Educational Media Reviews Online

The Mystery of Sleep provides a basic overview of what sleep is, what early research was fundamental to our understanding, and what characterizes some sleep disorders. This basic overview of these concepts suggests that this film is intended for high school level students; however, the presentation is somewhat dry, making The Mystery of Sleep a difficult film to recommend without some hesitation. It attempts to be an introduction, but in an effort to be comprehensive, the film comes across as slight.

Although released in 2010, much of the footage looks dated—both in video quality and in the way people are dressed—calling into question the validity of the information and contributing to its questionable appropriateness for instruction.

The film’s strength lies in the early section which details some early sleep research, primarily the work of Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman during the 1950’s. Given the cursory feel of much of the film, this section offers information that most people are likely unfamiliar with.

The other two main sections, one about dreams and one about sleep disorders, don’t delve deeply enough to be compelling. The film relies heavily on describing dreams and describing symptoms of well-know abnormalities, such as insomnia and narcolepsy, but does not thoroughly examine what the causes might be. The Mystery of Sleep definitely adheres to the premise of the title, positioning sleep as something we know very little about; however, one can’t help but suspect that scientists and psychologists know more about sleep, dreams, and sleep disorders than is presented here. Other documentaries, such as NOVA’s What Are Dreams from 2009, clearly show that we have come to some understanding of why we sleep and what happens when we do.

The Mystery of Sleep may be useful as an introductory text, but only in the hands of a skilled instructor who may be able to navigate students through some of the shortcomings.