"The Modernization of Western Sleep": Does Insomnia Have a History", 1915
during a symposium at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University in 2010. Specia... more during a symposium at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University in 2010. Special tribute is due Daniel J. Buysse, who has graciously shared his deep understanding of sleep with me over the past eight years. I could not have wished for a more splendid tutor. Any errors are mine alone.
The medical study of sleep and its disorders in Western culture during the Middle Ages and the Re... more The medical study of sleep and its disorders in Western culture during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance drew heavily from the writings of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, and other “ancients.” Most European texts devoted several pages to the topic of sleep, including discussions of its causes, functions, and disorders. Owing to illness, anxiety, and environmental annoyances, sleep deprivation was common, but treatments at best were primitive.
... No DOUBT THE DISASTROUS VOYAGE of the Swift seriously dampened the enthusiasm of British offi... more ... No DOUBT THE DISASTROUS VOYAGE of the Swift seriously dampened the enthusiasm of British officials for resuming convict transportation to America, but it was not the final act in the Moore-Salmon farce. After the fiasco ...
Although a universal necessity, sleep, as the past powerfully indicates, is not a biological cons... more Although a universal necessity, sleep, as the past powerfully indicates, is not a biological constant. Before the Industrial Revolution, sleep in western households differed in a variety of respects from that of today. Arising chiefly from a dearth of artificial illumination, the predominant form of sleep was segmented, consisting of two intervals of roughly 3 hours apiece bridged by up to an hour or so of wakefulness. Notwithstanding steps taken by families to preserve the tranquillity of their slumber, the quality of pre-industrial sleep was poor, owing to illness, anxiety, and environmental vexations. Large portions of the labouring population almost certainly suffered from sleep deprivation. Despite the prevalence of sleep-onset insomnia, awakening in the middle of the night was thought normal. Not until the turn of the nineteenth century and sleep’s consolidation did physicians view segmented sleep as a disorder requiring medication.
Our entire history is only the history of waking men. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg DURING THE FIRS... more Our entire history is only the history of waking men. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg DURING THE FIRST DAYS OF AUTUMN IN 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, at age twenty-seven, spent twelve days trudging through the Cévennes, France's southern highlands, despite having suffered from frail health during much of his youth. His sole companion was a donkey named Modestine. With Treasure Island and literary fame five years off, Stevenson's trek bore scant resemblance to the grand tours of young Victorian gentlemen. Midway through the journey, having scaled one of the highest ranges, he encamped at a small clearing shrouded by pine trees. Fortified for a night's hibernation by a supper of bread and sausage, chocolate, water, and brandy, he reclined within his "sleeping sack," with a cap over his eyes, just as the sun had run its course. But rather than resting until dawn, Stevenson awoke shortly past midnight. Only after lazily smoking a cigarette and enjoying an hour's contemplation did he fall back to sleep. "There is one stirring hour," he later recorded in his journal, "unknown to those who dweil in houses, when a wakeful infiluence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet," men and beasts alike. Never before had Stevenson savored a "more perfect hour"-free, he delighted, from the "bastille of civilization." "It seemed to me as if life had begun again afresh, and I knew no one in all the universe but the almighty maker."' Aside from spending the night outdoors, no explanation sufficed for the wistful hour of consciousness that Stevenson experienced in the early morning darkness. "At what inaudible summons," he wondered, "are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life?" Were the stars responsible or some "thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies? Even shepherds and old country-folk, who are the This article draws from a book I am writing, At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, for which I have been fortunate enough to receive fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Virginia Center for the Humanities.
... Hermon Husband to Lord Granville, Orange County, NC, Library of the marquess of Bath, Longlea... more ... Hermon Husband to Lord Granville, Orange County, NC, Library of the marquess of Bath, Longleat, Eng. ... the growing belief that America should be a white man's land devoid of Africans.'5 Despite his foreboding, the backcountry continued to grow at a rapid pace throughout the ...
"The Modernization of Western Sleep": Does Insomnia Have a History", 1915
during a symposium at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University in 2010. Specia... more during a symposium at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University in 2010. Special tribute is due Daniel J. Buysse, who has graciously shared his deep understanding of sleep with me over the past eight years. I could not have wished for a more splendid tutor. Any errors are mine alone.
