From the brilliant psychoanalyst behind Strictly Bipolar and What is Madness, a short and fascinating guide to the history of human sleep - and why we can't seem to sleep any more

'Persuasive, absorbing and refreshingly sane... [A] bracing and important intervention in the debate... Leader points the way to a richer and more humane understanding of our problems with sleep' Guardian

One in four adults sleeps badly.
Sleeping pill prescriptions have increased dramatically over the last three decades, as have the incidence of sleep clinics.
Sleep used to be a natural state, easy as breathing, but increasingly it is an insecure commodity.
...Isn't it?

Our relationship to sleep surfaces and resurfaces throughout human history, each time telling us something new about our indivudual and collective psychology. From the industrial revolution to blue-light on our phones, from the ancient art of dream interpretation to the modern science of Freud, sleep is connected to wider social patterns, to shifting norms and expectations. Weaving together cultural, social, economic and psychoanalytic influences, Darian Leader delves into the truth about this universal human experience.

A short, accessible analysis of how and why humans sleep - weaving together cultural, social, economic and psychoanalytic influences in pursuit of the truth about insomnia.

About the Author
Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst and the author of many books, including The New Black, What Is Madness? and Is It Ever Just Sex?. He practises psychoanalysis in London, and he is a founding member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and a member of the College of Psychoanalysts UK.


Book Information
ISBN 9780241984437
Author Darian Leader
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 120g
Dimensions(mm) 180mm * 110mm * 22mm