11/15/2018
Dreams matter, argues Robb (New York magazine's "Science of Us" column). Beginning with an exploration of the importance of dreams throughout history and across cultures, the author then moves on to examine the relatively new science of dreams. As a society, we are obsessed with sleep—how to get enough, the quality of sleep—but we have neglected the importance of our dreams. With an accessible writing style and well-researched material, Robb explores their power. For example, dreams play an important role in the learning process. When we learn something new and then dream about it, the knowledge is further cemented. Additionally, dreams provide a link to creativity; a means to work through issues of anxiety, grief, or trauma; and can even be used as a medical diagnostic tool. An advocate and practitioner of lucid dreaming, Robb explains how to do it and the potential benefits one can derive from guiding the action of one's dreams. VERDICT Part exploration of the importance of dreams, part rallying cry for the value of lucid dreaming. Recommended for anyone interested in better understanding what is actually happening during REM sleep.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn
08/13/2018
In this intriguing and accessible pop science investigation, New York magazine science columnist Robb explores the significance of dreams for one’s health and well-being, the history and current state of research into the field, and possible avenues for future study. Robb considers early theories from the ancient Greeks, later ones from Freud and Jung, and the possible benefits of dreaming, from sparking creative inspiration to providing “threat-simulation”—allowing people to “work through our anxieties in a low-risk environment.” She recounts the fascinating career of sleep scientist Stephen LaBerge, who revolutionized the understanding of lucid dreaming, and, in the final, most illuminating chapter, attends LaBerge’s Hawaiian retreat for a crash course on the process. Robb also visits a scientist at MIT who is mapping out how dreams work to enhance problem-solving skills in rats and travels to the Netherlands to attend a meeting of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. She even has the fortitude to partake in “group analysis,” allowing six friends and a therapist to interpret a bizarre scenario featuring a line-dancing Hillary Clinton. Though Robb’s reiteration of certain points results in the occasional redundancy, she provides an engaging overview of sleep science and effectively argues for its significance. (Nov.)
Named a “Must-Read Book of the Fall” by Vogue, Elle, Literary Hub, TIME, New York Magazine, and The London Evening Standard A Top 10 book about insomnia (The Guardian) A Best Health and Science book of 2018 (The Cut) “In a book that looks at the historical and social importance of dreams, and analyzes the latest science, Robb attempts to correct our misguided forsaking of this feature of our unconscious. Dreams don’t make for boring conversation, Robb argues in this persuasive, personable book.”—Vogue “Why We Dream is a spirited rebuke to the idea of sleep as a mere parting with consciousness. In exploring the pleasures and uses of dreams, [Alice Robb] seeks to persuade us that sleep is not just the “off” to waking’s “on” but another realm of being, a second consciousness, rich in adventure and wisdom... In celebrating dreams as poetic artifacts, Robb offers a welcome antidote to the medicine administered by most sleep gurus."—New Yorker "Why We Dream is a spirited, cogent defense of dreams and dream-telling...We may not know why dreams 'traffic in garbled metaphor and disjointed imagery,' but by learning to decode them, we can learn to decode ourselves... All we need to do, Robb wants us to know, is pay attention."—NPR.org "A convincing case for cherishing our dream worlds."—New York Post “For anyone who's ever kept a dream journal or fixated on the idea of lucid dreaming, a thorough exploration of the mysterious nightly phenomenon from a scientific point of view.”—Elle "[Robb] takes readers down a nightly rabbit hole to meet lucid dreamers, dream experts, and academic researchers, proving that her inquiry into dreams can be just as bizarre and fascinating as dreams themselves...Reading this book is a submersion in the land of dreams, one that may prompt readers to record their nightly journeys each morning. The process just may transform their waking life."—Spirituality+Health "Robb, a science journalist, presents a comprehensive and compelling account of theories of and research on dreaming from ancient times through the present day. Throughout, she displays an intense respect for what our minds do while we’re sleeping, and the findings she presents — that dreaming is essential for sanity, that analyzing our dreams can be revelatory, that dreams can be used as diagnostic tools and even manipulated for our own mental health—corroborate her conviction that, as a culture, we would benefit from paying more careful attention."—Longreads "Alice Robb’s Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey was for me a gentle and affecting invitation to reconsider a seemingly boring daily routine. ....the “nightly journey” idea makes getting into bed feel like preparing for an adventure. Robb’s encouragement to think of dreams as rehearsals for waking hopes and fears has also been especially eye-opening."—The Cut “After reading this gripping and deeply researched book, you’ll never again be tempted to dismiss the surreal narratives of our nighttime lives as trivial or meaningless. Blending centuries of cultural history with cutting-edge science, Alice Robb makes a compelling case for dreams—as sources of wisdom and creativity, as a vital ingredient in psychological health, and as —
2018-09-17
What happens inside one's brain during sleep? Answering that question, as journalist Robb's inviting exploration makes clear, takes some work, but it yields some fascinating answers.
Telling someone that he or she was in your dream last night is a timeworn, even cheesy pickup line. Why do we dream? Ask a neurophysiologist, and you may get a suitably mechanistic answer: Dreaming is a way for the brain to do a reboot and flush its cache. Robb, a columnist for New York magazine, is more given to metaphor and lyric in looking at the ways dreams tell us what we're really thinking about—for, by another theory, dreams are ways the brain processes bits of information gleaned in waking life and uses "them to make guesses about the future." Granted, she writes, that in-my-dream line is "still basically an innuendo," especially if the dream-inhabiting person in question was climbing a ladder, a pure Freudian trope for intercourse. That person may figure in an innocent dream that still has meaning, just as the content of dreams of patients about to undergo surgery speaks to "anxieties and fears, in symbols and metaphors if not literally." (Robb adds that if you're dreaming about "broken knives and blocked-up sewers" before undergoing the procedures, you're anxious for sure.) The author tends toward the softer side of the neuropsychological spectrum; there's been much hard neuroscience work on the sleeping and dreaming brain, for instance, that doesn't figure here. She writes at some length of "lucid dreaming" and ways to cultivate a better understanding of what's happening inside our minds when the lights are out. Even if we don't quite know why certain ingredients may be in a dream or "why our brains choose a particular night to play a particular scene," the content can be made more meaningful—and thus more useful to the dreamer who's paying attention, making dreamtime a time "imbued with a sense of opportunity instead of anxiety."
A friendly primer for would-be oneirologists.
