Sleep in Early Modern England

Handley, Sasha; Claudel, Matthew

doi:10.12987/yale/9780300220391.001.0001

Cited by 27 publications

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“…3 In the eighteenth century, the neurological view of sleepwalking as a symptom of nervous activity in the brain gave rise to the notion that sleepwalkers possessed particularly penetrating powers of perception. 4 The issues that the gentlemen raise in their discussion in the late seventeenth century position sleepwalking in another context. Here the behaviour of sleepers is significant in terms of what it could suggest about cosmological forces of sympathy and antipathy or the existence of personal spirits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TheNoctambuli: tales of sleepwalkers and secrets of the body in seventeenth-century England

Hunter

2020

The Seventeenth Century

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Seventeenth-century readers were fascinated by marvellous tales of people known as the noctambuli who rose up in their sleep, performed daily chores and attempted dangerous feats, such as clambering onto rooftops. On account of their uncanny nature, commentators noted that sleepers could be mistaken for spectres or those who had been bewitched. Depictions of the noctamubli were also influenced by the Malleus Maleficarum , which had argued that they were acting under the influence of demons and would fall if their Christian name was called. Medical texts explained this behaviour in terms of the escape of hot vapours within the body, the powers of the imaginative faculty, and the impairment of common sense during sleep. While this explanation was widely accepted, in the 1650s it was challenged by alternative views from esoteric writings, which conceptualised the movements of sleepers in terms of mystical powers within the body.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TheNoctambuli: tales of sleepwalkers and secrets of the body in seventeenth-century England

Hunter

2020

The Seventeenth Century

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“…The wide variety of sleep-related behaviour and its relationship to social and religious determinants has been explored in great detail by Sasha Handley (2016) for the early modern English society based on a variety of archival and other sources.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sleep in a 1‐year diary from the mid‐18th century

Schulz,

Dirlich

2023

Journal of Sleep Research

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SummaryA 1‐year systematic diary was kept by an anonymous diarist in Hamburg in the year 1755–1756. Sleep, activities, food intake, urine volume, and meteorological data were documented daily. The systematic recording of sleep and naps, with an accuracy of a quarter of an hour allowed analysis of the placement, duration, and consistency of sleep. The mean (range) night sleep duration was 6 (3–9) h. The distribution of sleep interruptions showed two peaks, short (≤30 min) and long (≥45 min) interruptions. The latter indicted nights with segmented sleep. Time in bed was subject to strong seasonal variations. Bedtime and rise time were earlier in summer than in winter and sleep latency was shorter in summer than in winter. However, sleep duration displayed a large spread in all seasons and did not differ substantially between summer and winter. Seasonal variations of sleep timing were related to the varying daylight hours during the year. Finally, the results of this individual case may prompt a more detailed investigation of the variability of sleep behaviour in the pre‐industrial period.

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Introduction

Fretz

2020

Palgrave Shakespeare Studies

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Sleep in Early Modern England

Cited by 27 publications

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TheNoctambuli: tales of sleepwalkers and secrets of the body in seventeenth-century England

TheNoctambuli: tales of sleepwalkers and secrets of the body in seventeenth-century England

Sleep in a 1‐year diary from the mid‐18th century

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