Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams

A study of sleep that reveals its mysteries and sings its praises: “A choice example of science writing that entertains as it educates” (Kirkus Reviews).

Does the early bird really catch the worm, or end up healthy, wealthy, and wise? Can some people really exist on just a few hours’ sleep a night? Does everybody dream? Do fish dream? How did people cope before alarm clocks and caffeine? And is anybody getting enough sleep?

Even though we will devote a third of our lives to sleep, we still know remarkably little about its origins and purpose. Paul Martin’s Counting Sheep answers these questions and more in this illuminating work of popular science. Even the wonders of yawning, the perils of sleepwalking, and the strange ubiquity of nocturnal erections are explained in full.

To sleep, to dream: Counting Sheep reflects the centrality of these activities to our lives and can help readers respect, understand, and extract more pleasure from that delicious time when they’re lost to the world.

Praise for Counting Sheep

“Scientist Martin . . . is on a mission to cure our “sleep-sick society” and convince us, for our own good, to start taking sleep more seriously. Pithy, wry and earthily humorous, this book is Martin’s manifesto for a healthier society. . . . A writer fully in command of his subject and his style, Martin reveals just how deeply and madly we pay for our collective indifference to the value of so simple a pleasure as a good night’s sleep.” —Publishers Weekly

“Energetic and immensely readable, this is as good a popular science book as I have read.” —Evening Standard (UK)

“Everything you could possibly wish to know about sleep, lack of sleep, dreams, sleepwalking, nightmares, snoring, napping, and sudden sleep death syndrome. Marvelous.” —The Sunday Times (UK)