Sleep: A Sociological Interpretation.

I
Author(s): Vilhelm Aubert and Harrison White
Source: Acta Sociologica, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1959), pp. 46-54
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
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Sleep: A Sociological Interpretation'). I.
by Vilhelm Aubert and Harrlson White

"Night, having Sleep, the brother of Death. From whose eyelids also as they
gazed dropped love." This beautiful cryptic passage in Hesiod2) seems full of
unexplored meanings, some of which must concern even a sociologist. To face
"the brother of Death" once a day is certainlynot a trivial task, nor one which
the individual can manage alone, without social support, no more than he can
face death itself alone, without funeral ceremonies, rituals of bereavementor
philosophies of the passing away. The social nothingnessof sleep, implied by the
comparison with death, points to a universal, recurrentabsence of interaction.
Sleep representsthe most common case of social isolation, thereby providing us
with a continuous experimentalsituation organized around the theme night and
day. Hesiod, however, did not restricthis perspectiveto the nothingnessof sleep.
He connectedthe state with love, just as our own vernaculardoes.
Let us be clearaboutthe startingpoint: Sleep is a physiologicalstate, a biological
necessity. So are sex, reproduction,illness, eating, aging and physical pain. The
physiological nature of these other states, however, has not prevented scientists
from demonstratingthat the manner in which they are enacted, and the ways in
which they impinge upon society are legitimate sociological concerns.Such is our
task with sleep, to demonstratethat it is more than a straightforwardbiological
activity.3) The thesis of this paper is that humansleep is an importantsocial event.

1) While this paper was being prepared for publication, Kaspar Naegele sent us a draft on
sleep in a sociological perspective. Like our paper, it originated at the Center for Advanced
Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California.
2) The Theogony. Line 910. This and most of the following literary references are from
Bartlett, Familiar Quotations. Cf. also Richard Broxton Onians, The Origins of European
Thought. About the Body, ihe Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Pate. Cambridge
1954, p. 422.
3) The need for doing so becomes clear when for example, in Time Budgets of Human
Behavior, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939, P. Sorokin and C. Berger dis-
miss the portion of time spent on sleep as of only physiological significance. In
their statistical tables on pages 192-197 in which the number of hours of participation
in each given activity is broken down according to types of motivation, to sizes of
participating group, and to types of social interaction involved, the entries opposite

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 If we returnto the literarytraditionfor a moment, it seems that the great poets
and writershave been much concernedwith sleep, and have adopted philosophical
and social viewpoints relative to the state. Hesiod was only one among the first,
known writers to cloth his worry about "the brother of Death" in poetical
language.4)
Cervantes developed another theme, the democratic nature of sleep: "Now
blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep! It covers a man all
over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; 'tis meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty,
heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. 'Tis the current coin that purchasesall
the pleasures of the world cheap; and the balance that sets the king and the
shepherd, the fool and the wise man even."5)
But sleep has also been viewed as reward for deserving conduct. The Psalmist
put it this way: "He giveth his beloved sleep."6) The aspect of social sanction is
also fairly clear when the Ecclesiastessays: "The sleep of a labouring man is
sweet." "But the abundanceof the rich will not suffer him to sleep."7) A very
forceful expression of the idea that lack of sleep is a punishment for evil is
given in Macbeth.8)
The literary tradition suggests, that to fall asleep is - in part at least - a
motivated act, and that the idea of sleep has been bestowed with moral, that is
social, connotations. The normal state of sleep means to occupy a culturally
determinedrole which includes the behavior in the transitionalperiods before and
after physiologicalsleep. The right to enter the state with full privileges further-
more is assumedto depend upon achievementsin the state of wakefulness.
Sometimes an individual may fall asleep as an autonomic reaction to great
exhaustion.Usually, however, falling asleep is not the fulfilling of an immediate
biological need, but a result of activities bearing many overt symptoms of role-
playing. Sarbin's characterizationof the hypnotic process applies well to falling
asleep: "In the hypnotic experiment the subject tries to take the role of the

