The way we sleep – or fail to sleep – can make or break our well-being. Sleep-related states help us learn, think creatively, and achieve breakthrough insights. But there’s no single, “correct” way to sleep. In this course, we’ll explore the highly flexible (and social) nature of the human sleep-wake system, and examine “sleep culture” in a range of settings, including subsistence-level societies, agrarian communities, and urban environments. Drawing on research in anthropology, psychology, history, and evolution, we’ll compare different cultural approaches to phenomena like: interrupted, “multiphasic” sleep; “night owls”; dreams; sleep disorders; cosleeping; and states in between sleeping and waking. We’ll consider cultural variability in the design of sleep spaces, and tackle questions like “Why is insomnia rampant in some societies, but rare elsewhere?” We’ll also ask how economic interests, power structures, and systemic social inequalities impact sleep health, and critique Western cultural biases that shape sleep-related medical recommendations and policies.Social Science and History (SSHIS) courses develop students' critical thinking skills through the study of history and the social sciences (e.g. sociology, psychology, economics, political science, anthropology, geography), as well as through contemporary interdisciplines that draw heavily on these fields (e.g. feminist and queer studies, media studies, urban studies, ethnic studies). Subject matter in these courses contributes to students' cultural literacy while instructional materials and classroom assignments introduce basic research problems and techniques.

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