Chapter 5 is largely based on sleep, dreams, and how drugs affect consciousness. I found it quite interesting that there were multiple stages of sleep, I always just assumed there was deep sleep and light sleep. But there are actually five stages, each with their own differences. This chapter then moved on to sleeping disorders, and sleep apnea stood out to me right away. This disorder causes great daytime fatigue, as the main character of The Machinist experienced. Here is a clip to the movie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRoYCwUvBPc.
Later in the chapter, hypnosis was discussed. I have always been a major skeptic of this, yet it seems so real when you see a hypnotist at work. The book revealed major myths of hypnosis, such as hypnotized people are unaware of their surroundings, also, they forget what happens during hypnosis. The last main subject touched upon was how drugs affect consciousness. What really caught my attention was how widespread some drugs are. According to recent research, 90% of dollar bills contain trace amounts of cocaine (Raloff, 2009). That is an incredibly high statistic and really took me by surprise!
Blog 1 Chapter 5
No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/173720
replied to comment from chamb169
| January 30, 2012 10:20 PM
| Reply
You are right, upon second glance, the main character appears to have insomnia. His insomnia creates a special kind of paranoia that is accompanied by severe delusions. This movie really tackles the idea of sleeping disorders head-on, which is why I chose this film for my example.
I think hypnosis is a weird topic to discuss. It has always interested me however. During my high school senior party, there was a hypnotist there, and some of my friends actually seemed as if they were hypnotized! I'm a big skeptic too though, but I couldn't determine if it was actually real or not.
What sleep disorder do you think he has in the movie? It doesn't seem to be apnea to me, but I'm not sure what it might be...