Sophie Panziera: “The Medicalization of Sleep in the 19th Century (France 1770–1914)”

Abstract:

This presentation is about the process of medicalisation of sleep in France during the 19th century. It is based on my doctoral thesis, entitled "Sleep in the 19th century. Norms and Imaginaries of good sleeping (1770-1914)", completed at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. The aim is to analyse the social and medical conditions of the transition from a sleep norm based on the cyclical temporality of the day/night alternation and framed by religion, to a time that is measured and normalised medically and socially. Indeed, 19th century medicine no longer defined the need for sleep as synchronised with the cyclical patterns of nature, but dependent on patterns specific to the body, linked to human physiology and which medical sciences are given the task to understand and describe.