Citation

Maclehose W. Interface Focus 2020; 10(3): e20190094.

Affiliation

Science and Technology Studies, University College, London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Royal Society)

DOI

10.1098/rsfs.2019.0094

PMID

32382404

PMCID

PMC7202388

Abstract

While the concept of 'stress' in the modern sense is a twentieth-century innovation, many of the symptoms we associate with the modern condition appear in historical materials going back many centuries. But how did premodern people understand and experience these symptoms and their relation to sleep? This study focuses on the rich materials from the central middle ages in Western Europe, a period during which understandings of the body, mind, emotions and sleep were radically different from the present. It analyses two examples, nightmares and insomnia, disease categories which illustrate medieval views of the impact of worries and anguish on sleep. Medical and other sources identified a number of ways in which the mind and body interacted with one another in complex ways which disrupted the humoral and mental balance of the individual.

© 2020 The Author(s).

Language: en

Keywords

anxiety; insomnia; medieval; nightmares; psychosomatic; worry