King heeft het volgende te zeggen over Dr. Sleep:
This is an idea that Ive had for some time. I wrote a novel in the 70s called The Shining I always wondered what happened to that kid, Danny Torrance, when he grew up and this story started to form. The book isnt finished yet, its called Dr. Sleep. This kinda goes back to: whats the worst thing you can think of? I knew that there were bad people in this story that were like vampires, only that what they sucked out was not blood, but psychic energy from special people like Danny Torrance. And I came to realize that these people were called The Tribe and that they move around a lot. Their leader is a woman called Rose [unintelligible] they all have these kinda pirate names, because pirates is sort of what they are.
The Shining verhaalt over Jack Torrance, een schrijver met een writer's block die zich samen met vrouw en kind terugtrekt in een verlaten hotel. Wanneer een sneeuwstorm het gezin van de buitenwereld afsluit, ontdekt Jack's zoon Danny, die helderziend is en telepathische krachten bezit, dat er geesten in het hotel rondspoken.