January/February 2003
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Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg |
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A few decades ago, people predicted that by the 21st century, we all would have too much free time on our hands, not too little. Instead, we now often work more than 40-hour weeks, and travel out-of-town, sometimes around the world, for our jobs. Although we endure long commutes to and from work, the day doesn't end when we get home. We often must drive our children to school and after school activities, and still find time to do the laundry and pay the bills. We contrive oodles of ways to avoid sleep: we shop at 24/7 stores, flip through hundreds of television channels, and surf the Internet. "If the work ethic does not keep us from our beds, then our insatiable lust for entertainment and amusement surely will," Paul Martin, a British science writer, asserts in this engaging review of sleep and dreams. Numerous studies show that the typical adult gets at least an hour less sleep than the eight hours sleep specialists say most people need. Martin charts what transpires while we sleep, and tells why we need to devote many hours to this curious habit, and what sometimes keeps us from doing it. He also steers readers to sources of help for their sleep problems. What's more, he argues that sleep is not only a biological necessity, but also an often neglected source of pleasure. "Too many people," he suggests, "regard sleep as mere unproductive downtime, the brain's equivalent of fast food or overboiled cabbage." Martin seasons a generous serving of meaty science with plenty of spice. He studs the text with loads of anecdotes and quotes on sleep and dreams from a wide range of writers including Shakespeare, Orwell, Conan Doyle, Thurber, and others. Fran Lebowitz, as one example, asserts, "Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep." In an exploration of sleep deprivation, Martin describes Charles Lindbergh's desperate efforts to stay awake on his historic 1927 solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic, updating this report with a look at two-pilot crews that flew 44 hours nonstop from Missouri to Afghanistan in 2001. He summarizes nonfiction and fictional chronicles of life at sea, surveys the impact of sleepiness on decision-making, explores parallels between tiredness and alcohol intoxication, describes marathons of sleep deprivation, and reports instances in which torturers systematically kept their victims awake. He also examines ties between sleep, or the lack of it, and health. Elsewhere he offers riffs on such topics as yawning, caffeine, and the history of beds. Martin introduces his section on dreams with a prescient quote from Aristotle, who pondered more than 23 centuries ago why "sleepers sometimes dream, and sometimes do not; or whether the truth is that sleepers always dream but do not always remember…." He addresses common questions such as whether animals dream (they do experience Rapid Eye Movement, or REM sleep, the state in which dreams most often occur), and whether dreams can foretell the future (the human mind may reshape memories in light of experience). Martin cites numerous creators who credited their dreams for inspiration, among them Paul McCartney who reported awakening with the tune to what became the hit song, "Yesterday" running through his mind. He also devotes a substantive chapter to a review of theories of the functions of sleep and dreams, from ancient times to modern neuroscience studies. The result is a witty, entertaining, and fast-moving work that sleep specialists seeking to write their own mass market books might emulate. Though Counting Sheep has not yet been published in the United States, it may be ordered from the HarperCollins United Kingdom website, www.fireandwater.com. |
© 2003
WebSciences and Lynne Lamberg |
COUNTING
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