Book excerpt: The first authoritative review on the parasomnias - disorders that cause abnormal behavior during sleep - this book contains many topics never before covered in detail. The behaviors associated with parasomnias may lead to injury of the patient or bed-partner, and may have forensic implications. These phenomena are common but often unrecognized, misdiagnosed, or ignored in clinical practice. With increasing awareness of abnormal behaviors in sleep, the book fulfils the need for in-depth descriptions of clinical and research aspects of these disorders, including differential diagnosis, pathophysiology, morbidity, and functional consequences of each condition, where known. Appropriate behavioral and pharmacological treatments are addressed in detail. There are authoritative sections on disorders of arousal, parasomnias usually associated with REM sleep, sleep-related movement disorders and other variants, and therapy of parasomnias. Sleep specialists, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists and other healthcare professionals with an interest in sleep disorders will find this book essential reading.