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Sleep and Sleeplessness in Byzantium (Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity)

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Description

In up to date decades certain historians have intimated that Byzantine society – and monastics in particular – suffered from a lack of sleep (whether described in negative terms as sleep deprivation or sleep abstinence). Sleep-abstinence surely permeated Byzantine society: it is encountered in each and every age, sex and class, at the side of its institutions, beliefs, practices, rituals, morals and mythologies. Then again, sleep is a biological phenomenon as well. One cannot possibly appreciate the Byzantines’ stance towards it, nor assess the veracity, aims and effectiveness of their ideas and attitudes in the case of sleep-abstinence, unless one is able to tackle the biological aspect. Moreover, without the biological aspect, the claim that the Byzantines were sleep-deprived is unattainable to substantiate. This book approaches this subject by the usage of a bio-cultural method, which combines sleep medicine with theology, history, and critical research, with a view to analyse the practice of sleep-abstinence and the attitudes towards sleep in Byzantium. That specialize in Greek documentary sources, this book investigates whether Byzantines did indeed practice sleep abstinence or sleep deprivation, and their rationales for curtailing their sleep. Chapters cover the mechanics of sleep in the modern world and in the ancient world, the place of monastic vigil, and the vigil of the laity.

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