Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (May, 2026)

 

Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (May, 2026)

The Brain Never Sleeps: Why we Dream and What it Means for Our Health by Karen van Kampen (2026)


My take:

What if your dreams could reveal how well you’re coping with the stresses of everyday life? In The Brain Never Sleeps: Why We Dream and What It Means for Our Health, van Kampen explores the science and art of dreaming, showing how our dreams can offer a window into our well-being. van Kampen examines why dreams are important and the impact they can have on our health and overall well-being.

The book focuses on three key aspects of the relationship between dreams and mental health: 1) what dreams reveal about our mental health, 2) how our dreams change alongside our psychological well-being, and 3) why it is often impossible to hide from our worries and preoccupations - even in sleep.

van Kampen explores the connection between our emotional state while awake and our emotional experiences in dreams. An increase in negative dreams, for example, may indicate that our mental health is under strain. Recurrent bad dreams or nightmares may serve as an internal warning system suggesting the need to pay closer attention to our mental health.

The book concludes with the “Dreamer’s Toolkit” which offers practical strategies for understanding and learning from our dreams. Techniques such as dream journaling - recording dreams shortly after waking - can help you reflect on unresolved concerns and emotional patterns currently happening in waking life.

The Brain Never Sleeps will appeal to anyone curious about the meaning of dreams and their connection to well-being.

Try one or two techniques from the Dreamer’s Toolkit. Has your dreaming helped you resolve an issue you are facing? Has paying attention to your dreams improved your well-being during your waking hours?

Comments

Post a Comment

You are able to comment in one of three ways, 1) through your google account, 2) anonymously, or 3) using your name and URL (you can just comment with your name if you leave the URL blank). If you have trouble submitting a comment, try clearing your computer's browsing data (i.e., clearing cookies and cached images and files) or using incognito mode.

Popular posts from this blog

Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (July, 2025)

Image
  Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (July, 2025) Get it Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation , Ayelet Fishbach (2022, published by Little, Brown Spark) My take: Have you ever experienced that excitement to embark on a new goal (you’ll start Monday!), only to find that part way through to reaching your goal, that you lost interest, your motivation wanes. In Get it Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation , Fishbach (2022) explores the complex construct of motivation. You’ll discover barriers to motivation and how to deal with them so you can reach your goals. Fishbach provides a fulsome examination of the science of motivation. She explores orientations such as cup half full or empty and what motivates under these different perspectives. Intriguingly, which part of the glass motivates you will depend on context and the importance of your goal. At the end of each chapter, a series of questions allow you to reflect to better understand the science and strategi...
Read more

Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (June, 2025)

Image
  Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (June, 2025) The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions by Michael Norton (2024, published by Scribner) My take: You may have heard of athletes engaging in a series of actions before each game, or maybe you yourself have a “ritual” that you do before some event that is important to you. In The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions , Norton reviews the science of rituals and how they can improve our mood and well-being. According to Norton, rituals have the ability to increase different emotions -– something he calls emodiversity – that in turn, can increase your well-being. Experiencing a greater range of emotions has been found to be related to increased mental (and physical) health. Norton presents a vast array of rituals from personal to those developed and used around the world. Take for example, the ritual of having a cup of tea with your partner after dinn...
Read more

Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (October, 2025)

Image
  Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (October, 2025) Smartphone Nation: Why We're All Addicted to Our Screens and What You and Your Family Can Do About It , by Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr (2025, published by Knopf Canada) My take: Although smartphones seem ubiquitous, managing them so that your well-being isn’t negatively impacted can be challenging. In Smartphone Nation, Regehr (2025) provides a powerful, behind the scenes view of how tech firms control our screen time. She provides a practical guide on how to take back control and educate those who may be vulnerable. Regehr asks (and answers) several critical questions around “screen consumption”— what is our screen consumption doing to how we think and understand the world? She provides several strategies on how to take action so that the information coming at us is what we want rather than what the tech firms want to give us. Regehr also provides tips on spotting misinformation. This book is an education on technology, social media, and screen ti...
Read more