Sleep in Literature (20)

While reading the article Caffeine and the Coming of the Enlightenment by Roger Schmidt, I found it interesting how many different prominent authors and pieces of literature mentioned or discussed sleep.  For example, Schmidt refers to Shakespeare's Macbeth, and The Tempest, as well asNicholas Hart's sonnet titled Astrophil and Stella.  The idea that modern readers view sleep as "... A metaphor for death... [and] nullity..." is also presented by the author, and I believe this is an accurate assertion.  When analyzing text, sleep is viewed as something with a grave or negative connotation with a sense of foreboding for a specific character.  However, when analyzing the meaning to poets and authors like Shakespeare and Hart, sleep is much more than a mere metaphor.  These writers view sleep in such a way that it "... makes our waking life seem little..." and as a completely different world.  This interpretation embodies a sense of mystery.  The idea of sleep and the meaning of it in literature continues to change and shift as literature changes.  I'd like to learn more about sleep within different pieces of literature now that I have a scientific understanding of sleep!