Sleep in Early Modern England
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780300220391
Subjects: Sleeping customs; Social change; England, social life and customs; Great britain, history, stuarts, 1603-1714; Great britain, history, 18th century
Description: "Drawing on diverse archival sources and material artifacts, Handley reveals that the way we sleep is as dependent on culture as it is on biological and environmental factors. After 1660 the accepted notion that sleepers lay at the mercy of natural forces and supernatural agents was challenged by new medical thinking about sleep's relationship to the nervous system. This breakthrough coincided with radical changes shaping everything from sleeping hours to bedchambers. Handley's illuminating work documents a major evolution in our conscious understanding of the unconscious"--