This summer, London’s Museum of the Home wants you to relax and get comfortable as they host their Festival of Sleep.
The festival takes a look at how the pressures of modern life disrupt sleep, and at the different roles sleep has played through time and across cultures. There’ll be music, workshops and talks exploring the subject of sleep, as well as installations and exhibitions.
The event opened at the weekend with a pyjama party but as the Festival of Sleep is running until the autumn, there’s much more to come. The rooms through time explore remedies, folklore and traditions connected to sleep throughout the decades. And artist Maayan Sophia Weisstub turns the bed which is often a symbol of safety into a place of pain. Weisstub tackles the physical and mental bruises of abuse in this installation. At the other end of the scale is Max Richter’s eight-hour Sleep composition, that aims to help you drift off. It’s a ground-breaking lullaby for escaping modern life.
Rest, dreamscapes and sleep
There are lots of special events at the festival too. Go on an intimate audio journey with A Crash Course in Cloudspotting. Raquel Meseguer Zafe’s artwork invites you to join those with ‘invisible disabilities’ and lie down in the subversive act of rest. And activist film-maker Leah Borromeo looks at how we can make London a friendlier place for people to sleep in Spaces, not Spikes.
In Witches, Faeries and Ghosts, Dr. Romany Reagan takes a look at dreamscapes and their meanings in an illustrated lecture. And this July, there’s a creative workshop with Dr Michael McMillan. Here you’ll be able to explore dream cultures, beliefs and practices.
If sleep seems to elude you, there are two more special events that may just help you. How to Sleep Better is a lunchtime panel discussion with experts and Sleep Recovery is an introduction to yoga with Lisa Sanfilippo.
Still awake? Here’s some more festival events to stimulate your mind!
When: June – September 2022
Where: Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA
£: Admission is free. Some special events need to be booked in advance
More info: www.sleep.museumofthehome.org.uk