I am not a big non-fiction reader but I have been incredibly excited for this book ever since Alice mentioned she was writing it while I was her student at Aber Uni. I know it informs her own sleep issues at times, but it still felt a little odd that it kept coming back to that. By directly confronting her own strange and frightening nights for the first time, Vernon encourages us to think about the way troubled sleep has impacted our imaginations.

The style is eclectic, ranging from science journalism, to literary analysis of victorian novels, back to autobiographical writing. It is curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine – and, if you're a sufferer too, wonderfully reassuring. Historical accounts also reveal some particularly odd cures, such as magical ‘mare-stanes’ which were circular eroded rocks occasionally embedded with human teeth, said to prevent sleep paralysis. From episodes of sleepwalking to hallucinations of sinister figures in her bedroom, her nights are often eventful and sometimes frightening.

After Ralph’s mother kills herself in the basement, his wife Abby stays up all night scrubbing away the blood, little knowing that a far more onerous task awaits: exorcising Laura’s ghost. Along the way we explore the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers’ experiences of PTSD. Looking for Trouble author Virginia Cowles (second left) and fellow war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (second right) with members of the cast of their play, Love Goes to Press, in 1946. I think it shows how essential it is for us teachers to remember how we teach is just as important as what we teach and how huge is the impact we can make to a person's life. A fascinating look at the different form s of parasomnia and the ways they have been recorded and interpreted in history.

Read more about the condition New: An item that is still in its original shrink wrap from the manufacturer and the original manufacturer’s seal (if applicable) has not been removed. AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **'Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine . Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. All in all, I think this book did exactly what it sought out to do - offer the reassurance that we are not alone. Ever since she was a child, her nights have been haunted by nightmares of a figure from her adolescence, sinister hallucinations and episodes of sleepwalking.We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts. Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. Its approach is multidisciplinary, featuring both scientific explanations for the phenomena and brief examinations of how they have been perceived throughout history. Maybe next time I have one of those really stressful dreams about owning multiple hamsters that have escaped into the garden, I'll lucid dream and imagine I'm in a giant hamster cage or something. As someone who dreams every time I shut my eyes, this was incredibly enlightening, resonated, and is a must read for dreamers.

Dr Alice Vernon is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, where she teaches students the fundamentals of storytelling. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **’Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine … a remarkable debut.In the course of the book, Vernon draws on her own long history of troubled sleep, as well as upon cultural and scientific resources, to show what such events say about people, time periods, and humanity as a whole.

Alice Vernon's writing: her historical accounts of parasomnia are fascinating and I found the way she was extremely open and honest about her own experiences made me warm to the book even more. On the other hand, it sometimes veers into unconfortably personal material that feels like a live therapy session happening in front of our eyes, with the author figuring things out as they come up. The narrator on this occasion, whilst I can't speak for her other work, Her reading on this was insufferable. The passion in which Vernon pursues discussion to be normalised surrounding our sleeping patterns is something that I think we can all take away from with a sense of positivity, as after all, we all have sleep.Vernon expertly blends history with science, interweaving her own personal experiences with that of the terrible events of the Salem Witch Trials and the Victorian love affair with the macabre among others. It considers case studies, surveys, works of literature, paintings, and movies, with the knowledge that parasomnias tell stories about the people who experience them and about the sociocultural contexts they exist in.