The Sleep of Others and the Transformation of Sleep Research - Hardcover

Kroker, Kenton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802037690 ISBN 13: 9780802037695

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, 2007

Synopsis

We tend to think of sleep as a private concern, a night-time retreat from the physical world into the realm of the subconscious. Yet sleep also has a public side; it has been the focal point of religious ritual, philosophic speculation, political debate, psychological research, and more recently, neuroscientific investigation and medical practice.

In this first ever history of sleep research, Kenton Kroker draws on a wide range of material to present the story of how an investigative field - at one time dominated by the study of dreams - slowly morphed into a laboratory-based discipline. The result of this transformation, Kroker argues, has changed the very meaning of sleep from its earlier conception to an issue for public health and biomedical intervention.

Examining a vast historical period of 2500 years, Kroker separates the problems associated with the history of dreaming from those associated with sleep itself and charts sleep-related diseases such as narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep apnea. He describes the discovery of rapid eye movement - REM - during the 1950s, and shows how this discovery initiated the creation of 'dream laboratories' that later emerged as centres for sleep research during the 1960s and 1970s. Kroker's work is unique in subject and scope and will be enormously useful for both sleep researchers, medical historians, and anybody who's ever lost a night's sleep.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'In The Sleep of Others, the history of scientific investigations into sleep and sleep-related problems unfolds as a rich and complex territory. Incorporating a vast amount of material, in terms of periods covered as well as in the numbers of evaluated printed and archival sources, Kenton Kroker offers a fascinating account of research into sleep.'-Cornelius Borck

About the Author:

Kenton Kroker is an assistant professor in the Science and Technology Studies Program at York University.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0802037690
• ISBN 13: 9780802037695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 544