The Enigma of Sleep
A film by Enrico Cerasuolo and Sergio Fergnachino
Produced by ZENIT in association with LES FILMS D'ICI/ZDF/ARTE/ DISCOVERY CHANNEL, YLE TEEMA, RTSI. International distribution by GA&A.
Sleep disorders are little understood although the lives of many people are dramatically affected by them. This fascinating documentary brings us to 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 these disorders.
Dr. Peretz Lavie is a sleep researcher and the director of the Technion Sleep Laboratory in Haifa, Israel. His state-of-the-art lab studies 2,000 patients a year, six nights a week. We watch these forlorn, sleep deprived human beings, rigged to scientific instruments, as they try to accomplish in the lab what most people do naturally amidst the comforts of home. Dr. Michel Jouvet in Paris has studied the functions of sleep and dreams for over fifty years. He discusses the interest in dreams going back to early man
One patient we see suffers from narcolepsy; he never knows what activity will be interrupted by a sudden "fall" into sleep. Another is a sleep walker whose life is half dream, half reality. One woman has the only documented case of sleep without REM. The result is that she never has the benefit of a restorative rest. One patient from a family afflicted for generations with a rare, lethal form of insomnia, remembers relatives who didnšt sleep for months; their fatigue was catastrophic and incomprehensible. Sleep apnea, when the patient may "forget" to breathe during sleep, is also treated.
The documentary gives an understanding of the pain of sleep deprivation, and the extremes to which it may be manifest. Science can treat and cure some sufferers. For others, sleep disturbances remain incurable because even for the doctors in this film, sleep is still very much an enigma.
52 min. Video or DVD. Sale $295. Video rental $85.
Western Psychological Association Film Festival, 2006
" 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
