Primary Texts

Minority Report
2002

In 2054 criminals are apprehended before they commit their crimes, thanks to the work of “pre-crime” cops, and the precognitive abilities of three individuals who share dreams of future misdeeds. However, when the precogs see a vision of the chief detective murdering a man he does not yet know, the detective runs, and attempts to prove his innocence. Based on Philip K. Dick’s story of the same name.

IMDB Information

The Matrix
1999

Hacker Neo “wakes up” and learns that the world as he knows it is a sham, that all of humanity are in effect trapped in a machine-directed dream world. Joined with Morpheus and his band of revolutionaries, Neo learns that he can control the Matrix, and fight the machines from within their program. This first installment of the Matrix trilogy (and only the first) asks interesting questions about fate and free will. If you knew that your world was an illusion, would you remain in it, or fight to escape?

IMDB Information

Man of La Mancha
1972

A musical version of Don Quixote has the mad nobleman “dreaming the impossible dream,” where he duels windmills and defends his lady love who is in reality a prostitute.

IMDB Information

Insomnia
2002

A Los Angeles detective shoots his own partner by accident during a murder investigation in Alaska. During the eternal day of the Alaskan summer, the detective can not sleep. As the boundaries between day and night blur, so too do the lines between victim and perpetrator. Christopher Nolan, director of Memento, based the film on a Norwegian film of the same name.

IMDB Information

Bosnak, Robert. Christopher’s Dreams: Dreaming and Living with Aids.

Bulkeley, Kelly. An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams.

Jones, Ernest. On the Nightmare.

Jung, Carl. Dreams.

--. "Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams."

Descartes, René. Discours de la méthode. [Discourse on Method].

---. “Méditation sixième.” [“Sixth Meditation”].

Flanagan, Owen. Dreaming Souls: Sleep, Dreams, and the Evolution of the Conscious Mind.

Jouffroy, Théodore. Mélanges philosophiques. [Philosophical Writings].

Maine de Biran. Nouvelles considérations sur les rapports du physique et du moral de l’homme. [New Considerations of the Relationship of the Physical and the Moral of Man].

---. Rapports du physique et du moral de l’homme. [Relationship of the Physical and the Moral of Man].

Montaigne, Michel de. Essais. [Essays].

Voltaire. Dictionnaire philosophique IV. [Philosophical Dictionary IV].

Angier, Natalie. "Modern Life Suppresses an Ancient Body Rhythm." New York Times. Mar. 14, 1995.

Berlin, Leslie.  "We'll Fill this Space, But First a Nap." New York Times.  Sept.  27, 2008.   

Bower, Bruce. "Slumber's Unexplored Landscape: People in Traditional Societies Sleep in Eye-Opening Ways." Science News. Sept. 25, 1999.

"College Student Sleep Pattern Could Be Detrimental." Science Daily. May 13, 2008.

Della Cava, Marco R. "When Sleep is just a Dream." USAToday.com. Feb. 27, 2006.

"Drowsy Driving is Big Killer in U.S." MSNBC.com. Nov. 2, 2007.

Friedman, Richard A. "Sleep Disorder? Wake Up and Smell the Savanna." New York Times. Mar. 14, 2006.

Jeffrey, Nancy Ann. "Sleep: The New Status Symbol." Wall Street Journal. Apr. 2 1999: W1.

Klinkenborg, Verlyn. "Awakening to Sleep." New York Times Magazine, Jan. 5, 1997.

Laberge, Stephen. "Lucidity Research, Past and Future." Nightlight 5 (3). Fall, 1993.

"Lack of Shut-eye Leads to Fatter Kids, Study Says." MSNBC.com. Nov. 5, 2007.

Leary, Warren E. "Feeling Tired and Run Down? It Could be the Lights." New York Times. Feb. 8, 1996.

Lehrer, Jonah.  "A Talk with Kelly Bulkeley." Boston Globe.  Nov. 2, 2008.

Moss, Robert. "Waking Up to our Dreams." Parade. Nov. 7, 2007.

Nicolson, Christie. "Strange But True: Less Sleep Means More Dreams." Scientific American. Sept. 20, 2007.

Norton, Amy. "Anxious Babies Have More Bad Dreams as Preschoolers." Reuters. Jan. 11, 2008.

Schaffer, Amanda. "Why Do We Sleep?" Slate.com. March 26, 2007.

"Sleepwalking Defense in Arizona Murder Trial." CNN.com. May 25, 1999.

Smith, Lewis. "Fish Enjoy a Good Night's Sleep and a Lie-in, Even if their Eyes are Open." TimesOnline. October 16, 2007.

