Worlds of Sleep

A rikshaw as a bed? A mobile phone as a teddybear? Nightly struggles with bedbugs? Worlds of Sleep investigates the sleep patterns of babies and businessmen, of mothers and daughters, of the industrious and the idle. Read how mighty knights and zealous preachers value sleep, what medicine men and modern scholars think of it. Explore what disturbs lovers' sleep and how refugees ensure their restful slumber. The eleven chapters present fascinating new insights into the social and cultural variations of the dormant side of life around the globe.

Lodewijk Brunt is Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He has conducted fieldwork in India for many years and has published on night-life. Brigitte Steger is University Lecturer in Modern Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge. She has published widely on sleep, incl. the award-winning (Keine) Zeit zum Schlafen? (LIT 2004). Steger and Brunt co-edited: Night-time and Sleep in Asia and the West (Routledge 2003; pb 2006)