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We've nearly all been there at least once - awakened with a pounding heart and the memory of frightening scenes that seemed so real, but were conjured up and existed only in the sleeping mind. Nightmares affect people across countries and cultures, with some 10 percent of the world's population reporting recurrent nightmares. Parents have reported, and science has recorded, nightmares in children as young as 18 months old. Up to 40 percent of children aged 2 to 12 experience nightmares, as do some 35 percent of veterans and 50 percent of adults with chronic illness. With this book, a psychologist widely known in his field shows how nightmares evolved and were useful to ancestral populations, and why nightmares may carry beneficial functional effects even today for people who suffer from the pulse-pumping dreams. McNamara brings us up to date on the biology of nightmares and what, specifically, happens in the brain during the event. He also explains the history and development of nightmares and likely causes, including traumatic events, psychological and physical disorders, and commonly consumed medications.
List of contents
Table of Contents
Figures and Tables
Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Approach to the study of nightmares
Chapter 2. Why do nightmares occur in children?
Chapter 3. Content of nightmares
Chapter 4. Nightmares in pre-modern societies
Chapter 5. Biology of nightmares
Chapter 6. Personality and psychopathological correlates of nightmares
Chapter 7. Phenomenology of the nightmare
Chapter 8. Theoretical accounts of the nightmare
Chapter 9: Nightmares and popular culture
Chapter 10: Interpretation of the possession theme in nightmares
Chapter 11: Conflict theory and the nightmare
Concluding Remarks
Appendix: Additional Resources
References
Index
About the author
Patrick McNamara is Director of the Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory in the Department of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, and the VA New England Healthcare System. He is also Assistant Professor of Neurology at the same sites. He is currently developing an evolutionary approach to problems of brain and behavior, and studying the evolution of the frontal lobes, the two mammalian sleep states (REM and NREM) and the evolution of religion in cultures. He is trained in behavioral neuorscience, neurolinguistics and brain-cognitive correlation techniques. He pioneered investigation of the role of the frontal lobes in mediation of religious experience.