"Why Should We Have Eight Hours' Sleep?" BBCNews. April 12, 2007.

Apuleius. Cupid and Psyche.

Balzac, Honoré de. "L'Auberge rouge [The Red Inn]."

---. Louis Lambert.

---. Maître Cornelius [Master Cornelius].

---. La Peau de chagrin [The Magic Skin].

---. Séraphîta.

---. Ursule Mirouët.

Barthes, Roland. Fragments d’un discours amoureux. [A Lover’s Discourse].

Basile, Giambattista. “Sun, Moon, and Talia [Sole, Luna, e Talia]."

Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Circular Ruins."

Calderon, Pedro. Life is a Dream.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

---. Sylvie and Bruno.

---. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.

Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

--. "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon."

--. "The Minority Report."

Duranti, Francesca. Left-Handed Dreams.

Gaiman, Neil, et. al. The Sandman.

Gautier, Théophile. "The Coffee Pot."

---. "The Dead in Love."

---. "The Hashish Club."

---. Mademoiselle de Maupin.

---. "The Mummy's Foot."

---. "Omphale."

---. "Onuphrius."

Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de. Germinie Lacerteux.

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. “Dornröschen [Briar Rose]."

Hesiod. Theogony.

Hoffmann, E.T.A. “Der Sandmann [The Sandman].”

Homer. Iliad.

---. The Odyssey.

Maupassant, Guy. "Le Horla [The Horla]."

McNeil, Carla Speed. Finder.

Nerval, Gérard de. Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie. [Aurélia or Dream and Life].

Nodier, Charles. La Fée aux miettes. [The Crumb Fairy].

---. “Smarra.”

---. “Trilby.”

Ovid. Metamorphoses.

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club.

Perceforest.

Perrault, Charles. “La Belle au bois dormant [The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood]."

Piercy, Marge. Woman on the Edge of Time.

Proust, Marcel. Du Côté de chez Swann [Swann's Way].

---. La Prisonnière. [The Prisoner].

Sand, George. Lélia.

Schnitzler, Arthur. Dream Story.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth.

--. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Sleep: Bedtime Reading, edited by Peacock and Gorman

Stoker, Bram. Dracula.

Virgil. Aeneid.

Zola, Emile. L’Assommoir.

--. La Faute de l’abbé Mouret. [The Sin of Father Mouret].

---. Nana.

Aristotle. Aristotle on Sleep and Dreams.

Artemidorus. The Interpretation of Dream: Oneirocritica.

Bertrand, Alexandre. Du Magnétisme animal en France. [On Animal Magnetism in France].

---. “Du Sommeil, considéré particulièrement sous le point de vue psychologique.” [“Sleep Considered Particularly from a Psychological Point of View”].

---. Traité du somnambulisme. [Treatise on Somnambulism].

Brierre de Boismont, A. Des Hallucinations ou Histoire raisonnée des apparitions, des visions, des songes, de l’extase, des rêves, du magnétisme et du somnambulisme. [On Hallucinations, or a Reasoned History of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism and Somnambulism].

Cérise, Laurent. Preface. Du Sommeil, des rêves et du somnambulisme dans l’état de santé et de maladie. [On Sleep, Dreams and Somnambulism in the States of Health and Illness].

Chabert, Philibert. Du Sommeil. [On Sleep].

Charma, Antoine. Du Sommeil. [On Sleep].

Delboeuf, Joseph. Le Sommeil et les rêves, considérés principalement dans leurs rapports avec les théories de la certitude et de la mémoire. [Sleep and Dreams, Considered Principally in their Relationships with the Theories of Certainty and Memory].

Deleuze, J.P.F. Histoire critique du magnétisme animal. [Critical History of Animal Magnetism].

---. Instruction pratique sur le magnétisme animal. [Practical Instruction on Animal Magnetism].

Fournel, J.F. Essai sur les probabilités du somnambulisme magnétique, pour servir à l’histoire du magnétisme animal. [Essay on the Probabilities of Magnetic Somnambulism in the Service of the History of Animal Magnetism].

Gauld, Alan. A History of Hypnotism.

Hervey de Saint-Denys. Les Rêves et les moyens de les diriger. [Dreams and Ways to Control Them].

Lélut, L.-F. Du Démon du Socrate: Specimen d’une application de la science psychologique à l’histoire. [On Socrates’s Demon: An Example of the Application of the Science of Psychology to History].

---. Mémoire sur le sommeil, les songes et le somnambulisme. [Paper on Sleep, Dreams and Somnambulism].

