The Brain Never Sleeps

Karen van Kampen examines the science of dreaming, synthesizing research on REM and non-REM sleep to explain dreaming's roles in memory, emotion processing, and threat rehearsal.

The book discusses how dreams reflect waking concerns, why nightmares recur, and therapeutic approaches like imagery rehearsal.

It also explores lucid dreaming and emerging techniques for guiding dreams, sometimes called dream engineering.

Van Kampen combines interviews with researchers and accessible explanations to show why adequate dream sleep is important for health.

The book aims to make dream science usable for readers interested in sleep, mental health, and cognition.