Sleepyhead (Hardback)
Narcolepsy, Neuroscience and the Search for a Good Night
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An examination of sleep from the perspective of a narcoleptic
When Henry Nicholls was twenty-one, he was diagnosed with narcolepsy: a medical disorder causing him to fall asleep with no warning. For the healthy but overworked majority, this might sound like an enviable condition, but for Henry, the inability to stay awake is profoundly disabling, especially as it is accompanied by mysterious collapses called cataplexy, poor night-time sleep, hallucinations and sleep paralysis.
A writer and biologist, Nicholls explores the science of disordered sleep, discovering that around half of us will experience some kind of sleep dysfunction in our lives. From a CBT course to tackle insomnia to a colony of narcoleptic Dobermans, his journey takes him through the half-lit world of sleep to genuine revelations about his own life and health.
Told with humour and intelligence, Sleepyhead uses personal reflections, interviews with those with sleep disorders and the people who study them, anecdotes from medical history and insights from art and literature to change the way we understand our sleeping hours.
Sleepyhead (Ebook)
Narcolepsy, Neuroscience and the Search for a Good Night
Buy from
An examination of sleep from the perspective of a narcoleptic
When Henry Nicholls was twenty-one, he was diagnosed with narcolepsy: a medical disorder causing him to fall asleep with no warning. For the healthy but overworked majority, this might sound like an enviable condition, but for Henry, the inability to stay awake is profoundly disabling, especially as it is accompanied by mysterious collapses called cataplexy, poor night-time sleep, hallucinations and sleep paralysis.
A writer and biologist, Nicholls explores the science of disordered sleep, discovering that around half of us will experience some kind of sleep dysfunction in our lives. From a CBT course to tackle insomnia to a colony of narcoleptic Dobermans, his journey takes him through the half-lit world of sleep to genuine revelations about his own life and health.
Told with humour and intelligence, Sleepyhead uses personal reflections, interviews with those with sleep disorders and the people who study them, anecdotes from medical history and insights from art and literature to change the way we understand our sleeping hours.
Reviews for Sleepyhead
David Shukman, BBC
Tom Whipple The Times
Paul Chambers The Times Literary Supplement
Dan Collins, Fresh Tracks
Steve Connor The Independent
Jonathan Watkins Myza
Fintan Enright Irish Examiner
Tim Birkhead
Ian Dunn, Chief Executive Officer, Galapagos Conservation Trust
Johannah Barry, president of the Galapagos Conservancy
Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of Why Darwin Matters
Linda J. Cayot, Science Advisor, Galapagos Conservancy
Gaia Vince
Tim Birkhead, Fellow of the Royal Society
Gaia Vince, author of Adventures in the Anthropocene
Dr Guy Leschziner Consultant Neurologist and Clinical Lead for Sleep at Guy's Hospital
Julie Flygare, author of Wide Awake and Dreaming: A Memoir of Narcolepsy
Lucy Cooke, author of The Unexpected Truth About Animals
John Mathew, Historian of science
Sarah Franklin, author of Shelter
Emma Byrne, author of Swearing is Good For You
Publishers Weekly
Henry Nicholls
Henry Nicholls is a journalist, author and broadcaster,in evolutionary biology, conservation and history of science. He is the author of The Way of the Panda (9781846683688). His first book Lonesome George was about the Galapagos Archipelago and global conservation.
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