The Air-Conditioned Nightmare is a memoir written by Henry Miller, first published in 1945, about his year-long road trip across the United States in 1940, following his return from nearly a decade living in Paris.

His agent reminded him of his plan to travel around the U.S. and record his impressions, predicting that publishers would be eager for a book on an expatriate's return to his own land.

[3] Miller started writing the book in Detroit and wrote most of it in the summer of 1941 in Hollywood, California, where he completed the yearlong trip.

[4] Many of the book's chapters originally appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Town & Country, Quarterly Review of Literature and The Harvard Advocate.

The collection of essays includes portraits of Miller's friends, assaults on the way of American life, and a long recollection of his years living in France.

[7] British guitarist and ex-Genesis member Steve Hackett released an instrumental song named "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare" on his 1981 album Cured.

Doldrums, the alias of Canadian electronic musician Airick Woodhead, titled his 2015 release The Air Conditioned Nightmare, with the album's themes of disconnection and mankind vaguely linked to Miller's book of the same name.