The Mind at Night - Book Summary & Review

The Mind at Night

Andrea Rock

Psychologists and philosophers have long grappled with the mysteries of dreaming, and now-thanks largely to recent innovations in brain imaging -neuroscientists are starting to join the conversation. In this ground-breaking book, award-winning journalist Andrea Rock traces the brief but fascinating history of this emerging field. She then takes us into modern sleep labs across the country, asking the questions that intrigue us all: Why do we remember only a fraction of our dreams? Why are dreams usually accompanied by intense emotions? Can dreams truly spark creative thought or help solve problems? Are the universal dream interpretations of Freud and Jung valid?

(Brief Description from Amazon.in)

The Mind at Night shines a light on our nocturnal journeys and tells us what the sleeping mind reveals about our waking hours.

Learn the true importance of sleep.

Pulling all-nighters looks like no big deal. But, as we get older, it starts becoming more obvious how overwhelming a messed-up sleep schedule can be. Indeed, a sleepless night can leave leaves us feeling devastated, sad and slightly out of control.

But why does this happen? And what does our brain do while we sleep? Our brain remains as active as when we’re awake. Sleep and dreams are an essential part of our survival and self-understanding.

We journey through a cycle of five stages of sleep every night.

We spend a third of our life asleep, it makes sense to know about what’s going on when we’re sleeping. It starts with a period of pre-sleep, when our mind settles down and enters an almost meditative state to prepare us for sleep. From there, we enter light sleep, which are the first two stages.

During the first stage, or the sleep onset, we often see flashes of disjointed images, known as hypnagogic imagery. This is the brain’s way to sort through the day’s experience to decide what to remember and what to forget.

Then stage two begins and our brain winds down further to make way for the stages of deep sleep that follow.

The third and fourth deep sleep stages are characterized by slow brain waves, and we generally cycle through the first stage once again before arriving at the fifth and final stage, which is marked by REM – or rapid eye movement – sleep.

It takes between fifty and seventy minutes to get through the first four stages of sleep, the REM period can be as short as ten minutes.

While all five stages have their own importance, it’s at the fifth REM stage, we experience our most vivid dreams and when our mind goes through its internal processes.

The unique characteristics of REM sleep are brought on by physiological changes in the brain.

Dreaming can occur at any time while we’re asleep – but they’re most intense during REM because at this stage our emotions get involved too. In fifth stage of sleep, the limbic system, which is home to our emotional memory, becomes 15% more active.

The first period of REM can be as short as ten minutes, and our dreams will usually deal with current emotions. But final REM periods can last nearly an hour and these incorporate long-term memories. During REM, logical reasoning in entirely closed off. This is why our dreams are often utterly bizarre. But why is it important for us to dream in the first place?

Our ability to practice skills, and to be aware that we’re dreaming, has made dreams a valuable tool.

Interpreting dreams and infusing meaning and significance into them can be a fruitful activity. They not only provide an insight into our emotional lives, but also allow us to evolve as a species.

Dreams have enabled us to practice our survival skills and have kept us learning and adapting, times after times. Dreams can help us out of life-threatening situations. This is because the brain exhibits the same neural patterns in dreams as it would when awake. Dreams function much like real-life practice, preparing us for real-life events.

Other species also have the ability to practice their skills during sleep, but only humans can distinguish between dream and reality.

We can thank our parents – and our ability to learn and comprehend – for this ability to differentiate between the dreams and the reality. Whenever there used to be nightmares, our parents were there throughout our childhood to remind us that it wasn’t real, that it was only a dream.

Sleeping and dreaming is a time for us to continue learning and solving life’s problems.

Sleep is generally considered one of the best ways to take a break from working, but for our brains, sleep isn’t time off. When we fall asleep at night, our brain gets busy storing the information we’ve learned during the day in the memory bank.

Even though we think we’re resting our mind, it’s still firing the same neurons during REM as when we’re awake. The mind uses metaphors in dreams to help us solve our real-world problems. A good example of this can be seen in an experiment conducted by William Dement, a prolific scientist who specializes in dreaming. Dreams are crucial for our intellectual growth as they help us memorize things and draw connections.

Dreams serve as a form of self-therapy, but depression can keep this from happening.

We don’t have to interpret or remember your dreams in order to benefit from them. Simply dreaming keeps the mind emotionally healthy. When our dreams connect negative emotions to our memories of difficult situations that worked out fine, they’re trying to show us that everything will be okay in the end.

When we try to reflect on our dreams, they can seem randomly disconnected. But it’s not random since our brain labels all our memories with certain emotions, and brings up the ones that are presently relevant.

By casting these memories in a positive light, our dreams give us confidence that we can overcome our current situation. Sometimes our dreams malfunction, however, and this can lead, or contribute, to depression.

An average person reaches their longest period of REM sleep just before morning, usually involving a vivid and exciting dream, to help us wake up in a good mood.

However, the dreams of the depressed are often like their waking mind – dull and bogged down by the weight of the world. Antidepressant medications help by keeping people from experiencing REM sleep, which helps prevent their dreams from reinforcing their depression.

Dreams can be enlightening and inspiring, especially when you achieve lucid dreaming.

Many artists have turned to their dreams for inspiration, and some were lucky enough to remember a particularly striking moment. Our brain is most creative when it’s dreaming. When the barrier of logic and the sensory boundaries of reality are gone. Our brain is free to do whatever it can imagine.

One way to tap into the creative potential of dreams is to train yourself to experience lucid dreaming – that is, to realize you’re dreaming while you’re dreaming, and to stay asleep. Those who practice lucid dreaming can take control of their dreams and do things that they can’t do while they’re awake. This isn’t always possible, but there are a few techniques which can be tried.

While you’re awake, time to time ask yourself whether what you’re seeing is reality or a dream. This will make it easier to raise this question in your dream without waking up, which is the key trigger to achieving lucidity.

You can also imagine yourself in a dream-like state before falling asleep, this is said to make lucid dreaming 150 percent more likely. To interact with your dream is to live in a fantasy world of your own creation, which is not only fun, but can also be a limitless source of creative inspiration.

Accessible and engaging, ‘The Mind at Night’ shines a bright light on our nocturnal journeys and tells us what the sleeping mind reveals about our waking hours.

Ruchika Verma

Reviews

"Exceptionally lucid and engaging work of science writing."

Publishers Weekly

"A well-written often entertaining look inside the mind."

Kirkus Reviews

You can purchase this interesting book from Amazon