The medical study of sleep and its disorders in Western culture during the Middle Ages and the Re... more The medical study of sleep and its disorders in Western culture during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance drew heavily from the writings of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, and other “ancients.” Most European texts devoted several pages to the topic of sleep, including discussions of its causes, functions, and disorders. Owing to illness, anxiety, and environmental annoyances, sleep deprivation was common, but treatments at best were primitive.
... No DOUBT THE DISASTROUS VOYAGE of the Swift seriously dampened the enthusiasm of British offi... more ... No DOUBT THE DISASTROUS VOYAGE of the Swift seriously dampened the enthusiasm of British officials for resuming convict transportation to America, but it was not the final act in the Moore-Salmon farce. After the fiasco ...
Although a universal necessity, sleep, as the past powerfully indicates, is not a biological cons... more Although a universal necessity, sleep, as the past powerfully indicates, is not a biological constant. Before the Industrial Revolution, sleep in western households differed in a variety of respects from that of today. Arising chiefly from a dearth of artificial illumination, the predominant form of sleep was segmented, consisting of two intervals of roughly 3 hours apiece bridged by up to an hour or so of wakefulness. Notwithstanding steps taken by families to preserve the tranquillity of their slumber, the quality of pre-industrial sleep was poor, owing to illness, anxiety, and environmental vexations. Large portions of the labouring population almost certainly suffered from sleep deprivation. Despite the prevalence of sleep-onset insomnia, awakening in the middle of the night was thought normal. Not until the turn of the nineteenth century and sleep’s consolidation did physicians view segmented sleep as a disorder requiring medication.
Our entire history is only the history of waking men. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg DURING THE FIRS... more Our entire history is only the history of waking men. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg DURING THE FIRST DAYS OF AUTUMN IN 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, at age twenty-seven, spent twelve days trudging through the Cévennes, France's southern highlands, despite having suffered from frail health during much of his youth. His sole companion was a donkey named Modestine. With Treasure Island and literary fame five years off, Stevenson's trek bore scant resemblance to the grand tours of young Victorian gentlemen. Midway through the journey, having scaled one of the highest ranges, he encamped at a small clearing shrouded by pine trees. Fortified for a night's hibernation by a supper of bread and sausage, chocolate, water, and brandy, he reclined within his "sleeping sack," with a cap over his eyes, just as the sun had run its course. But rather than resting until dawn, Stevenson awoke shortly past midnight. Only after lazily smoking a cigarette and enjoying an hour's contemplation did he fall back to sleep. "There is one stirring hour," he later recorded in his journal, "unknown to those who dweil in houses, when a wakeful infiluence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet," men and beasts alike. Never before had Stevenson savored a "more perfect hour"-free, he delighted, from the "bastille of civilization." "It seemed to me as if life had begun again afresh, and I knew no one in all the universe but the almighty maker."' Aside from spending the night outdoors, no explanation sufficed for the wistful hour of consciousness that Stevenson experienced in the early morning darkness. "At what inaudible summons," he wondered, "are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life?" Were the stars responsible or some "thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies? Even shepherds and old country-folk, who are the This article draws from a book I am writing, At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, for which I have been fortunate enough to receive fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Virginia Center for the Humanities.
... Hermon Husband to Lord Granville, Orange County, NC, Library of the marquess of Bath, Longlea... more ... Hermon Husband to Lord Granville, Orange County, NC, Library of the marquess of Bath, Longleat, Eng. ... the growing belief that America should be a white man's land devoid of Africans.'5 Despite his foreboding, the backcountry continued to grow at a rapid pace throughout the ...
This article, in noting the recent interest of historians in sleep, assesses both the difficultie... more This article, in noting the recent interest of historians in sleep, assesses both the difficulties and the advantages of studying human sleep in the past. The history of sleep affords important new perspectives not only on everyday life in earlier centuries but also on the underlying origins of contemporary sleep disorders, including middle-of-the-night insomnia.
... Although the subject of transportation has received intermittent attention from historians, l... more ... Although the subject of transportation has received intermittent attention from historians, little is known about the thousands of men and women who were exiled to the colonies. ... What types of offenses had they committed? What were their ages, sex, and occupations? ...
5a sesión del seminario "Diálogos noctámbulos. La vida social, cultural y biológica de la noche"
... more 5a sesión del seminario "Diálogos noctámbulos. La vida social, cultural y biológica de la noche"
Charla: What the Study of Sleep Can Learn from History Imparte: A. Roger Ekirch
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Charla: What the Study of Sleep Can Learn from History
Imparte: A. Roger Ekirch