Dreamland

Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep

De: David K. Randall

Narrado por: Andy Caploe

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.

The reader ruins this book

As a psychotherapist I found the material of this book helpful in supporting my clients with sleep challenges. The reader of this book ruined my experience of the book. His use of accents was offensive, unnecessary, and distracting. Many of these voices not only felt cartoonist, but often like sexist, racist, and just plain annoying stereotypes that made what was an interesting read almost untenable. Audible should never use readers like this and should give refunds.

Inspired me to build a healthy sleep practice.

There is a wealth of information here. This overview helps give a solid understanding on what sleep research has been done.

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.

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.

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.