Publisher's Weekly Review
This fabulous book is likely to address any and all questions you might have about sleep, although, given the state of research in the field, the answers may not be definitive. The range of topics is enormous, from the evolutionary reasons for sleep to the best type of mattress-oddly enough, studies suggest that high quality sleep is equally possible on an unpadded concrete floor as on a high-tech air mattress. Equally surprising, sleeping pills yield no higher quality sleep than a placebo. What they apparently do is retard the formation of short-term memory so people taking sleeping pills simply don't remember all the times they wake up. Randall argues that people can commit crimes in their sleep, and that the most important cause of friendly fire deaths in war is soldiers' lack of sleep. There's plenty of practical information, like how to overcome insomnia without drugs, how to combat snoring, how to encourage young children to get to sleep and, perhaps most useful, how to bet successfully on professional football games: our circadian rhythms favor West Coast teams over East Coast teams on Monday nights. This is one book that will not put you to sleep. 10 illus. Agents: Larry Weissman and Sascha Alper. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Veteran journalist Randall tackles the mysterious landscape of sleep by surveying the many areas of sleep research. He proceeds in a somewhat chronological order, beginning with historical sleep patterns. According to some research, when sleep patterns were determined by daylight, before interior lighting became prevalent, a typical night's rest was split into first sleep and second sleep, with approximately an hour awake in between. In the modern age, Randall argues, the advent of gaslights and electric lightbulbs have radically changed the way our bodies want to sleep. From here, he covers the perfect mattress (there isn't one: it's merely what a person finds most comfortable); bed sharing; labor laws; and the future of sleep monitoring. Randall is at his best when talking about sleep disorders, such as violent parasomnias, wherein a person can unknowingly commit assault or even murder in his or her sleep. Though he doesn't go into minute detail, Randall provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to a mystifying but necessary part of life.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2010 Booklist
![Cover image for Dreamland [text (large print)] : adventures in the strange science of sleep / David K. Randall.](/client/assets/5.1294/ctx//client/images/no_image.png "Cover image for Dreamland [text (large print)] : adventures in the strange science of sleep / David K. Randall.")
