Despite the large number of people touched by them, sleep disorders are still little understood. The Enigma of Sleep offers a look into laboratories in Italy, France, Israel, and Switzerland, where researchers are trying to untangle the mysterious working of the brain in order to help those who suffer from such disorders.

Researchers interviewed include Dr. Peretz Lavie, the director of the Technion Sleep Laboratory in Haifa, Israel, which studies two thousand patients a year, six nights a week, and Dr. Michel Jouvet, an expert in Paris who has studied the functions of sleep and dreams for more than fifty years. The film provides a glimpse into patients’ broad-ranging sleep disorders, from narcolepsy and sleepwalking to a rare, lethal form of insomnia and the world’s only documented case of sleep without REM.

The Enigma of Sleep helps build an understanding of the pain of sleep deprivation and the extremes to which it manifests itself. Although science can treat and cure some sufferers, many sleep disturbances remain, even to the most experienced doctors and researchers, very much an enigma.

" Provides an interesting take on sleep disorders and is recommended. This would be a good addition to collections supporting health sciences."
‒ Educational Media Reviews Online

Western Psychological Association Film Festival, 2006