Where	Online: https://www.harvard.com/event/virtual_event_robert_stickgold/
Organization/Sponsor	Harvard Division of Science, Cabot Science Library, and Harvard Book Store
Speaker(s)	Robert Stickgold and Antonio Zadra
Cost	free
Contact Info	science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu

Questions on the origins and meaning of dreams are as old as humankind, and as confounding and exciting today as when nineteenth-century scientists first attempted to unravel them. Why do we dream? Do dreams hold psychological meaning or are they merely the reflection of random brain activity? What purpose do dreams serve?

When Brains Dream addresses these core questions about dreams while illuminating the most up-to-date science in the field. Written by two world-renowned sleep and dream researchers, it debunks common myths that we only dream in REM sleep, for example—while acknowledging the mysteries that persist around both the science and experience of dreaming.

Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold bring together state-of-the-art neuroscientific ideas and findings to propose a new and innovative model of dream function called NEXTUP―Network Exploration to Understand Possibilities. By detailing this model’s workings, they help readers understand key features of several types of dreams, from prophetic dreams to nightmares and lucid dreams. When Brains Dream reveals recent discoveries about the sleeping brain and the many ways in which dreams are psychologically, and neurologically, meaningful experiences; explores a host of dream-related disorders; and explains how dreams can facilitate creativity and be a source of personal insight.

Making an eloquent and engaging case for why the human brain needs to dream, When Brains Dream offers compelling answers to age-old questions about the mysteries of sleep.
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Robert Stickgold is a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition. His writing has appeared in Scientific American and Newsweek.

Antonio Zadra is a sleep and dream scientist at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur's Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine and professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal. In addition to numerous publications on sleep, dreams, and dream-related disorders, Dr. Zadra is the co-author of When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep.   

For more information and videos of Harvard Science Book Talks, see https://science.fas.harvard.edu/book-talks.