Benjamin Reiss

"Reiss accessibly addresses an astounding breadth of material… This is a captivating examination and Reiss gives readers much to ponder long into the night." --Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

"Liberating.. pops with insight... eye-opening... harrowing.  Reiss makes it achingly clear that sleep is anything but democratically distributed."  --Jennifer Senior, New York Times

"Sleep is a culturally fluid phenomenon, reveals Benjamin Reiss in this marvelous scientific and literary study.  He deftly interweaves multiple threads, from the industrial manipulation of time ot the near-hibernation of snowbound Russian peasants in 1900, Henry David Thoreau's clock-free sojourn a Walden Pond, and the 50-cup-a-day coffee habit of French novelist Honore de Balzac.  Sleep fascinates, Reiss reminds, because it is so many things; common denominator, 'hidden dimension,' field of dreams." --Nature