The great history of sleep part 2: Transition into medieval times

The Renaissance bridge from ancient to modern history

Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash

500 to 450 B.C.

One of the first scientific theories referred to sleep,

Alcmaeon of Croton,

A Greek doctor and philosopher had postulated that sleep is the result of blood on the surface of the body withdrawing into the interior…

Some one hundred years later..

“sleep is a seizure of the primary sense-organ, rendering it unable to actualize its powers, arising of necessity … for the sake of its conservation.”

-Aristotle-

The conservation part is very accurately anticipated, given what we now know about the restorative powers of sleep. Dreams were, and continue to be, even more mysterious than sleep itself.

1000

Raoul Glaber, wrote that he was plagued by a demon, who whispered to him:

“I wonder why you are so eager to jump so quickly out of bed, as soon as you’ve heard the signal, and to interrupt the sweet rest of sleep, while…