Sleep in Early Modern England

Handley Sasha

A riveting look at how the early modern world revolutionized sleep and its relation to body, mind, soul, and society 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.

About the Author

Sasha Handley is senior lecturer in early modern history at the University of Manchester. Her previous book is "Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-Century England". She lives in Manchester, UK.

Reviews

"Sasha Handley's 'Sleep in Early Modern England' is sewn together like a fine quilt. Each chapter on slumber invites another – Handley and the subject of sleep make good bedfellows. She guides the reader through the material culture of the early modern bedroom, detailing truckle beds, linen sheets, and other stuff that dreams were dreamt on. She bolsters our understanding of how, where and when people slept in the early modern period, and also of various other tidbits, such as of the role of pre-sleep prayers and the use of dimity bedcovers. We also encounter the nasties which lurked: the bedbugs and the rough sheets for the servants, made of coarse linen and marked with an 'S'. An enjoyable book" – Emily Cockayne, author of "Hubbub: Filth, Noise and Stench in England"

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