the sleep heading are left blank. We find the same blindness to the significance of
sleep as a core activity of the family in the empirical monograph, Housing needs of
Western Farm Families, U. S. Agricultural Dep't., 1952: sleep is not even given a heading
as a Household Activity. Herbert Spencer, however, did include "Ideas of Sleep and
Dreams" among his "Data of Sociology". The Principles of Sociology. Vol. I, New York
1893, pp. 132-42.
4) Cf. in Bartlett quotations from Homer, Sophocles, Plutarch, Leonardo da Vinci, Bartho-
lomew Griffin, Shelley, Aristophanes, Swinburne, Shakespeare, Tennyson, John Donne,
Philip Freneau, Byron.
5) Don Quixote. Part II, Book IV. Chap. 68, Page 898.
6) The Bible: Psalms: CXXVII, 2.
7) The Bible: Ecclesiastes, III, 12.
8) Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act II, Sc. 2, Line 36 ff.

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hynotizedperson; the successof his striving is a function of- favorablemotivation,
role perception, and role taking aptitude".9) As concerns role perception, it is
rathermore than less likely to be adequatein the case of the sleeper than in the
case of the hypnotizedperson.
Going to sleep means going through a number of culturallydefined motions,
such as dressing in a certainway, modifying light and sound conditions,assuming
one of a limited numberof postures,closing ones eyes even in darkness,expressing
certainemotions and attitudestowardsothers, and so on. These motions, together
with the perceptions of the actual state of sleep, and motions associatedwith
awakening constitute the role of the sleeper. Since childhood most people have
been trainedto take this role, often with great difficulty. Ihe trainingof children
shows beyond any doubt that sleep at the proper place and time is not a process
which is being left to be determinedby biological needs alone.
The concept of role-playingis usually based upon the notion that incumnbents
of positions respond with consciousnessto expectationsfrom the social environ-
ment. This notion applies to peripheralsleep activities, but apparentlynot to the
content of deep sleep. Dreams are the most significant events occurringduring
deep sleep. To what extent are they socially meaningful events, in the sense that
they constitute a response to preceding social interactionor become meaningful
in subsequentsocial reality?
The existence of dreams presents man with several large philosophical issues.
The most importantone is the settlementof the realityof dreams.Which one is
the real world, against which to measurethe other one, that which we experience
when awake or that which we experiencewhen asleep?l0) It needs no elaboration
that the way in which this problem is settled has wide social ramifications.What
may be less obvious is that the way in which the problem is settled is - partly
determinedby culture, by socially shared norms and beliefs. Our culture gives a
ratherdefinite answer to the question: The world we experienceand nunipulate
in our waking life is the real world; and the world of the dreams is unreal and
irrational.Several non-literatecultures, however, give a different answer. "Thus
the Ashanti assumethat, if a man dreamsof having sexual intercoursewith another
man's wife, he will be fined the usual adultery fee, for his soul and hers have
had sexual intercourse."11)Here the assumptionof realityis closely connectedwith
9) Theodore R. Sarbin, "Contributions to Role-Taking Theory: I. Hypnotic Behavior".
Psychological Review. 57, 1950, pp. 255-70. Cf. also R. W. White, "A Preface to the
Theory of Hypnotism." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 36, 1941, pp. 477
-505; Andre M. Weitzenhoffer, Hypnotism. An Objective Study in Suggestibility. New
York and London, 1953, pp. 91 ff.
10) For a classic statement of the problem, cf. Blaise Pascal, Gedanken. Reclam, Stuttgart
1956, pp. 121-122.
11) Ralph L. Woods (Ed.), The World of Dreams. An Anthology. N.Y. 1947.

