Dreamland

Publisher's Summary

An engrossing examination of the science behind the little-known world of sleep.

Like many of us, journalist David K. Randall never gave sleep much thought. That is, until he began sleepwalking. One midnight crash into a hallway wall sent him on an investigation into the strange science of sleep.

In Dreamland, Randall explores the research that is investigating those dark hours that make up nearly a third of our lives. Taking listeners from military battlefields to children’s bedrooms, Dreamland shows that sleep isn't as simple as it seems. Why did the results of one sleep study change the bookmakers’ odds for certain Monday Night Football games? Do women sleep differently than men? And if you happen to kill someone while you are sleepwalking, does that count as murder?

This book is a tour of the often odd, sometimes disturbing, and always fascinating things that go on in the peculiar world of sleep. You’ll never look at your pillow the same way again.

©2012 David K. Randall (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Content average to good; narration AWFUL!!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A completely different narrator. Or telling the actual narrator to:(1) Knock off the use of different "voices" (Freud speaking in a German accent; Brits speaking in a variety of different British accents, some of which are appropriate for the social standing of the person being quoted and some of which are not). This was INCREDIBLY IRRITATING in a non-fiction book. This is not a studio performance of a play. It is not Harry Potter, where different voices help you keep the different characters straight. I hated this audiobook's narrator in every chapter without exception, in the majority of paragraphs. Only my interest in the underlying scientific content kept me from asking for a refund. My knowledge that my iPhone was not at fault was the only thing keeping me from throwing it out the window (grin).(2) Knock off the use of overly emphatic and flowery intonation in regular passages. You DON'T have (pause) to (falling tone) EMPhasize every (pause; rising tone) sinGLE WORD in the book... you reALLLY Don't...

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting: the underlying subject of sleep research.Least interesting: the author's recounting of his own sleepwalking, which goes nowhere. (Normally I would expect this to be very interesting.)

Would you be willing to try another one of Andy Caploe’s performances?

No. Nope. No way Jose. Unh unh. Noooooooooo! Am I clear?Well, maybe I would, but only if I heard a sample of his work in a particular (other) performance in which he speaks as a normal audiobook narrator does for a scientific book. I don't know if the peculiarities and irritations of this particular performance were his fault, or something he was instructed to do by a misguided producer. If you think you want this book, listen to the audio sample to see if you can handle Caploe's peculiar and distracting reading style. If you can, more power to you; if you can't, then pass on this one.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Some of the science is interesting. Although I hated most of the narrator's performance, let me give credit where credit is due: he does have an excellent French accent and mispronounces NONE of the French words in the book. (As you may have noticed, many narrators have no idea which letters at the end of French words are silent and which are not.)

Any additional comments?

The author lacks focus and a clear overall view. He starts out strong, with a description of the discovery, by a historian, of "first sleep" and "second sleep", and how this revolutionizes our understanding of sleep. He's right! And it's well-described in the book. But at several points later in the book, he fails to apply this correct insight to explain other sleep phenomena, simply parroting the scientists who studied those things, apparently unaware of the "first/second sleep" perspective.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Interesting book, awful reader

Would you try another book from David K. Randall and/or Andy Caploe?

I would read another book by Randall, but not one read by Caploe.

How could the performance have been better?

The reader put on annoyingly goofy voices for people quoted in the book. He read many passages as if they were punchlines in a joke. Really off-putting.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator did weird voices all the time.

Any additional comments?

There was no story, this was a boring synopsis of many sleep studies.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Terrible performance of an average book

There have been many recent advances in sleep science and the author takes you on a slightly dreamy tour of them. The performance assaults your ear with bad foreign accents an unnecessary caricatures.

The material is disjointed and the author repeats himself in different sections--possibly because he expected people to jump around to the chapters they were interested in. Not being a scientist he makes the various sources understandable for the layperson. But this also makes it difficult for him to analyse the material and he often presents conflicting points of view without any effort to say which is more likely to be correct. He's basically serving up everything he read and letting you sort through it.

I had to skip certain sections because the reader adopts a nasal, whiny voice whenever he's quoting a study or an interviewee--even ones that are clearly authoritative or completely correct. It's like he's saying "this is how all geeks and nerds talk." He also feels obliged to use British, French and Austrian (Freud) accents if the source material allows.

Without good synthesis or a critical eye for the data you could do almost as well for yourself by Googling "sleep science."

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

Interesting but not as scientific as I'd hoped

Dreamland by David. K. Randall was an interesting foray into the subject of sleep, and it did have scientific merit (I particularly enjoyed the part about sleep studies), but it fell off the deep end in a couple of places, especially where dreams are discussed.

