. Paul Martin

Falling asleep again, what am I to do?

The sleep cycle

       The paradoxical world of REM

       The sleep cycle continued

       Waking up

       The quality of sleep

       Meditating – or only sleeping?

       6: Morpheus Undressed

       The rhythms of life

       So SAD

       Larks and owls

       Genes and sleep

       A sleeplessness that kills

       7: Strange Tales of Erections and Yawning

       Nocturnal erections

       The mystery of yawning

       8: Friends and Enemies of Sleep

       Brother caffeine

       Sister alcohol

       Tobacco

       Food for sleep

       Exercise is bunk, isn’t it?

       Things that go bump in the night

       Shift work

       Poppy, mandragora and drowsy syrups

       Hypnotic exotica

       PART IV: DREAMS

       9: The Children of an Idle Brain?

       To sleep, perchance …

       Do flies dream?

       A dream within a dream?

       Dreaming as madness

       Are dreams meaningful?

       Like wine through water

       Can dreams be sinful?

       10: A Second Life

       A creative state

       Stevenson’s Brownies

       Lucid dreams

       The great dreamer

       PART V: ORIGINS

       11: From Egg to Grave

       Screaming babies

       Bad children

       Yawning youth

       Old and grey and full of sleep

       12: The Reason of Sleep

       The evolution of sleep

       What is sleep for?

       What is REM sleep for?

       Reverse learning

       To sleep, perchance to learn

       Should machines sleep?

       PART VI: PROBLEMS

       13: Bad Sleepers

       An intolerable lucidity

       Why can’t you sleep?

       Storm and stress and sleep

       What to do?

       Staying awake

       14: Dark Night

       Walking and talking

       Nightmares, night terrors, sleep paralysis and the Old Hag

       Moving sleep

       Midnight feasting

       Soggy