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the idea of responsibilityfor the content of dreams. This contrastssharply with
a much used phrase within western culture: "The one who sleeps does not sin."
Other non-literatecultures deal with the world of dreams in philosophical terms
analogous to those of the Ashanti. Still others have interpreteddrearmsas having
a meaning, not in relationto everyday,profane, reality, but as events taking place
in the realm of a supernaturalreality, towards which man is supposed to respond
actively also in everydaywaking life. In other words, the assumptionthat waking
life is real while life in dreamsis unreal, seems to be culturallydeterminedto some
extent, and not a necessaryderivation from the inherent physiological properties
of the states of sleep and wakelfulness.12)
We propose that the validity, reality, and responsibilityassociatedby a culture
with the supernaturalsleep world of dreams are in part a reflection of the con-
temporarysocial structure.We mean by validity the degree to which events in the
sleep world are perceived as a true guide to the waking world; by reality the
extent to which the sleep world is perceivedas cut of the same cloth as the waking
world; and by responsibilitythe extent to which individuals are rewarded and
sanctionedfor events in the sleep world. These three general attributesvary strik-
ingly from culture to culture: among the Ojibwa, children are encouraged to
develop pleasant dreamswhich may foretell reality,l3) while we have lost belief
in the direct validity of dreams;the Tikopia sleep in sex-avoidantpositions in the
buildings of female deitiesl4) and the lRwalaassert the danger of being made
an idiot by a full night's exposureto the sleep world,15) but the Woleaians attribute
no realityto dreams;'6) the Ashanti have reputedlykilled men for what occurred
in their dreamsl7) while the Tikopia do not punish even killing by a man awakened
from sleep by visions.18) Furthermore,these three attributesapparentlycan vary
independently,and in particularreality and responsibilitydo not necessarilygo
together as we can see from the Tikopia. Certainlythe general nature attributed
to the sleep world is tied to religion and other elements in contemporaryculture.

12) Cf. Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams. London & New York 1932; and
Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language. An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams,
Fairy Tales and Myths. New York 1951.
13) F. Densmore, Chippewa Customs. Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology (Bulletin
No. 86), 1929, p. 60.
14) R. Firth, The Work of the Gods in Tikopia. London: London School of Economics,
1940, p. 65.
15) A. Musil, The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins. New York: American
Geographical Society. Oriental Explorations and Studies, No. 6, 1928, p. 412.
16) L. Wyman, American Anthropologist, XXXVIII (1936), p. 651.
17) R. Woods, Op. cit.
18) E. E. Evans Pritchard (ed.), Essays Presented to C. G. Seligman. London: Paul, Trench,
Trubner and Co., 1934, p. 67.

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 But we assert that often this nature directly reflects the social structure.In our
sociey we deny the validity, reality, and responsibilityof sleep life. And in our
societythe achievemenitnorm rankshigh. Accordingto this patternthe justification
of social actions is to be made by referenceto intersubjectivelytestable perform-
ances or experiencesby the actor, not by referenceto inherent personalqualities
or cues from the divinities. Since dreamsare exempt from intersubjectivetestability
they form a poor basis for social actions of modernmen, and tend to be classified
as invalid, unreal events for which actor is not accountable.
The raw materialfor dreamsis in part taken from waking social life, the "day-
rest" of Freud. Stresses inherent in the statuses of individualswill be expressed
in dreams and, since the sleeper is relatively blameless, he may experience un-
acceptableand original solutions to waking conflicts. The degree to which this
may provide a guidance carriedinto social interactiondepends upon other aspects
of the philosophicaldefinitions of dreamsand the role of the sleeper. It may do
so by making the actor aware of his own motives relative to others or by making
him directly mention the dream as a mild social sanction of others.
Even if dreamsare interpretedas invalid descriptionsof outer reality, they may
be conceivedof as reliableexperiencesof the inner world of the sleeper,providing
insights possibly denied the person when awake. This raises the question of the
value assessmentof the dreamcontent. Are dreamsexpressionsof man's irrational
and evil aspectsor do they representwhat is good and insightful? Both points of
view have been maintainedamong philosophersand psychologists,probablycor-
respondingto a parallell duality in folk-theories.19)
Both the expectationthat sleep brings out the best and that it brings out the
worst in men, present social problems, in the first case mainly associatedwith
falling asleep, in the latter case mainly associatedwith awakening."- - in all
of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beastnature,which peers out in
sleep," said Plato. This may obviously cause - or support conflicts about
falling asleep, just as theories of the sinfulness of sex cause -or support -
sexual conflicts. In the fear of the lawless wild-beastmay lie one of the roots of
insomnia,a deviancefrom the normalsleep-pattern,usuallyinterpretedas a disease
subject to medical treatment.20)
If the optimistic theory of dream contents is accepted it may in our society
presentconflicts over leaving the role of the sleeper, moving from good to worse.
If dreamshave given new self-insights, which demandaction, how is one to find
groundson which to act, since dreanms do not furnishlegitimationin sociallyshared
experiences?The new psychologicaltheoriesof dreams,with a positive colouring,

