Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It

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When she was a 15-year-old at school, a new teacher arrived, whom Alice calls ‘Meredith’ in this book. On her first day, Meredith stared at Alice across the playground. In the classroom, she made Alice sit as far as possible from the door, so that after school she could waylay her, and chat, making her miss her bus home. Meredith insinuated herself into Alice’s life, using friendliness and texting. Alice Vernon’s “Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It” is published by Icon. The latest barrage of truth bombs from Harry and Meghan's 'mouthpiece': Every claim from sneak peek of Omid Scobie's new book

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At the moment, lucid dreaming can be used to help with nightmares associated with PTSD in that the phenomena can essentially “rewrite” the course of recurring, traumatic dreams. If other mental illnesses such as depression or OCD cause nightmares (and indeed, sometimes the medication for these conditions can affect a person’s dreams) then learning to lucid dream could help any symptoms manifesting through sleep. Where do you see the study of parasomnias going in the near future? That particular episode of sleepwalking happened a few years ago, when I was about to hand in my PhD thesis. It was a stressful time, which often makes my sleep more disturbed (and disturbing) than usual. During this time, I wasn’t just experiencing sleepwalking, but also sleep paralysis – the feeling of being crushed by a phantom figure – and having recurring hypnopompic hallucinations (where you’re only half awake and the brain is projecting dream-images onto what you can really see) about a ghostly Victorian woman. Dr Vernon added: “One of the most astonishing theories I discovered during my research was one doctor’s peculiar assertion that night terrors were caused by a person thinking about arithmetic when drifting off to sleep. Paris Hilton's special meaning behindnewborn daughter's name London after surprising fans with baby arrival announcement Aaron Hall comes under scrutiny for lyrics in his song Don't Be Afraid after he and Diddy were sued for rape

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Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. NIGHT TERRORS, her startling and vivid debut, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we’ve tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly odd ‘cures’ like magical ‘mare-stones’, to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers’ experiences of PTSD. By directly confronting her own strange and frightening nights for the first time, Vernon encourages us to think about the way troubled sleep has impacted our imaginations. I'm A Celeb's viewers SLAM 'insensitive' Nella Rose after she tells ADHD sufferer Sam Thompson to 'calm down': 'Educate yourself!' I'm A Celebrity's Jamie Lynn Spears speaks out on her relationship with sister Britney, as she admits: 'Family's fight. Listen, we just do it better than most' Patsy Kensit 'rekindles romance with property tycoon fiancé' Patric Cassidy four months after splitting Ever since she was a child, her nights have been haunted by nightmares of a figure from her adolescence, sinister hallucinations and episodes of sleepwalking. These are known as ‘parasomnias’– and they’re surprisingly common.