Charles Dickens: Observer of Sleep and Its Disorders

Abstract

Using the characters of his novels as the canvas, Charles Dickens painted vivid word pictures of a variety of manifestations of sleep and its disorders. These were presumably based on the author's own experiences and those of family and friends. Dickens was, himself, a self-confessed episodic insomniac. For this he devised the unique therapy of long night walks. This article illustrates, by a few selected quotations, this hitherto unpublicized aspect of the author's life and works.