What happens in the third of our lives when we’re slumbering? How have sleep, dreams, and nightmares been interpreted over the centuries? Why do so many people feel that they are deprived of sleep? The unexpected and rich story of sleep, ranging across science, history, literature, and philosophy Sleep is a universal human experience, as necessary as breathing and as nourishing as eating, yet it remains one of the most mysterious areas of our lives, and has long been the site of a cultural battleground between those who see sleep as a gift from nature and those who have seen it as an idle waste of time. In an overcrowded, exhausting 24-hour culture, sleep has become a valuable, rationed commodity, and something that people are thinking about more than ever before. This thoughtful, entertaining bedside-table companion provides a mixture of short, browsable pieces and more extended sections on the fascinating world of sleep. Certainly any study of sleep has to savor the delight of sleeping late and the sexual musk of night time; discuss the history of the bed, the origin of pajamas, and how the Elizabethans saw the pillow as a sign of moral weakness; and examine why the Italians called the bed the "the opera of the poor."