夢に焦点をあてながら、眠りのメカニズムを説明していきます。夢を探求する最新の科学はどのように精神分析の理論に影響を及ぼすのか、またそれが精神疾患の原因解明にどのように役立つのか。夢が平静で健康な心の維持になぜ不可欠なのか。現代に眠りの科学がもたらした数々の発見について、著者が自身の夢を例にあげながら解説します。
   

• Looks at the new scientific facts about dreaming and possible answers to long-held questions about the activation, function, and interpretation of dreams
• Relates the science of dreaming and sleep to their interpretation in history and in psychoanalysis
• Investigates the relationships between dreaming, learning, memory, and consciousness
• Explores how discoveries in the science of dreams have advanced our understanding of mental illness

  
What is dreaming, and what causes it? Why are dreams so strange and why are they so hard to remember? Replacing dream mystique with modern dream science, J. Allan Hobson provides a new and increasingly complete picture of how dreaming is created by the brain. Focusing on dreaming to explain the mechanisms of sleep, this book explores how the new science of dreaming is affecting theories in psychoanalysis, and how it is helping our understanding of the causes of mental illness. 
  
J. Allan Hobson investigates his own dreams to illustrate and explain some of the fascinating discoveries of modern sleep science, while challenging some of the traditionally accepted theories about the meaning of dreams. He reveals how dreaming maintains and develops the mind, why we go crazy in our dreams in order to avoid doing so when we are awake, and why sleep is not just good for health but essential for life.