SLEEP, OUR UNKNOWN LIFE

by Richard Deming ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1972

This is longer than the Kastners' Sleep: The Mysterious Third of Your Life (1968) but except for some recent reconsiderations (it's now thought that we dream in deep as well as REM sleep) most of what is added is beside the point. A chapter entitled ""Drugs and Sleep"" just sleepwalks through the usual drug run-down with little or no mention of each drug's effect on sleep, and sections on insomnia, hypnosis and enuresis add nothing that hasn't been often repeated. Otherwise there's the usual reports on sleep lab research and the four different stages, on sleep habits and circadian rhythm and the effects of sleep loss (via d.j. Peter Tripp's oft-cited eight-day marathon), and the usual sketchy review of Freud's dream theories. All of this might have a place where demand justifies the reiteration but what the Kastners and others have not previously revealed is still essentially Unknown.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Nelson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION