A comprehensive, eye-opening exploration of what dreams are, where they come from, what they mean, and why we have them.

Questions on the origins and meaning of dreams are as old as humankind, and as confounding and exciting today as when nineteenth-century scientists first attempted to unravel them. When Brains Dream addresses the core questions about dreams while illuminating the most up-to-date science in the field. Written by two world-renowned sleep and dream researchers, it debunks common myths—that we only dream in REM sleep, for example—while acknowledging the mysteries that persist around both the science and experience of dreaming.

Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold bring together state-of-the-art neuroscientific ideas and findings, and propose a new and innovative model of dream function called NEXTUP—Network Exploration to Understand Possibilities. By detailing this model’s workings, they help readers understand key features of several types of dreams—from prophetic dreams to nightmares and lucid dreams—and explain everything from how dreams can facilitate creativity to why they can be a source of personal insight.

About the Authors: Antonio Zadra is a professor at the Université de Montréal and a researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine. He lives in Quebec.
Robert Stickgold is a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.