Dream on

摘要

IF YOU are one of the countless millions who fret about not getting enough sleep, there is now something else to keep you awake: the possibility that you are not only sleep-deprived, but also dream-deprived. It turns out that dream sleep is one of the biggest casualties of our collective sleep debt. It is more common at the end of a night's slumbers, so tends to be cut short by the need to get up for work or school. And far from being a pleasurable but superfluous state, that dreamy sleep in the morning turns out to have some important functions for your brain (see page 32).