Why do we dream? When we fall asleep and our bodies relax, why do we enter into a world of dreams and surprises?
In a straightforward, lively manner, Michel Jouvet recounts what is known today about sleep and dream mechanisms. He also explains the potential value of dreams and describes the origins of insomnia.
This concise, illustrated work is an excellent introduction for the general reader.

Michel Jouvet is a member of the French Academy of Science, and was awarded a gold medal by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He heads a research unit in neurophysiology, in Lyon. He discovered and described the phenomenon he named “paradoxical sleep”, an intermediary state of the brain, between waking and deep sleep. He is the author of Le Sommeil et le Rêve and Le Château des Songes.