Sleep

Did you sleep well? Across art and science, Louisiana presents a major thematic exhibition exploring one of life’s most fascinating and enigmatic phenomena. A journey through the universe of sleep – from lullabies to insomnia, dreams and nightmares, sleeping pills and brainwaves, biology and psychology, and much more.

Sleeping – and at times not being able to sleep – occupies roughly one-third of our lives. It is a vital human necessity that we all share. At the same time, sleep is the state in which we are at our most private, vulnerable, and left entirely to ourselves.

Sleep is a biological necessity and constitutes today a broad and dynamic field of scientific research. For centuries, it has also been a source of inspiration and study throughout art and cultural history. Visual art, literature, film, and music have all helped shape our understanding and imagination of sleep.

At the same time, sleep – and particularly the idea of a “good night’s sleep” – is closely tied to and shaped by our history and the societies in which we live.

Today, digitalisation has once again shifted the boundary between day and night. Work, entertainment, and the outside world now follow us into bed, while sleep itself has become a highly valued health ideal that many of us seek to optimise and control, not least through sleep-tracking apps.

When we sleep, reality is turned upside down. Behind closed eyes, images emerge that can contain memories, desires, and strange fantasies. For centuries, dreams were understood as messages from the gods, omens of the future, or journeys to other worlds. Later, dreams came to be seen as a window into the unconscious and a means of understanding our repressed needs and desires.

Today, researchers can monitor brainwaves, eye movements, breathing patterns, and muscle activity while we sleep. Yet although the biological processes of sleep can increasingly be measured and mapped, much remains unknown.

What really happens when we sleep? Why do we dream – and remember some dreams while forgetting others? And why can something so natural come so easily to some people and be so difficult for others?

As in Ocean, The Irreplaceable Human, The Moon, and Mother!, classical works and contemporary art are brought together with film, literature, design, science, and objects from cultural history. The exhibition occupies the museum’s entire South Wing.