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Sleep and dreams

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

Addiction Ageing and death Childhood and adolescence Cognition and intelligence Consciousness and altered states Family life Gender and identity Language and linguistics Life stages Love and friendship Mental health Mood and emotion Neurodiversity Neuroscience Personality Pleasure and pain Psychiatry and psychotherapy Self-improvement Sex and sexuality Sleep and dreams Social psychology Spirituality Teaching and learning Technology and the self Wellbeing

A small animal curled up asleep on brown moss against a black background illuminated by a spotlight.

essay

Biology

Could humans hibernate?

Hibernation allows many animals to time-travel from difficult times to plenty. Could humans learn how to do it too?

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy

Painting of a rural street on a dark night featuring a two-storey white farmhouse, a red barn, powerlines, and a bright light in the centre.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Spinning the night self

After years of insomnia, I threw off the effort to sleep and embraced the peculiar openness I found in the darkest hours

Annabel Abbs

Two women sleeping and leaning on each against a large sign reading ‘Japanese Zen Spa’.

video

Work

A Swedish expat in the Philippines wonders: what’s up with people sleeping at work?

14 minutes

Painting of a person in a colourful robe sleeping on a desert ground with a lute beside them, and a lion standing over them under a night sky.

video

Sleep and dreams

How might the dreamworlds of other animals differ from our own?

8 minutes

Minimalist drawing of a figure sitting with one leg bent and head resting on hands, rendered in black ink on a beige background.

essay

Stories and literature

The diaries of Kafka

By day an insurance official, by night he was an incessant, insomniacal scribe of the space between waking and dreaming

Ross Benjamin

Dark window with reflections and a red brick wall faintly visible through the glass. The light creates a blurred, shadowy effect on the brick surface.

essay

Neuroscience

A thickness in the air

The spooky sensation that someone or something else is right there haunts us all. But what does this felt presence mean?

Ben Alderson-Day

A black dog sleeps peacefully indoors on the floor, with a blurred background of a room featuring wooden furniture and double doors.

essay

Sleep and dreams

The dreams of animals

The psychic lives of nonhuman dreamers reveal colours, harmonies and beauties of which we had little inkling until now

David M Peña-Guzmán

A person wearing headphones on a subway train next to a poster saying “Courtesy Counts”. Carriage doors have blue windows and “Do not hold doors” signs.

essay

Fairness and equality

Poor sleep

Being on-call, out-of-sync and underslept is not just personal but a pervasive political injustice. Bold change is needed

Jonathan White

Black and white photo of two snails interacting on sand, with multiple shells and a blurred background.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Ancestral dreams

We’re not the only beings that dream. What visions might sleep bring to a cell, an insect, a mollusk, an ape?

Sidarta Ribeiro

Passengers sleeping on seats in an airport terminal with bright lights and a departure board in the background.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Inside your dreamscape

Dream-hacking techniques can help us create, heal and have fun. They could also become tools of commercial manipulation

Adam Haar Horowitz, Robert Stickgold & Antonio Zadra

A child lying on a boat surrounded by corals, large shells, and handmade jewellery, with blue water in the background.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Why do we sleep?

Adults sleep less than babies. Sperm whales sleep less again. A new mathematical theory unlocks the mysteries of slumber

Van Savage & Geoffrey West

Two children in water at a rocky shoreline, one floating in the water, with a serene lake and pink mountains in the background.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Nightmares becalmed

I’m a dream engineer. Through touch, scent and sound, we help people rescript the dramas of their sleeping lives

Michelle Carr

Painting of vibrant, surreal imagery including people, animals, musical instruments and abstract shapes on a colourful background.

essay

Sleep and dreams

In exile from the dreamscape

We live in a wake-centric world that devalues dreaming, yet we need to experience dreams to be our authentic selves

Rubin Naiman

Abstract painting with bold smears of red and pink on a dark background featuring expressive, swirling strokes.

video

Neurodiversity

The work of a sleepwalking artist offers a glimpse into the fertile slumbering brain

4 minutes

A person sleeping on a folding cot in an office, wearing a white shirt. Shoes are placed on the carpeted floor nearby.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Here’s to naps and snoozes

American work culture, seeping around the globe, threatens to ruin the pleasures and benefits of public, communal sleep

Todd Pitock

A folded sterling banknote, partially wrapped in yellow packaging labelled ‘BANANA’ against a pink background.

video

Sleep and dreams

Chocolate, monsters and mothers – surreal glimpses of our most common dreams

2 minutes

A sloth clinging to a tree branch surrounded by green leaves in its natural habitat.

idea

Sleep and dreams

Down with the larks: on the virtues of sleeping like a sloth

Joel Frohlich

Neoclassical painting of a woman with closed eyes, head tilted to the left, wearing a red dress with an ornate background.

idea

Sleep and dreams

The lucid dreaming playbook: how to take charge of your dreams

Denholm Aspy

Cars parked by the roadside overlooking the ocean with the sun shining brightly above and casting rays over a hazy sky.

idea

Sleep and dreams

Our dreams have many purposes, changing across the lifespan

Patrick McNamara

A woman sleeping peacefully on a pillow, wearing a cosy knitted sweater, with eyes closed and a serene expression.

idea

Sleep and dreams

How sound and smell cues can enhance learning while you sleep

Sadie Witkowski

Black-and-white photo of a white man in a wicker chair on a veranda attended by two Black servants, one holding a fan and the other massaging his feet.

essay

History

The empire dreamt back

To help rule its empire, Britain turned to psychoanalysis. But they weren’t willing to hear the truth it told

Erik Linstrum

Photo showing the reflection of an indoor scene with American flags, silhouettes of people and an outdoor cityscape with a bridge at dusk.

essay

Politics and government

American dreaming 3.0

Embrace dreams as a counter to the naive realism of politics today, and they could become a potent democratic force

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

Painting of a solemn woman with long hair wearing a white dress against a dark, plain background. The style is realistic and sombre.

idea

Sleep and dreams

Sleepwalking is the result of a survival mechanism gone awry

Phil Jaekl

Stylised animated drawing of a contemplative man under a crescent moon amid a brownish, softly lit night sky.

video

Stories and literature

Leonard Cohen turns an erotic fantasy that wasn’t into a sleepless night’s work

6 minutes