19) Cf. Freud, Op. cit; and Fromm, Op. cit.

20) Cf. papers by Conn, Gilman, Karpnan and London in Jomrnal of Clinical Psycho-
pathology, 11, No. 2, 1950.

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may derive support from the increasedemphasis upon perceptionof the self as
a significant element of any actor'ssocial reality.
The transitionsto and from the physiological state of sleep are perceived as
hazardous,in part due to the cultural definition of the role of the sleeper. The
possible fears can crudely be classified as: fear of death or not awakening; fear
of separationfrom the everydayworld and loneliness; fear of helplessness and
passivity; fear of unacceptableinner impulses; fear of insomnia. These fears are
in part assuaged by the social structuressurroundingsleep, to which we shall
return later; and by soothing cultural patterns, like lullabies for children and
night-prayer.The Chagga of Tanganyikasleep with their heads pointed to Mt.
Kibo,21) and the Tikopia sleep on the graves or their ancestors,22)examples of
semi-religiouspracticesthought to ensure safe sleep. The artifacts of sleep such
as night clothes and bedding, and approved posturesof sleep may be viewed as
reassuringritual patterns,called forth by the latent fears which may be aroused
by the imminencyof sleep.
From the point of view of the sleeper the culturallyestablished kinship with
death, is a disturbingone. Fromthe point of view "mementomori", it is a soothing
and clarifyingnotion. Assuming that death requiressocial structuringand learning
in order to be accepted, we may view the bed as a training ground for dying;
in the words of Browne:
"Sleep is a death; oh make me try
by sleeping, what it is to die,
And as quietly lay my head
On my grave, as now my bed!"23)
A quiet death, and the dying person's resignationto his inevitable fate, appears
to be highly valued in our culture by the bereavedones.
The notion of sleep as a model of death, the new awakening,and immortality,
may possibly be carriedone step further.The diurnal cycle, with sleep as a focal
point, furnishes a miniature model af the life-cycle, of being born, maturing,
aging and dying. Such an over-alle perspectiveon life, anchoredin more concrete
experiences, seems necessaryin relation to man's long-term activities and social
co-ordinationin terms of roles appropriateto various stages in the life cycle.
These considerationsevoke a different problem, the phenomenologyof time
spent awake and asleep. All societies have some concept of time and apply it to
phenomenaviewed consciously.This subjectiveperceptionof time, however, seems
to breakdown in the state of sleep. There seems to be in our culturea fundamental

21) 0. Raum, Chagga Childhood.London: Oxford University Press, 1940.

22) R. Firth, We, The Tikopia. London: Allen and Unvin, 1936, p. 77, p. 90.
23) Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part 2, Sect. XII.

