Starring Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou and Alain Chabat, the film stems from a bedtime story written by Sam Mounier,[4][5] then 10 years old.

Stéphane Miroux (Gael García Bernal) is a shy young man whose vivid dreams often interfere with his waking life.

Stéphane had been told it was a creative job and shows his new colleagues his drawings, a collection of twelve illustrations depicting unique disasters.

Stéphane's dreams begin to encroach on his waking life, making him unsure of reality and whether Stéphanie's feelings for him are real.

To Stéphane's surprise, the calendar manufacturer accepts his "disasterology" idea and the company has a party in his honor, but he begins drinking excessively after he witnesses Stéphanie dancing with another man.

As his antagonistic behaviour pushes her, Stéphanie asks Stéphane to leave but he climbs into her bed, noticing two items on her bedside: his one-second time machine, and the finished boat they planned to use in their animated film.

The website's critics consensus, "Lovely and diffuse, Sleep isn't as immediately absorbing as Gondry's previous work, but its messy beauty is its own reward.

He later states, "What I'm trying to say is that 'The Science of Sleep,' for all its blithe disregard of the laws of physics, film grammar and narrative coherence, strikes me as perfectly realistic, as authentic a slice of life as I've encountered on screen in quite some time."

Scott argues that the film's loose connection of events and misleading narrative are appropriate for its themes: "Plot summary, therefore, is both irrelevant and impossible.

"[9] Many other critics have stated that the film's plot is hard to understand, but Gondry's grasp of emotions and visuals is what makes the story unique and profound.

The name was given by a Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, who wanted to distinguish his studies from Freud's psychoanalytic theories.