Lemoine, Albert. Du Sommeil au point de vue physiologique et psychologique. [On Sleep, from a Physiological and Psychological Point of View].

Lepelletier de la Sarthe, Almire. Traité de physiologie médicale et philosophique. [Treatise on Medical and Philosophical Physiology].

Liébeault, Ambroise-Auguste. Du Sommeil et des états analogues considérés surtout au point de vue de l’action du moral sur le physique. [On Sleep and its Analogous States with Special Consideration given to Moral Action on the Physical].

Macario, M[aurice] M[artin] A[ntonin]. Du Sommeil, des rêves et du somnambulisme dans l’état de santé et de maladie. [On Sleep, Dreams and Somnambulism in the States of Health and Illness].

Macnish, Robert. The Philosophy of Sleep.

Maury, Alfred. Le Sommeil et les rêves. [Sleep and Dreams].

Maury, Alfred. “Le Somnambulisme naturel et l’hypnotisme.” [“Natural Somnambulism and Hypnotism”].

Moreau de Tours, J. Du Hachisch et de l’aliénation mentale. [On Hachisch and Mental Alienation].

---. “De l’Identité de l’état de rêve et de la folie.” [“On the Identity of the State of Dream and Madness”].

Nodier, Charles. “Des Hallucinations et des songes en matière criminelle.” [“On Hallucinations and Dreams in Criminal Matters”].

---. "De Quelques phénomènes du sommeil." [“On Some Phenomena of Sleep”].

Noizet. Mémoire sur le somnambulisme et le magnétisme animal. [Paper on Somnambulism and Animal Magnetism].

Opoix, Christophe. L’Ame dans la veille et dans le sommeil. [The Soul in Wakefulness and Sleep].

Puységur, A.M.J. Chastenet de. Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire et à l’établissement du magnétisme animal. [Memoires to Serve as the History and the Establishment of Animal Magnetism].

---. Recherches, expériences et observations physiologiques sur l’homme dans l’état de somnambulisme naturel et dans le somnambulisme provoqué par l’acte magnétique. [Research, Experiments and Physiological Observations on Man in the State of Natural Somnambulism and in Somnambulism Provoked by the Magnetic Act].

Tardy de Montravel. Essai sur la théorie du somnambulisme magnétique. [Essay on the Theory of Magnetic Somnambulism].

Thorpy, Michael J. “History of Sleep and Man.”

Tissot, Clément Joseph. Effets du sommeil et de la veille dans le traitement des maladies externes. [Effects of Sleep and Wakefulness in the Treatment of External Illness].

Caldwell, J. Paul. Sleep.

Dement, William and Christopher Vaughan. The Promise of Sleep.

Gackenbach, Jayne and Stephen LaBerge. Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain : Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming.

Hobson, J. Allan. Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep.

--. Dreaming as Delirium: How the Brain Goes Out of its Mind.

Jouvet, Michel. The Paradox of Sleep: the Story of Dreaming.

LaBerge, Stephen and Howard Rheingold. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

Lavie, Peretz. The Enchanted World of Sleep.

Turek, F.W. and P. C. Zee, eds. Regulation of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms.

Van De Castle, Robert. Our Dreaming Mind.

Wehr, Thomas A. "A 'Clock for All Seasons' in the Human Brain."

Bell, Diane. Daughters of the Dreaming.

Bulkeley, Kelly, ed. Among All These Dreamers: Essays on Dreaming and Modern Society.

--, ed. Dreams: A Reader on Religious, Cultural, and Psychological Dimensions of Dreaming.

--. Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology.

--. The Wilderness of Dreams: Exploring the Religious Meaning of Dreams in Modern Western Culture.

Dewdney, Christopher. Acquainted with the Night: Excursions through the World after Dark.

Ekirch, A. Roger. At Day's Close: Night in Times Past.

Epel, Naomi, ed. Writers Dreaming.

Lambert, Johanna, ed. Wise Women of the Dreamtime: Aboriginal Tales of the Ancestral Powers.

Lawlor, Robert. Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime.

Miller, Patricia Cox. Dreams in Late Antiquity.

O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities.

Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal and Mark Dahlby. The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.

Ripa, Yannick. Histoire du rêve: Regards sur l’imaginare des Français au XIXe siècle. [History of Dream: A Look at the French Imaginary of the 19th Century].

Shafton, Anthony. Dream-singers: the African-American Way with Dreams.

Shulman, David & Guy Stroumsa, ed. Dream Cultures: Explorations in the Comparative History of Dreaming.

