North Carolina-based freelance writer Kelly Rae Chi became fascinated by the controversial idea that synapses weaken overnight, resetting the brain and improving learning the next day. But the effort to synthesize all the ideas in the field—the result of which is presented in "Disappearing before Dawn"—disrupted her sleep. "At some point in the process of writing this I was screaming in my sleep," she says. The hypothesis has gained traction since it was first put forward in 2003, she says, noting that it was exciting to highlight an idea that "has gained so much prominence in the sleep field over such a short period of time." Chi, a former intern at The Scientist, has written articles for Scientific American, Nature Methods, and other publications. After studying neurobiology and physiology, she earned a masters in medical journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Allan Pack, a professor at ...