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ambiguity in the perception of time from the point of view of the sleeper. A
night may appear like an eternity, but it may also appear as no more than a
mrnment'sunconsciousness.For other cultures in which the homogenous time of
the clock and Newton is not so much or at all imbedded,the contrastbetween the
perceptionof time when awake and asleep may not be so great.
Sleep and wakefulness, night and day, may be perceived differently - even
from the outside - as scenes for the unfolding of time as a historical process.
Daytime is in some sense cumulative.The perceptionof self and others as grow-
ing, developing or, at least, aging, seems to refer to day-time, or time spent
awake, and ignores, by and large, time spent in sleep. Sleep-timeis predominantly
non-cumulative,almost withdrawn from the process of growth and aging. It is,
we surmise, perceived in static terms, as a scene of life to which one returns "in
the same place" over and over again. Comparing the two images of time, the
irreversiblyvanishing stream and the monotonously recurring pointer enclosed
by the circle of the clock,24) the former image appears more associated with day-
time, the latter image more with sleep-time - the wasted time. By this cultural
definition, sleep-time becomes a redeemer from the fears associated with the
inevitable passing of time and the definitive loss of the past, "le temps perdu".
In more than one sense sleep representsan encounterwith the past, a recurrent
regression,25) whereas daytime impressesupon actors the necessityto decide on
what to leave behind as parts of an incontrovertiblepast.
The qualitativebreakin time-conceptsbetweennight and day placesa formidable
social barrierbetween two successivedays and the social activitiesthey encompass.
The proper way to approachthis cyclical aspect of social systems,may be in terms
of Parson's "latency phase".26) We need a notion of this kind to explain that
social relationshipsare different after a period of no interactionfrom what they
would have been without this passed time, apparentlyvoid of social content.
Phenomenologicallythis is expressed in most cultures in the idea that to awaken
from sleep is to begin afresh, to start a new segment of activity with the past
partiallycancelled.Since sleep is in a different kind of time, each day'sevents tend
to have their own origin and significance, something more than merely filling in
a section in an endless stream of events.
24) Cf. Alfred Schuetz, ,,On Multiple Realities". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
Vol. V, 1944 45, pp. 533-576 esp. p. 540; Hubert Griggs Alexander, Time as Di-
mension and History. The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1945, pp. 6-7;
Pierre Auger, "Two Times, Three Movements". Diogenes, No. 19, 1957, pp.1-i7.
25) Cf. Freud's theory of sleep as a narcissistic regression to the mother's womb. B. D. Lewin,
"Sleep, Narcissistic Neurosis, and the Analytic Situation". Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 23,
1954, pp. 487-5 10.
26) T. Parsons, R. Bales, and E. Shils, Working Papers in the Theory of Action. Glencoe:
The Free Press, 1953, p. 185.

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 We may possibly view sleep as a communion rite in which minor sins and
cares are washed away. Among the Aleuts there is sometimesceremonialbathing
upon awakening.27) There are an abundanceof adages pointing in a similar
direction:"To-morrowis anotherday"; "He got out of the wrong side of the bed
this morning."The social function of this culturaltheme is probablyto introduce
greater flexibility into behavior, and providing a mechanism for reducing both
guilt and need of self-defence. Without a loss of status, an actor may start on a
new sequenceof behavior,even if it violates the normswhich he seemed to support
on the previous day when interactionwent into the latency phase. He "has slept
on it" and started "a new day".
With sleep goes irresponsibilityfor perceptionand action, in our culture. This
gives sleep and night-time a specific function in relation to innovation and creat-
ivity. Many artists, and some scientists, claim to have made importantcreative
stridesduring sleep or in the peripheralzones of sleep.28) No doubt this is related
to the physiologicalprocessof relaxation.However, culturaldefinitions play their
part, too. It appears,namely,that creativeworkershave shown an unusuallyhigh
preference for night as the proper time for work, that is, for activities in full
consciousness.If we assume that the relationship between this choice and the
creative productionsis more than incidental, it may be by virtue of a definition
of night-time, bestowing upon it a social atmosphere in which demands for
conformity and protectionof status are greatly lowered.
Sleep is, also in a different sense, defined as the proper time for creativity,
namelywith respectto sex. The associationof sexual life with night-time,although
deeply rooted in our culture, is not a universal one. Ford and Beach have dis-
covered, on the basis af cross-culturalmaterial,great variationsbetween different
societies in this respect.29) The material suggests that practical considerations,
connectedwith conditions of privacy,determinein part the preference for night
or day as the proper time for love-making. We doubt, however, that narrow
practicalconsiderationsalone can account for the fairly universal assocation, in
our culture, between sex, the bed, sleep and night-time.
We shall approachthis culturallink from two sides. Let us startwith a consider-
ation of the surreptitious,"deviant"natureof sexual life. By this, we mean some-
thing more than that sexual life to so many people, under a variety of "illicit"
circumstanceshas come to be defined as a sin. We make the wider claim that, for

