The Enigma of Sleep (2004)

A chorus of characters tells the story of how sleep disorders have radically affected their lives: generations of an Italian family afflicted with a rare and lethal form of insomnia; a narcoleptic painter in Israel whose life is half dream, half reality; nocturnal encounters among a Swiss family of sleep-walkers; a one-time contender for the welter weight boxing championship in Italy, whose career was KO-ed by Narcolepsy; an Israeli man who is the world's only documented case of sleep without REM. What they're all looking for is a solution to the mysterious disturbances that afflict them. Thanks to developments in sleep science - which seeks answers in patients' sleeping lives - some sufferers can be cured. For others, however, sleep disturbances remain invincible, because even for the leading experts who appear in this documentary, sleep is still very much an enigma.