Sleeping, dreaming, and health in rural Indonesia and the urban U.S.: A cultural and experiential approach

Sleeping, dreaming, and health or well-being are all closely related phenomena from an experiential and cultural point of view, and yet all three are often studied in isolation from one another. In this paper, I use an ethnographic and clinical lens to compare and contrast patterns of sleeping and dreaming and their relationship to health in a rural Indonesian society and among urban middle class people in the US. I demonstrate how culturally shaped patterns of sleeping and dreaming become linked through social practice and the implication of these practices for health and well being. I underscore, in particular, the seamless connection between waking and non-waking life, how daytime activities affect patterns of sleeping and dreaming, but also how the emotional and behavioral residues of the night affect daytime life and experience. Data for the Indonesia case were collected during extended fieldwork in 1981–1983, while the U.S. data come from my ongoing part-time private practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

► Discusses the interrelationships of sleeping, dreaming, and health using a cultural and experiential approach. ► Cultural ideas about sleeping and dreaming, which vary widely, affect actual patterns of sleeping and dreaming. ► “Punctuated,” broken sleep is common throughout the world. ► No single pattern of sleeping and dreaming is yet clearly linked to either health or illness. ► Calls for more studies of sleeping and dreaming in naturalistic settings throughout the world.