Alice Vernon frequently awakens to find strangers in her room. Her nights have been haunted by nightmares of an adolescent figure, sinister hallucinations, and episodes of sleepwalking since she was a child. These are referred to as 'parasomnias,' and they are surprisingly common. Vernon, now a Creative Writing lecturer, set out to understand the history, science, and culture behind these strange and haunting experiences. Her startling and vivid debut, Night Terrors, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from strange 'cures' like magical'mare-stones' to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. She investigates the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis along the way.