Nightmares. Sleep Disorders and How We Live With Them in Reality

Alice Vernon, author of the book «Nightmares», finds strangers in her bedroom several times a week upon waking. She has been haunted by sinister hallucinations, terrifying dreams, and episodes of sleepwalking since childhood. It is no surprise that sleep disorders... — parasomnias — and their representation in culture have become the subject of her scientific research. She explores how these disorders have been understood and attempted to be treated throughout history, how stories about them have led to stigmatization, immortalized moments in history, formed the basis for captivating books and screenplays, and been used in therapeutic practices. Traveling through the labyrinths of nightmares, you will learn about the trials of the «Salem witches», sleep paralysis, Victorian stories of somnambulists, and the phenomenon of lucid dreaming.