Nightmareland Review: An Overview of Where We Go in our Sleep

Speaking as someone who reads a lot of nonfiction, I love that singular moment in a book that ties everything together, and cements its status as a coherent unit rather than a series of related essays put together by the author. That moment in Lex Nover’s 2019 tome Nightmareland: Travels at the Borders of Sleep, Dreams, and Wakefulness arrives in the first sentence of the Afterword: “Perhaps one of the great questions of life is whether we decide to plumb the depths of the unknown—the worlds beyond worlds within us—or stay in the confines of our mental comfort zone.”

To bring us to that moment, Nover guides us through several of the many mysteries of our sleeping and dreaming life, from sleep paralysis to the effects of sleep deprivation to lucid dreaming, and everything in between.

For those with an interest in sleep phenomena, it may initially seem a bit disappointing. The first chapter is on sleep paralysis, and the author dutifully takes us through the familiar aspects—the Old Hag, Shadow People, and so on. However, Nover also explores the lore (and current folklore) that many now associate with sleep paralysis—incubi, succubi, witches, demons, and so on around the world.

As he goes deeper into the book, we learn more about parasomnias (abnormal actions while sleeping, like sleep-eating), nightmares and their potential causes and benefits, and (of particular interest to me) the not-yet-well-trodden idea that alien abductions may be connected to both sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming in different ways.

It’s also useful to note that Mr. Nover provides numerous real-world cases on each chapter subject, making it easier for the reader to both comprehend and digest.

Another thing I was happy to see was that Nightmareland is meticulously researched, with 25 pages of endnotes for the nine chapters.  All too often, books such as these are either dry and academic, or full of unproven assertions and friend-of-a-friend tales. Nover astutely avoids such limiting extremes, writing in an engaging style that will draw in both the experienced and the curious.

It’s a truly fascinating read, and I can honestly say I enjoyed every moment. Well done, Mr. Nover.