The Brain Never Sleeps
with Karen van Kampen
Hosted by Stephen Brockwell
“With a flair for storytelling and an instinct for telling detail, she leads readers from the basics of sleep science and dream interpretation to the spiritual mysteries of ‘big dreams’ and the ethically fraught frontiers of dream-enhancing technologies. You couldn’t ask for a better state-of-the-art review of the most important and intriguing findings of current dream research.”
SCIENCE SATURDAY: We all dream, but do we know why we dream? Join our host, Stephen Brockwell, for a conversation with author and award-winning journalist Karen van Kampen about what goes on behind our eyelids and what it means for our health.
In The Brain Never Sleeps: Why We Dream and What It Means for Our Health, Karen van Kampen guides us on a journey through dreamland, sharing how we can reclaim this other realm of thought and experience to improve our well-being. Our dreams are as real to us as our waking experiences. They have the power to influence what we think, feel and do. With our dreaming brain operating in a different mode, disconnected from the demands and distractions of daily life, we brainstorm new ideas, face our fears and uncover insights into ourselves. Van Kampen, whose father opened one of the first independent sleep laboratories in North America, acts as a unique and informed guide, combining first-person narrative with highly accessible science journalism.
Van Kampen investigates neuroscience and psychology to reveal the connection between our waking and dreaming lives while also exploring what happens when people get stuck in between—the mixed brain state of parasomnias including sleepwalking and night terrors. Through the fascinating stories of dream scientists, we learn how dreams boost learning, spark creativity and process emotions.
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