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.
Keywords: History; Segmented sleep; Sleep; Sleep disorder.
Copyright © 2018 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.