ABSTRACT
It is one thing to document changing theories and explanations of sleep, quite another to trace or tap into changing patterns and practices of sleep across the centuries – a doubly difficult task in fact given that precious little has been written directly on these dormant matters by historians themselves. If sleep constitutes a third of our lives, then, one might say, a third of the past is missing from the history books. Thankfully, however, things are not quite as dire or as desperate as that. There are indeed many different sources we can turn to for direct and indirect glimpses or testimonies of sleep in the past, sources taken together that help us recover or reclaim the ‘hidden history’ of sleep. When, how, where and with whom did people sleep in the past? These are some of the questions this chapter seeks to address if not fully answer.
