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Sleepyhead
Book

Sleepyhead

Neuroscience, Narcolepsy and the Search for a Good Night

Henry Nicholls
Profile Books, 2018

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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Overview
  • Engaging

Recommendation

As science journalist Henry Nicholls explains, his book is not a self-help tome about how to get a good night’s sleep. For Nicholls, trying to sleep is an unwelcome struggle. He received a diagnosis of narcolepsy at the age of 21, and has been living with the sleep disorder and its accompanying pathologies for decades. His personal experience launched this expedition into the science of sleep disorders, including cataplexy, sleep paralysis, sleep apnea, hypnagogia and insomnia, which is interesting but at times lacks depth and clarity. Anyone with an interest in sleep science, or anyone who experiences difficulties with sleep, will find Nicholls’s research compelling.

Take-Aways

  • Sleep has distinct stages that electroencephalography (EEG) can differentiate.
  • Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, is qualitatively quite different from the other, non-REM, stages.
  • Every organism aligns its circadian rhythm to the movement of the sun. The suprachiasmatic nucleus regulates the body’s circadian rhythm. 

About the Author

Science writer Henry Nicholls also wrote Lonesome George and contributes to BBC Earth, New Scientist and The Guardian.  

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