The Mysteries of Sleeping and Dreaming Explored

Sleeping and Dreaming is the first of a two-part collaboration with the Hygiene Museum, Dresden, Germany’s national museum of health. The exhibition draws together 300 objects across five major themes [detailed below] and a public events programme, to enable visitors to explore the biomedical and neurological processes that take place in the sleeping body and the social and cultural areas of our lives to which sleep and dreams are linked.

The exhibition is displayed alongside Wellcome Collection’s two other permanent galleries Medicine Man and Medicine Now. Wellcome Collection combines these galleries together with the world famous Wellcome Library, a public events forum, café, bookshop, conference centre and members’ club to provide visitors with radical insights into the human condition.

Sleeping and Dreaming exhibits range from work by artists Ron Mueck and Goya through to a victim of sleep deprivation interrogation talking about his experiences; a vehicle designed to provide homeless people with a mobile place to sleep; bizarre alarm clocks (one of which fires a pistol to ensure the sleeper gets up) and a large bed that visitors can lie on and listen to traditional lullabies.

The exhibition is presented across five major themes:

Dead Tired: Is a life without sleep conceivable? Dead Tired features Peter Tripp, an American DJ who, in 1959, broke the world record for staying awake by going without sleep for eight days. Tripp, who was broadcasting during the attempt, is said to have become increasingly incoherent and to have begun hallucinating towards the end of the experiment. His record was broken by fellow American, Randy Gardener, who stayed awake for 11 days in 1964, and whose experiences are also featured in the exhibition. Dead Tired explores the issues of sleep deprivation and features a victim of Stasi sleep deprivation interrogation talking about his experiences.

World Without Sleep: Artificial lighting has radically changed our sleeping habits and work patterns. Daylight and the changing seasons have given way to alarm clocks and stimulants to keep us awake. The exhibition explores spectacular sleep experiments held in caves and bunkers during the 1930s through to sleep in the modern world, highlighted by the Japanese practice of inemuri, sleeping in situ regardless of the occasion, from business meetings to parliament. An interactive exhibit gives advice on jet lag and how to avoid it, while Paul Ramirez Jonas’ Another Day counts down the time to sunrise in 90 international cities. A collection of bizarre ‘Heath Robinson’ alarm clocks illustrate the ways in which people have woken through the ages. Examples include a clock that lights a candle, a clock that fires a pistol, and a device that transforms a gentleman’s pocket watch into an alarm clock.

Elusive Sleep: Having a bedroom, a dedicated place for sleeping, is a relatively new phenomenon, only becoming standard in the West in the mid 20th Century. But a bedroom does not guarantee sleep, and how do those without a regular place to sleep rest and dream? Elusive Sleep features Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Homeless Vehicle, a nomadic sleeping unit for homeless people which not only provides mobility, privacy and rest, but also functions as a political comment on social neglect. Nocturnal disturbances are also explored. A series of 1930s public health posters warn about the dangers of fleas and bed bugs alongside magnified examples of these insects. Insomnia and the increasing use of sleeping pills are also explored.

Dream Worlds: Dreaming challenges our rational model of the world. The laws of space and time are annulled and anything is possible. Sleeping and Dreaming examines how our dreaming and waking states intermingle: artists often attribute their creative ideas to nocturnal inspiration. Exhibits include Paul McCartney describing how the tune to the Beatles’ Yesterday came to him in a dream, while musician, Giuseppe Tartini and scientist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz, attribute great discoveries to dreams. Kekule, credited as the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure, said that the structure of carbon bonds in Benzene came to him in a dream as a snake biting its tale. The understanding of Benzene, and with it all aromatic compounds, provided a huge leap forward for chemistry. Also examined in the exhibition is Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. This publication, which is widely considered as Freud’s most important contribution to psychology, placed dream-analysis at the heart of a new and radical approach to understanding the unconscious.

Traces of Sleep: In mythology and popular culture, sleep is often associated with other states of unconsciousness and death. The exhibition explores these themes through exhibits ranging from Aristotle’s treatise on Sleep and Sleeplessness, in which he argues that sleep is caused by a cooling process taking place in the heart, through to Hans Berger’s revolutionary electroencephalogram (EEG machine). Berger’s machine, developed in the 1920s, showed for the first time that the brain never ceases to be active, even while we are asleep. His discovery debunked earlier science and set the scene for a new genre of sleep studies. Other exhibits include a 1930’s machine designed to tune the nerves to prevent sleepwalking and Ron Mueck’s compelling Swaddled Baby.

Collaboration with Hygiene Museum, Dresden, Germany
Wellcome Collection and the Hygiene Museum have developed a unique partnership with the aim of creating major exhibitions to be shown at both institutions. Drawing upon their own exceptional collections, these exhibitions will seek to engage the public on some of the most important issues relating to human health and wellbeing.

The Hygiene Museum developed Sleeping and Dreaming and Wellcome Collection, War and Medicine, details of which are yet to be announced. Sleeping and Dreaming was exhibited at the Hygiene Museum from 30 March – 3 October 2007 before coming to Wellcome Collection. War and Medicine will be on show from October 2008 – February 2009 at Wellcome Collection before moving to Dresden.

Registration required:

No

Free:

Yes