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Japanese workers attempt to beat stress at a special sleep concert |
Wellcome to a world of sleep and dreams
Unique exhibition mixes art, science and more…
CONSIDERING we spend a third of our lives horizontal, wrapped in our duvets counting sheep, there is an awful lot we don’t know about sleep.
What do our dreams mean? Why do some people need more sleep than others? Do power naps really work? These are just some of the perplexing questions that might keep you from blissful slumber in the first place?
Well the time for head-scratching, mugs of cocoa and Olbas oil is over. A new exhibition is set to shed some light on the mysterious land of shut-eye – exploring everything from sleep deprivation and the science of dreams to the importance of bedroom design and the place of sleeping in ancient mythology.
Sleeping and Dreaming is the second major exhibition at The Wellcome Collection at 183 Euston Road. Starting next week, the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind will run until the beginning of March.
Presented in a dark and dramatically lit space, highlights include a haunting interview with a victim of Stasi sleep-deprivation, a collection of weird and wacky alarm clocks from around the globe and Paul McCartney describing how the Beatles’ melody Yesterday came to him in a dream.
For the fidgeters – and there are likely to be many given the theme – there are a host of hands-on attractions including a tiredness testing machine, a jet-lag simulator and dream interpreters to decipher even our most surreal night-time meanderings.
If the exhibition can possibly leave you craving more, then a series of talks should satisfy even the most insatiable appetite for sleep-related trivia.
Among the speakers are celebrity insomniac David Baddiel and a host of scholars and white-coated academics, who have been toiling in their labs and sticking sinister wires and patches on unsuspecting guinea pigs in the name of science.
The man behind the pyjama party, James Peto, who is the senior curator of Sleeping and Dreaming, is getting excited as the opening approaches. He said: “Building on the huge success and public interest of The Heart, our first thematic show, this new exhibition applies the unique Wellcome Collection approach of freely mixing art, science and other disciplines to a subject of universal interest.
“Using documents and films from the world of science, together with cultural items including historical artefacts and the work of contemporary artists, this exhibition vividly demonstrates how the phenomena of sleeping and dreaming have inspired people’s imagination through the ages.”
The Wellcome Collection is a new £30 million visitor attraction from the Wellcome Trust that opened in June. The trust is the largest charity in the UK and the second largest medical research charity in the world. Entry is free and more information is available via www.wellcomecollection.org or telephone 020 7611 2222. |
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