Understanding Sleep and Dreaming / Edition 1

by William H. Moorcroft

Overview

Designed primarily as a text this volume is an up-to-date and integrated overview of physiological sleep mechanisms, brain function, psychological ramifications of sleep, dimensions of dreaming, and clinical disorders associated with sleep. It is accessibly written with specially boxed material that enhances the text. Authored by a researcher/clinician/professor with more than 25 years of experience in sleep studies, Understanding Sleep and Dreaming provides a solid basis for those who are not expert in this area. It offers a good foundation for those who will continue sleep studies, while at the same time offering enough information for those who will apply this knowledge in other ways such as clinicians in their individual practices or researchers for whom sleep may be part of a specific study. It is an excellent text for courses on sleep at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387249650
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	07/15/2005
Series:	Springerlink Behavioral Science
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

William H. Moorcroft received his Ph.D. in psychobiology from Princeton University. He started a sleep research laboratory at Luther College in which he studied various aspects of sleep and dreaming. Since his retirement from teaching and research he shifted into a clinical practice of helping people with insomnia, bad dreams and nightmares, and young children with sleep problems by changing thoughts and behaviors rather than drugs. To date he has helped close to 500 people to sleep better. Dr. Moorcroft continues to study, lecture about, write about, and treat sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders.

Table of Contents

	Prologue: A Visit to a Sleep and Dreams Lab	1
Part I	Sleep and Sleeping	15
1.	What is Sleep and How is it Scientifically Measured?	17
2.	The Need to Sleep	35
3.	Normal Variations of Sleep	57
Part II	What Causes Us to Sleep?	77
4.	The Brain in Sleep	79
5.	The Body during Sleep	97
Part III	Dreams and Dreaming	121
6.	Dreams	127
7.	Dreaming	151
8.	Theories of Dreams and Dreaming	171
Part IV	Problems with Sleeping and Dreaming	201
9.	Some Difficulties That People May Have With Sleep	205
10.	Disorders of Sleep, Part I	231
11.	Disorders of Sleep, Part II	245
Part V	Why we Sleep and Dream	261
12.	Functions of Sleep and NREMS	267
13.	Functions of REMS and Dreaming	285
	Epilogue	311
	Notes	317
	References	321
	Index	333

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Janet M. Dunn, MD (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This college course book covers both the generalities and specifics of sleep in a way that holds the reader's attention.
Purpose: The goal of helping a novice learn about the many aspects of sleep is met is a non-threatening fashion. Given the newer ideas and understanding in the field, this book is a good tool for those learning about the subject of sleep.
Audience: College students with no previous sleep education are the chosen audience of this publication. However; it could also prove useful for medical students, residents and nurse practitioner students as well. The author is a PhD in the field with other books and papers on sleep to his credit.
Features: This book covers sleep from the basic to the more technical features in a manner that is easy to digest. A nice balance is achieved between the more concrete scientific features and the historical aspects of sleep. The addition of cultural trends and psychoanalytic theory is welcome. Highlighted boxes sprinkled throughout the book present easy-to-digest pearls on particular topics.
Assessment: It is a solid book in both content and structure. I found this book to be both well-written and occasionally entertaining.

Doody's Review Service

Praise for the First Edition:

"Although sleep has been the subject of serious study for several decades, there has not been available an integrated, introductory text for more than 10 years. Understanding Sleep and Dreaming fills this need with complete coverage of all aspects of sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders, and is comprehensible as well as comprehensive. In accessible language, this text reviews the basic physiological mechanisms of sleep and the intertwined psychological ramifications. Most important, it is up to date, containing the latest information on the influence of orexin/hypocretin, nocturnal eating syndrome, the local cell theory of sleep, the effects of sleep deprivation, and the advantages of delaying school start times for teenagers. Distilling 25 years of combined clinical, research, and teaching experience, Dr. Moorcroft has created an excellent text for undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals, as well as for the general reader who wants a better understanding of the sleep process and its disorders."
Janet M. Dunn, MD, Rush University Medical Center

From the Publisher