27) I. Venamionov, Notes on the Islands of the Unalaska District. St. Petersburg: Russian-
American Company, 1840, pp. 109- 110.
28) B. Ghiselin (ed.), The Creative Process. New York: Mentor, 1955, PP. 36, 44, 64, 82,
85, 124; J. Maritain, Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry. New York: Meridian, 1955,
pp. 88-89.
29) C. S. Ford and F. A. Beach, Patterns of Sexual Behavior. New York: Harper, 1951.

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even more general and profound reasons,sexual union is surreptitiousin the sense
that it is surroundedby an unusualamountof secrecy,in the form of modesty,and
circumlocutionsin references,etc. The secret aspect of sex tends to associate it
with the night, for some people to the extent that they depend upon darkness
as a condition of performing intercourse.30)More generally, the night with its
rigid and predictablepattems of contactand isolation (a point to which we shall
return later) provides the proper social structure for the performanceof any
activity to which norms of secrecy are attached. Another concept, of sleep-time
as an institutionallyprotectedtime-reservoir,gives additionalweight to the estab-
lished association. For most adult persons the day is crowded with expected
activities. Any expenditure of time that would interfere with work, household
chores,expectedsociabilityor participationin public affairs, demandsexplicit legit-
imation.Now, although love is a central value in our culture, love-makingis still
too private, too secret, even in marriage,to furnish ready-madelegitimation.The
very private natureof sexual contactsmakes them poor competitorswith the more
robustly social activities of modern man. Here, the associationwith sleep-time
affords a legitimation,since sleep is an activity which is readily legitimatedeven
under conditions far from physical exhaustion, and a state which is highly
protected.
The latter point needs some elaboration.Evidencefrom many culturessuggests
that sleep is institutionalizedas a state or a role with high priority,given fulfil-
ment of the proper conditions of time and place. The form of interactionwith
those in sleep is defined as avoidant3l) and takes high precedenceover other
social relationships.It means that usually the sleeper is not awakenedin order to
assume a different role in interaction.The Navaho believe that evil is brought
by even stepping over a sleeing person.32) Among the Bedouin Rwala "a culprit
while asleep cannot be killed by an avenger since this would bring vengeanceon
the latter'sown head.''33) Parentsusually have tender feelings towardtheir sleep-
ing children while also respectingthe inviolabilityof the sleep state.34)
to be finished in sol. 4 faic. 3
30) Cf. A. C. Kinsey, et. at., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia, 1948, pp.
664-65.
31) Avoidant relationships "de-emphasize direct contacts and . conduct such as exist
on a relatively formal basis". M. Levy, The Structure of Society. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1952, p. 353.
32) C. Kluckhohn and D. Leighton, The Navaho. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1946, p. 47.
33) A. Musil, op cit., p. 496.
34) Cf. Ibsen's play "Kongsemnerne", where the duke, Skule, watching - alone - the
cradle of his daughter's son, the prince, who is an obstacle to his own royal ambitions,
exclaims: "There is protection in sleep" (Det er vern i s0vnen).

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