Introduction -- Part I: Coming into the territory. Exodus -- Arrival -- Coming into the territory -- Descent and transformation -- Part II: Chasing dreams. The body electric -- A new continent -- Chasing dreams -- Pathway to paradox -- A society of scientists -- The frontier shifts -- A new vision -- Part III: Awakening. The birth(s) of sleep medicine -- Decoding the clockwork -- Seeing patterns -- Beyond pills and scalpels -- Crossroads -- Catastrophe -- Awakening -- Epilogue -- Diagram: The anatomy of sleep -- Appendix A: A time line of sleep science ; Appendix B: Meanwhile, in a parallel universe: a brief prehistory of chronobiology

Journalist Kenneth Miller weaves science with history to tell the story of four outsider academics who carried the study of sleep from fringe discipline to mainstream obsession. In the 1920s Nathaniel Kleitman founded the world's first dedicated sleep lab, with breakthrough experiments in 1938. Kleitman mentored Eugene Aserinsky who discovered REM sleep, and William Dement, who became known as the father of sleep medicine. Dement, in turn, mentored Mary Carskadon, who uncovered an epidemic of sleep deprivation among teenagers. -- From book jacket flap