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SUMMARY:Sleep\, Insomnia and Wellbeing: Historical Perspectives - Brigitte
  Steger (University of Cambridge)\, Megan Leitch (Cardiff University)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240229T171500Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240229T181500Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7bb7e433-476a-47a6-9e58-660769936bf3/
DESCRIPTION:Abstracts:\n\nBrigitte Steger (University of Cambridge): “At
  night I lie in bed but cannot sleep” - Insomnia and loneliness in early
  Japanese literature \n\nIt is easy to think that the widespread problem o
 f insomnia today is due to the stress of our hectic lives and the 24-hour 
 nature of our societies\, whereas in pre-industrial times people naturally
  went to bed when it got dark and got up with the sun after a sound night
 ’s sleep. However\, Japanese literature of the Heian and Kamakura period
 s (9th to 14th century) depicts men and women of the nobility spending man
 y hours awake at night—on duty at the palace\, sitting on verandas admir
 ing the moon\, receiving visitors\, taking turns to tell stories\, playing
  music\, travelling on pilgrimages and in a myriad of other settings. Besi
 des such voluntary sleeplessness\, the aristocratic men and women of the c
 apital Heian (present-day Kyoto) suffered from insomnia. Complaints about 
 sleeplessness due to uncomfortable beds\, extremes of temperature\, commun
 al sleeping arrangements and houses that provided little protection agains
 t the weather and intruders\, however\, are all noticeable by their absenc
 e. The cause of their insomnia was overwhelmingly emotional. In this prese
 ntation I will demonstrate how it was the death of a parent\, an emperor
 ’s illness\, the absence of close friends and family and—above all—n
 eglect by a lover that robbed people of their sleep\, and how in poetry\, 
 novels and literary diaries\, a reference to one’s inability to sleep co
 uld also be employed metaphorically to express depth of feeling and aesthe
 tic sophistication.\n\n \n\nMegan Leitch (Cardiff University): ‘Sleeping
  it Off: Sleep\, Wellbeing and the Emotions in Middle English Literature
 ’\n\nThis paper explores the interrelations of sleep\, wellbeing and the
  emotions in later medieval English literature. In the humoral theory of t
 he body\, in which health and well-being were determined by an individual
 ’s fluctuating economy of liquids with emotional attributes\, sleep had 
 a powerful role to play in generating balance by transforming food into th
 e four humours during digestion. Thus\, while sleep was important for phys
 ical health\, sleep was also significant for mental health\, offering reli
 ef from the ‘unhealthful’ humours of melancholy and choler. While medi
 eval mentalities did not distinguish mental health from physical health in
  the same terms we do today\, in pre-Cartesian conceptions of the interrel
 ations of mind and body\, holistic views of health meant that the implicat
 ions of a bodily act such as sleep for emotional well-being were well reco
 gnised. Although this scientific paradigm was shared across medieval Europ
 e\, the literature of medieval England engages with it in distinctive ways
 .  \n\nAs a form of sorrow-making and anger-management\, sleep shapes subj
 ectivities and judgements in English romances\, cycle plays\, and dream vi
 sions. Attending to the ways in which sleep parallels\, as well as differs
  from\, swooning as an expression of strong emotion in medieval English re
 presentations helps to deepen our understanding of the emotive scripts to 
 which these two forms of unconsciousness contribute. Here\, sleep both off
 ers treatments and bodies forth truths about individuals that are cultural
 ly determined.  \n\n \nSpeakers:\nBrigitte Steger (University of Cambridge
 )\, Megan Leitch (Cardiff University)
LOCATION:Radcliffe Humanities (Colin Matthew Room)\, Woodstock Road OX2 6G
 G
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7bb7e433-476a-47a6-9e58-660769936bf3/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Sleep\, Insomnia and Wellbeing: Historical Perspectives -
  Brigitte Steger (University of Cambridge)\, Megan Leitch (Cardiff Univers
 ity)
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