Why Can't We Sleep? cover art

Why Can't We Sleep?

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Why Can't We Sleep?

By: Darian Leader
Narrated by: Darian Leader
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Why Can't We Sleep by Darian Leader.

One in four adults sleeps badly. Sleeping pill prescriptions have increased dramatically over the last three decades and our bookshelves and browser histories are littered with experts promising to 'fix' our insomnia.

But is this so-called sleep crisis anything new? Our relationship to sleep has always been irregular and changeable, variously shaped by social conventions, commercial imperatives and personal psychologies. Look beneath the headlines and it seems that there is no such thing as a perfect night's sleep.

Here Darian Leader reveals the history and pathology of sleeplessness - from the industrial revolution to Freudian dream analysis to the fears around blue light on our phones. Along the way, he dispels the pervasive myths and anxieties around this most universal human experience.

 Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Physical Illness & Disease Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Sleep Disorders Social Sciences Health Mental Health

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Sleep problems cannot be disassociated from the fact that human symptoms are very complex and relational. It is so refreshing to hear psychoanalytic thinking expressed so clearly.

Refreshing!

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Very interesting - heavy on the freudian, so I def didn't agree with all of it - Freud feels so archaic - but it's always healthy to challenge your opinions + there are many interesting thoughts here.

This is well written + argued and filled with big ideas. I've read another book by the same author that was more didactic and rather dull. This one, however, is a gem

Fascinating

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