Dr Alice Vernon works in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, where she teaches students the fundamentals of storytelling and researches representations of sleep in science and culture. Reviewer Carolina Ciucci Interviews Alice Vernon, Author of Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell about It I love diving into archives and finding things I wasn’t expecting. Sometimes I get so involved in exploring collections and gathering bits of cool stuff that I forget I actually need to write something with it! I usually start quite broadly with research, and that points me down various avenues and helps me to make connections in terms of a chapter’s structure. Working along a timeline helps, too, but I’m always happy to change my plans once I’ve found something particularly fascinating! The dreams of the British public collected in World War II was something I stumbled across while down a research rabbit hole, and it’s one of my favourite sources in the book. I was intrigued by the potential of lucid dreaming to treat PTSD. Do you think it could also help other mental illnesses, such as depression or OCD? Napoleon was six years younger than Josephine - so why are they played by Joaquin Phoenix, 49, and Vanessa Kirby, 35?

Parasomnias have also been the subject of extensive scientific investigations with many medical theories and treatments recommended over the centuries. Alice Vernon has been plagued by "parasomnias" ever since she was a child. These can vary from nightmares, sleepwalking, hallucinations, sleep paralysis and even lucid dreaming - just to name a few. They're more common than you think and will affect around 70% of us at some point during our lives. Alice Vernon’s “Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It” is published by Icon.Are STEM CELLEXOSOMES the secret to a 'snatched' jawline? Discover the products that influencers are claiming gave them taut, flawless skin... Treats for under the tree: Top 10 festive gift ideas that promise to be all THEY want for Christmas

Dracula’, ‘Jane Eyre’ and the Brother Cadfael mysteries all make reference to parasomnias, as does Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. Mark Wahlberg's daughter Grace, 13, wants to be an Olympian and he insists she's 'MORE disciplined' than him SARAH VINE: Royal biographer Omid Scobie may be a leech... but the treachery of Harry was so much worse Olivia Culpo shows off her NFL star fiancé Christian McCaffrey's painful bruises and scratches from the 49ers' Thanksgiving win over the Seahawks

Sleep paralysis, nightmares and dreams

I'm A Celebrity SPOILER: Tony Bellew gags while downing murky brown drink during gruesome challenge Cent takes a swipe at Diddy after he's sued by a third woman claiming he choked and raped her... shortly after settling lawsuit with ex Cassie Jennifer Lopez shares teaser for new album This is Me... Now: 'A life's journey on the search for the truth about love' Strictly fans hit out at judge's scores for Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola as they wow with sizzling Argentine Tango and continue to fuel romance rumours Dr Vernon said: “Over the centuries, parasomnias have had a profound effect on the human imagination, shaping both art and literature. Famous novels such as

Night Terrors is an in-depth examination of the complicated relationship that we have with our sleep, how we try to understand it, and even try to "cure" it of some of its unwanted traits. It helps you thrive from the inside out!': Meet the women who say this supplement is the secret to feeling fabulous in their 50s and 60s In this landscape, Alice Vernon’s new book Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It offers a breath of fresh air. Vernon highlights the need to widen our conversations around sleep beyond the anxious focus on maximising the number of hours we spend doing it. Her stories of troubled sleep purposefully steer well clear of the subject of insomnia – a condition that has been the core theme of a recent boom of memoirs, such as Marina Benjamin’s Insomnia (2018) and Samantha Harvey’s The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping (2020). The book encourages us all to change the way that we talk about sleep, arguing that there are many benefits to exchanging sleep stories – socially, culturally and in terms of our wellbeing. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD.

Beauty fans race to buy new ceramide-rich skincare line that's so effective fine lines virtually DISAPPEAR: 'Have noticed results after using it morning and night' Shia LaBeouf's daughter Isabel, one, flashes a sweet smile as he pushes her in a stroller through Pasadena In Headspace: How the Seventies Lost Its Mind, Found Itself and Taught Us to be Well, Dr James Riletells the story of the New Age Health movements of the 1970s, and how they formed the basis for today’s contemporary wellness industry. From coastal meditation retreats to the paranoias of darkened flotation tanks, he tells the often-bizarre tale of what happened when the psychedelic generation met the psychiatric profession. Riley’s previous book, The Bad Trip: Dark Omens, New Worlds and the End of the Sixties,was published by Icon in 2018 .

Slim Sharon Osbourne, 71, seen after admitting she could 'do with putting on a few pounds' since losing 42lbs with weight loss drug Sleepwalking as it is currently understood, as something separate from RBD, seems to involve milder delusions that might be following a routine, or oddly, trying to provide assistance. Apart from occasionally doing something somewhat mischievous like hiding objects, my sleepwalks are characteristic of this. In my teenage years, my mum found me on a mission in the middle of the night to deliver a slice of imaginary cake to Gwen Stefani. A few years ago, I woke myself up by switching the light on and loudly announcing to an empty bedroom: “It’s okay, I’ll help you find it.” Boxing's A Team! Ed Sheeran arrives ringside ahead of Katie Taylor's rematch with Chantelle Cameron in Dublin and poses with fans I'm A Celeb's Sam Thompson 'fanboys' over Tony Bellows and shares a hug with the boxer leaving viewers in HYSTERICS: 'This is so cute!'In my immediate future, I’m really hoping that my book gets people talking about their experiences of troubled sleep. I’ve already done a couple of events, and it has been wonderful to hear people come up and tell me about the things they’ve also suffered with at night. More broadly, though, I think there will be much more research undertaken in terms of lucid dreaming and the ways it could benefit people’s mental health. In fiction, I think parasomnias will always be a trope of the horror genre, but I also think we’ll start to see some of these “spooky” conditions appear in literary fiction, affecting the lives of everyday people who aren’t being chased by monsters or ghosts! Night Terrors is an impactful book, relatable, fascinating yet perhaps disturbing at times. The passion in which Vernon pursues discussion to be normalised surrounding our sleeping patterns is something that I think we can all take away from with a sense of positivity, as after all, we all have sleep. Omid Scobie's scathing book expected to blame embattled civil servant Simon Case for deepening the rift between William and Harry