In Snooze, McGirr delves into the mysterious world of sleep: its many benefits, its stubborn elusiveness and what our brains get up to while we're in bed. He takes readers on a tour through the odd sleep patterns of some of history's greatest figures, including Plato and Homer, Shakespeare and Dickens, Florence Nightingale (who slept a great deal) and Thomas Edison (who hardly slept at all). He looks at the demise of sleep in our ever more fragmented world, and what that means for everyone from average sleepers to those with serious sleep disorders.