The paper sets current concerns with insomnia in our 24/7 society in the context of nineteenth-century anxieties about the pressures of overwork and sleeplessness in professional culture. Following a case study of a sleepless prime minister, William Gladstone, it explores the early history of sleep research, including the first recordings of a brain pulse during sleep by Angelo Mosso. In parallel with current problems with addiction to sleeping pills, it explores accounts of addiction to choral, a sleeping remedy, and considers the forms of diet and regimes recommended for combatting insomnia. These are surprisingly similar to current advice, including a form of mindfulness breathing. Medical findings also anticipated recent research in arguing that sleeplessness could cause heart problems and what was termed 'premature mental decay'. Concerns about overwork and lack of sleep were also extended to school children, with campaigns to reduce homework and examinations, in order to improve mental and bodily health. Nineteenth-century medicine offered a broad-based model for understanding the physiological, psychological and social causes of sleep problems from which we can still learn.

中文翻译：

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疲惫不堪：维多利亚时代职业生活中的过度劳累和失眠。

本文在 19 世纪职业文化中对过度工作和失眠压力的焦虑的背景下，提出了当前对 24/7 社会中失眠问题的关注。本书以失眠首相威廉·格莱斯顿 (William Gladstone) 为例，探讨了睡眠研究的早期历史，包括安吉洛·莫索 (Angelo Mosso) 首次记录睡眠期间的脑脉冲。与当前安眠药成瘾问题并行，它探讨了对合唱（一种睡眠疗法）成瘾的描述，并考虑了对抗失眠的推荐饮食形式和治疗方案。这些与当前的建议惊人地相似，包括一种正念呼吸的形式。医学研究结果也预示着最近的研究认为，失眠可能会导致心脏问题和所谓的“过早智力衰退”。对过度劳累和睡眠不足的担忧也延伸到了学童，开展了减少家庭作业和考试的运动，以改善身心健康。十九世纪的医学为理解睡眠问题的生理、心理和社会原因提供了一个基础广泛的模型，我们仍然可以从中学习。