A chilling true story of medical abuse, psychological manipulation, and the women who refused to be silenced.
In the heart of postwar London, Dr. William Sargant was a revered psychiatrist with a glittering résumé. He was also a regular lecturer in the United States, where he was a visiting professor at Duke University and had close connections with the CIA.
But behind the doors of Ward Five at the Royal Waterloo Hospital, he orchestrated one of the most disturbing chapters in modern psychiatric history.
Known as the Sleep Room, this ward became the site of relentless experimentation. Women—many young, vulnerable, and without consent—were subjected to months of chemically induced sleep, interrupted only for electroconvulsive therapy and forced feedings. Their identities blurred, their memories fractured, and their lives forever altered.
Now, decades later, the survivors are speaking out. In this gripping investigation, journalist and novelist Jon Stock uncovers the dark legacy of Sargant’s methods, the institutional complicity that enabled them, and the haunting question: Were these women victims of rogue science—or pawns in a broader, state-sanctioned agenda?
The Sleep Room is a powerful blend of investigative journalism and survivor testimony, exposing the twisted intersection of medicine, power, and secrecy.
Praise
“A beautifully researched, wildly unsettling study of a psychiatrist running amok.”
—author of The Premonitions Bureau, Sam Knight
“A gripping medical biography that encompasses sex, drugs, brainwashing, intelligence operations, murder, and several scandals.”
—author of Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind, Frank Tallis
“A devastating account of the effects one unchecked psychiatrist had on vulnerable mental patients.”
—author of Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors, Lisa Appignanesi
“A chilling case study in dangerous psychiatry, Stock’s gripping exposé of the invasive and reckless interventions inflicted on women in The Sleep Room will keep you wide awake.”
—author of Patriarchy Inc. and Testosterone Rex, Cordelia Fine
"A gripping and harrowing account of a distinguished medical authority who pushed a therapeutic regime of electroshock, brain surgery, and mind-bending drugs to its limit and beyond.”
—author of Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind, Mike Jay
“It is to Stock’s great credit that he places patient testimony centre stage, allowing several patients to tell their stories at length in their own, unedited words.”
—The Guardian
“Shocking... a damning portrait of a man who, in the name of psychiatric progress, left a trail of broken lives in his wake.”
—Telegraph, five stars
“Compelling.”
—Sunday Times
“A gripping expose.”
—Financial Times
“ Lacerating.”
—Guardian Book of the Day, Blake Morrison
“Shocking investigation.”
—The Times, chosen as a best book of 2025
“With the thoroughness of top-notch journalism and the controlled tone of the best espionage fiction, Stock serves up one chilling anecdote after another. The result is an unforgettable glimpse into the heart of darkness.”
—Publisher's Weekly, starred review
“An emotionally powerful narrative that is equally as disturbing.”
—The Associated Press
“[The Sleep Room] investigates the alarming practices of an eminent British psychiatrist who believed in treating mental illness with high-risk physical interventions....makes for shocking reading."
—The New York Times Book Review
