Sleeping & Dreaming

Elusive Sleep

For a taste of what you would see in the 'Elusive Sleep' section of Wellcome Collection's 'Sleeping & Dreaming' gallery, take a look at key exhibits above.

Sleep cannot always be taken for granted. Throughout history, individuals have spent long nights unable to get to sleep. Disturbance caused by noise or vermin can be dealt with using relatively simple means. Personal sleep disorders, however, have become one of the most widely spread medical complaints. In spite of intensive research and a broad range of medications, universally effective sleeping tablets have still not been found.

We are used to sleeping in a bed of our own, but for large sections of the population in Europe, this was not a reality until the middle of the last century. Recent research into sleep, however, has found that individual sleeping conditions can bring with them not only a loss of intimacy, but also serious sleep disorders.