Sleep and Dreams
2004–2005
Topic Director:
Hans P.A. Van Dongen
Research Associate Professor of Sleep
and Chronobiology, University of Pennsylvania School
of Medicine
Despite the large amount of time we
spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about
sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however.
Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of
the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual
or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of
(sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased.
The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely
as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters
with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams
for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather
information from the spirits.
Sleep and dreams have
defined eras, cultures, and individuals. Sigmund Freud’s
interpretation of dreams revolutionized twentieth-century
thought. Historical archives record famous short sleepers
and notable insomniacs—some accounts reliable,
some not. When Benjamin Franklin counseled, “Early
to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise,” he was using sleep habits to symbolize
his pragmatism.
Important public policy
issues have arisen in our modern 24-hour society, where
it is crucial to weigh the value of sleep versus wakefulness.
Scientific knowledge about sleep is currently insufficient
to resolve the political and academic debates raging
about how much and when people should sleep. These issues
affect almost everybody, from the shift worker to the
international traveler, from the physician to the policy
maker, from the anthropologist to the student preparing
for an exam.
In the 2004–2005
Penn Humanities Forum on “Sleep and Dreams,”
we concern ourselves with representations of sleep,
metaphors used to describe sleep, and sleep as a metaphor
in itself. How do we study dreams, visions, and nightmares
in art or in life, and the approaches taken to their
interpretation? How does dreaming affect the dreamer,
and the resulting emotions, behaviors, and actions taken
or foregone in response to dreams?
In this Forum on Sleep
and Dreams, we explore how the diversity of academic
disciplines can help answer important questions about
sleep and dreaming—questions that may touch the
basis of human intellect. The Forum is fortunate in
having an expert on the psychophysiology of sleep and
dreaming, Hans Van Dongen, as the Topic Director for
2004–2005. His knowledge of advances in biomedical
sleep research (which is vibrant at Penn) will complement
the Mellon Fellows’ cultural and historical perspectives
on the subject arising from books, paintings, sculptures,
movies, music, and other forms of culture.
According to Professor
Van Dongen, the functions of sleep and dreams are still
largely unclear to scientists. Whereas artists and humanists
have long been concerned with sleep and dream states,
the sciences mostly ignored it until the discovery was
made that there is brain activity during sleep. It has
now been documented that sleep is a necessity for health,
for well-being, for the ability to think clearly—that
is, for the overall quality of wakefulness. While much
is known about the neurobiological underpinnings of
sleep and dreams, however, the reasons behind these
processes are still a mystery, and the question “what
are sleeping and dreaming for?” awaits definitive
answers. Under the circumstances, humanists have much
to offer, not only to each other but to science as well,
for the understanding of this fundamental aspect of
life.
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Programs & Fellows
2004–2005
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