What are dreams, and what triggers them? Why do dreams seem so bizarre, and why is it so difficult to remember them? J. Allan Hobson presents a fresh and increasingly comprehensive understanding of how dreaming is produced by the brain, replacing the mysticism surrounding dreams with contemporary dream science. This book examines how the new science of dreaming is influencing psychoanalytical views and how it is improving our comprehension of the origins of mental illness, focusing on dreams to explain the mechanisms of sleep.
J. Allan Hobson explores his own dreams to demonstrate and explain some of the remarkable findings of contemporary sleep science and cast doubt on some of the widely-held notions about the significance of dreams. He explains why we go crazy in our dreams to prevent doing so when we are awake, how dreaming preserves and develops the intellect, and why sleep is necessary for health and life.