There is a lot to be said for the amount of research that went into this book. The explanations of what physically happens when we sleep, the discussion of various sleep medications, and the evidence used to support the importance of sleep were well presented.

The narrators performace was good - not stellar - but good.

The problem that I had with the scientific merit of the book came primarily with the discussion of dream interpretation. First of all, I should say that I studied that topic in college - I don't have a degree in it or anything - but I studied it enough to write a well-researched paper about dreams.

There are a myriad of factors that can influence dreams including, but not limited to: allergies, bedding, sounds you hear while you're sleeping, effects of medications, foods you've eaten (particularly the acidity of the foods), things you've experienced that day (like watching a weird TV show or movie), the weather, etc. I don't recall any of these factors being seriously presented. If they were, it was in passing to the point that I don't remember it with the exception of a limited discussion about things you've experienced that day. The author did account for that one factor, but the other factors are so important that to dismiss them and concentrate solely on Freudian and superstitious interpretation was, in my opinion, downright irresponsible.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in studying sleep, just note that some of it is, at best, poorly researched.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Mediocre book, ridiculous narration

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Less padding in the book, and a narrator who did not put on a ridiculous voice every time he read a quote.

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

They were too easy. The book was made up of mostly obvious points padded out by lengthy descriptions of research methodology.

What didn’t you like about Andy Caploe’s performance?

The way he put on a ridiculous voice and often a ridiculous accent every time he read a quote. He came across like Robin Williams in Aladdin, only not funny. It was unnecessary and very distracting.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Melodramatic narrator and rambling narrative

Though there are some interesting factoids and bits of research in this book, the narrative is not tight enough. I enjoy "pop science" (as well as more serious works), but there was too much pop and not enough science in this book. The author rambles a bit and belabors his points. In the end, I didn't feel I'd learned very much.

The narrator was very poorly chosen for this book. He would probably be great for a fiction work as he has wide range of character voices. However, he read this book as if it was a drama, every phrase fraught with urgency or conspiracy. And the character voices felt really jarring in a serious book. French accent for the researcher with a French sounding name, a German accent for the German researcher, etc. It was like listening to a parody of a non-fiction book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

terrible accents and hit or miss science

I found the information in this book to be mostly dull and out of date the book speaks with great confidence popular information but lack scientific details and conductive research. the book and its opening chapter talks about a desire to not be a pop culture book with 10 steps to better sleep Etc. but immediately falls into that category. by providing readers with simple Concepts with little challenge. the author States his personal opinions as fact and provides only small isolated pieces of research to back up his claims I would enjoy a book that if not having a wider depth of field has at least Incorporated different Sciences that reinforced conclusions. also I found the reader insufferable. a soft-spoken rounded voice with a cocky cast. the reader and insists on performing accents for every character or researcher mentioned but only having a range of three or four voices to draw upon. every British person is rough and cockney no matter their background the voice actor imitates Freud with an accent that sounds Spanish instead of German and every intellectual researcher or scientist with a whining nasal voice appropriate in satire even though this book is not satirical. The only positive credit I can give as for his female voice of which he has only 2 a cockney British woman and a passable American Woman with a slight over tone a Fran Drescher. at least the American woman sounds slightly more believable than all the others. I would suggest giving this book a miss and reading something with a more accurate and scientific base if you prefer non-fiction books as I do.

Great book, but I can't deal with the narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. Seriously annoying narrator. If it's fiction, I can appereciate a voice for a character. This isn't fiction and whenever the author quotes someone, the narrator comes up with a voice. Sometime it's a bad British accent. About half the time, it's a breathy, horrible feminine voice. The worst part is that he editorializes with the voices. Whiny ones for people he doesn't like, authoritative for others. Buy the book, not this audiobook.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dreamland?

That awful lisping child's voice he used.

Would you be willing to try another one of Andy Caploe’s performances?

I would pay extra for anyone who is not him!

Fairly interesting book hurt by comical narration

Would you try another book from David K. Randall and/or Andy Caploe?

Yes to Randall, probably not for Caploe. Randall has a solid writing style, approachable and informative. Caploe's narration, especially the voices he used quoting people, was downright comical. It sounded like a co-worker who is terrible at impressions mimicking people.

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator who was capable of some subtlety with voices. This guy vacillated between exaggerated accents and nasally nerdiness.

Any additional comments?

Very readable book covering what we know (not a ton) about sleep - its mechanics, its impact on health, its history. Written for laymen and easily understood, sometimes the author contradicts himself a bit (quotes someone as saying lack of sleep won't kill you a few chapters after they discuss how extreme sleep deprivation can do just that), but you will likely still learn something. The author has a sense of humor and the book is a quick, if not earth shattering, read. Interesting enough to pass the time but it won't keep you up all night.