If we could actually film what’s going in inside the sleeping brain, science now tells us, it would be closer to an action film than a quiet independent movie. Still, even I have to admit that sleep isn’t the most cinematic activity in the world. But that doesn’t mean the topic of sleep has escaped Hollywood’s attention. From insomnia to nightmares to quirky sleeping methods to horrifying wake-ups, the movies are full of sleepy scenes. And that only makes sense, because sleep is something we all have in common. As I say in my book The Sleep Revolution, it’s one of humanity’s great unifiers, even more universal than our love of storytelling and glowing screens. And there’s plenty to learn about sleep from movies, both good and bad. Following are some of my favorite movie scenes that are in some way about sleep. Check them out, but not right before you go to bed. (The blue light from screens—not good for your sleep!)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s
I love this scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s when Holly Golightly is awakened by a phone call. She’s spent the night partying, which is a “don’t” for healthy sleep, but I do love her fabulous eye mask—a great tool for blocking out light. Would that we could all look as great as Audrey Hepburn does in one.

The Holiday
There’s a great scene in The Holiday in which Kate Winslet’s character arrives in L.A. from London. Jet-lagged and in need of sleep, she presses a button by this beautiful plush bed and, to her delight, sees all the (blackout) shades in the bedroom come slowly down. The look of relief and joy on her face made me wish I had the same shade setup at home.

Home Alone
In Home Alone, a power outage causes the McCallister parents to oversleep and nearly miss their flight to Paris. Their panic upon waking up—“We slept in!” they say to each other in unison—is familiar to all of us. And, as we all know, the ensuing chaos causes Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) to be left … home alone. On the one hand, yes, we all need to catch flights. On the other, it’s nice to be freed from the tyranny of alarm clocks every so often, even if it’s accidental!

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
At the beginning of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris tries to get his friend Cameron, who is sick in bed, to come over. Cameron refuses, but after they hang up, he sings this little song to himself in bed, like a chant or a mantra: “When Cameron was in Egypt’s land … let my Cameron go.” Having a morning ritual, before we grab our phones and start our day, is a great habit. (I do a few minutes of breathing.) And it works for Cameron: he rallies, and winds up helping Ferris Bueller have a legendary day off.

Groundhog Day
I love the running series of scenes of the alarm clock hitting six A.M. in Groundhog Day (as “I Got You Babe” begins to play). What’s great is Bill Murray’s escalating reaction: throwing it off the table and finally smashing it to bits. We’ve all been there with alarm clocks. But we can’t smash them now—even though, for the sake of our sleep, we probably should—because for most of us they’re also our phones.

The Godfather
One sleeping don’t: don’t refuse to cast Johnny Fontane in your movie when asked to by Vito Corleone. In what might be the worst wake-up scenario in film history, producer Jack Woltz regains consciousness only to realize he’s been joined in bed by the severed head of one of his prize horses. The scene is even more jarring because of the beautiful dawn light and soft sounds of crickets as the camera takes us inside Woltz’s mansion. It’s a reminder there are worse things to wake up to than a jarring iPhone alarm.

The Matrix
It’s not literally about sleep, but when I came to my own epiphany about sleep, it changed everything. I might as well have swallowed the red pill in The Matrix. When Morpheus first describes being trapped in the Matrix to Neo, it’s as if he’s talking about the all-too-familiar condition of perpetual sleep deprivation: it’s “a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch—a prison for your mind.” I’m glad I finally took the red pill—and there’s no going back now.

Rear Window
One of my sleep “hacks,” which I began doing not long ago, is to stop sleeping in gym clothes in favor of proper pajamas. It lets your mind and body know it’s bedtime. And pajamas have rarely looked as glamorous as they do in Rear Window, when the incredibly beautiful Grace Kelly tells the incredibly handsome James Stewart (who’s wearing pajamas most of the movie, as he convalesces): “I’m going to stay with you tonight.” To figure out the mystery outside his window, naturally. When Stewart replies, “I won’t be able to give you any pajamas,” Kelly opens her Mark Cross overnight case and takes out a gorgeous-looking peach silk nightgown, with matching slippers. “I trade you: my feminine intuition for a bed for the night,” she says. “I’ll go along with that,” he answers. We never do find out how well they slept.