Night Terrors

Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It

By: ALICE VERNON

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Hardcover | 6 October 2022

At a Glance

Hardcover
272 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
3.3 x 14.5 x 22.4

Hardcover

$42.99

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** AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 **

'Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut.' SUNDAY TIMES

Alice Vernon often wakes up to find strangers in her bedroom.

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. These are known as 'parasomnias' - and they're surprisingly common.

Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. Night Terrors, her startling and vivid debut, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly odd 'cures' like magical 'mare-stones', to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD. 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.

Night Terrors aims to shine a light on the darkest parts of our sleeping lives, and to reassure sufferers from bad dreams that they are not alone.

Industry Reviews

Fascinating - just don't read it at bedtime. * The Observer *
Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut. * Sunday Times *
By writing this gruelling, honest book, Alice Vernon has done her small bit to try to puncture the power of nightmares. * Daily Mail *
In a discourse fired by lively inquiry and personal anecdote, [Vernon] looks to art, literature and science to demonstrate the profound effect these eerie and surprisingly common nocturnal states have had on the human imagination. Fascinating - just don't read it at bedtime. * The Observer *
Fascinating ... a rich, immersive study of not just nightmares but the full range of parasomnias - the strange sleep disorders that can afflict us. ... [Vernon] can really write. ... This book felt like an extended hand to me. It is curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine - and, if you're a sufferer too, wonderfully reassuring. It is a remarkable debut. * Sunday Times *
A vivid history of sleep disorders ... a candid, intense look at what keeps people up at night. * Publishers Weekly *
A welcome addition to the vast library it cites and celebrates, Vernon's work is a compelling guide to the uncanny grammar of our dread and desire. * Fortean Times *

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