Tedlock, Barbara, ed. Dreaming: Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations.

Tonkinson, Robert. The Mardu Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia's Desert.

Worthman, Carol M. and Melissa K. Melby. "Toward a Comparative Developmental Ecology of Human Sleep."

Young, Serinity. Dreaming in the Lotus: Buddhist Dream Narrative, Imagery & Practice.

Eyes Wide Shut
1999

After a Manhattan physician learns of his wife’s near-infidelity, he takes a trip through the realm of his unconscious sexual fantasies. Kubrick’s last film is based on Schniztler’s Dream Story.

IMDB Information

La Double Vie de Véronique. [The Double Life of Véronique]
1991

Kieslowski explores the themes of duality and fate in this dreamlike tale of Véronique and Veronika, doubles who do not know of each other’s existence.

IMDB Information

La Cité des enfants perdus. [City of Lost Children]
1995

Krank is incapable of dreaming. He kidnaps children and steals their dreams, but gains only their nightmares because they fear him. When the little brother of circus strongman One is kidnapped, the strongman sets off to rescue him and the other children.

IMDB Information

Here you can access the primary text library catalog by subject:

Anthropology/Culture/Religion 

Art

Contemporary Sleep and Dream Science

Films

History of Sleep and Dream

Literature/Stories

News Articles

Philosophy

Psychology

Brazil
1985

By day Sam Lowry is a lowly clerk in a nightmarish bureaucratic machine. In his dreams, he is a winged superhero who rescues a beautiful woman. One day, however, Sam sees his dreamgirl in the flesh, and the boundaries between his waking life and dream life begin to break down. In Terry Gilliam’s anti-statist dystopia, the dream world of madness is the only place where one can be free.

IMDB Information

Buy from Amazon

Blade Runner
1982

Ridley Scott’s science fiction classic sends retired Blade Runner Deckard on a mission to find and terminate four escaped replicants. Based on Philip K. Dick’s short story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” this stunning film noir probes the nature of humanity, and includes one intriguing dream sequence.

IMDB Information

Buy from Amazon

A Beautiful Mind
2001

This is an adaptation of Sylvia Nasar’s biography of John Nash, the Princeton mathematician and Nobel prize winner who also suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. By following the viewpoint of Nash, the film takes the viewers along his descent into madness, which is characterized not only by paranoid conspiracy theories, but also by an inability to distinguish reality from delusion.

IMDB Information

Buy from Amazon

Abre los ojos

1997

Handsome playboy César suffers a disfiguring accident just after meeting the girl of his dreams, Sofia. After a bout of depression, things start to look up when doctors restore César's face, and when Sofia falls in love with him. However, just as his fortune changes, César's sense of reality falls apart. Is he awake, or dreaming? Or something else? Told partially in flashback, Amenábar's film was the inspiration for Cameron Crowe's 2001 Vanilla Sky.

IMDB information

Buy from Amazon

Abre los ojos. [Open Your Eyes]. Dir. Alejandro Amenábar. Canal+ España, 1997.

A Beautiful Mind. Dir. Ron Howard. Universal Pictures, 2001.

Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Blade Runner Partnership, 1982.

Brazil. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Embassy, 1985.

La Cité des enfants perdus. [City of Lost Children]. Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Club d’Investissement Média, 1995.

La Double Vie de Véronique. [The Double Life of Véronique]. Dir. Krzystof Kieslowski. Sidéral, 1991.

Eyes Wide Shut. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Warner Bros. Pictures. 1999.

Insomnia. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Alcon, 2002.

Man of La Mancha. Dir. Arthur Hiller. PEA, 1972.

The Matrix. Dir. Wachowski Brothers. Warner Brothers, 1999.

Minority Report. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Cruise/Wagner Productions, 2002.

Mulholland Dr. Dir. David Lynch. Les Films Alain Sarde, 2001.

Passion of Mind. Dir. Alain Berliner. Lakeshore, 2000.

La Science des rêves [The Science of Sleep]. Dir. Michel Gondry. Partizan, 2006.

Sleeping Beauty. Dir. Clyde Geronimi. Walt Disney, 1959.

Spellbound. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick International Pictures, 1945.

Twelve Monkeys. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Atlas, 1995.

Until the End of the World. Dir. Wim Wenders. Argos, 1991.

Vanilla Sky. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Cruise/Wagner, 2001.

Waking Life. Dir. Richard Linklater. Fox Searchlight, 2001.

The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. MGM, 1939.

Yume. [Dreams]. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa USA, 1990.