Why do we sleep and dream? What happens during sleep? And how have attitudes to sleep and dreaming changed over time and across the continents?
 
In a work that spans almost 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 56 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate broad trends and nuances of the history of sleep and dreaming from antiquity to the present. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.
 
The six volumes cover: 1. Antiquity (800 BC – 600 AD); 2. Medieval Ages (600 – 1500); 3. Early Modern Age (1500 – 1765); 4. Age of Revolutions (1765 – 1860); 5. Modern Age (1860 – 1945); 6. Age of Globalization (1945 – present).
 
Themes (and chapter titles) are: sleep patterns and regulations; sleeping arrangements; health and the body; insomnia; dream theories, their meaning and interpretation; written representations; visual representations; the impact of sleep and dreams.
 
The page extent for the pack is approximately 2,016pp. Each volume opens with notes on contributors and an introduction and concludes with notes, bibliography, and an index.
 
The Cultural Histories Series
A Cultural History of Sleep and Dreaming is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.https://www.bloomsburyhistory.com/bloomsbury-cultural-history).