Match BookThe Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep
Guy Leschziner
2019 · 368 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep is narrative nonfiction (popular neuroscience, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, nature and loss and grief. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 368 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you want a complete story in one book
- you're drawn to stories about identity
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, nature, loss and grief
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Monsters Among Us: An Exploration of Otherworldly Bigfoots, Wolfmen, Portals, Phantoms, and Odd PhenomenaLinda S. GodfreyShares: narrative nonfiction, eerie mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring LegendMark Collins JenkinsShares: narrative nonfiction, eerie mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- The Ghost ClubKate Winkler DawsonShares: narrative nonfiction, eerie mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen TrialsMarion GibsonShares: narrative nonfiction, eerie mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- After UnderKennedy CannonShares: eerie mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight BiasDolly ChughShares: narrative nonfiction, balanced tone, moderate pace, set in multiple locations
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