Editing Sleep (section)

===In mythology and literature===
[[File:Seven sleepers (Menologion of Basil II).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Medieval [[illuminated manuscript|manuscript illumination]] from the ''[[Menologion of Basil II]]'' (985 AD), showing the [[Seven Sleepers|Seven Sleepers of Ephesus]] sleeping in their cave]]
Sleep has been seen in culture as similar to death since antiquity;<ref name="William">{{cite book| vauthors = William SJ |title=Sleep and Society: Sociological Ventures into the Un(known)|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|location=New York City and London|isbn=978-0-415-35419-6|pages=95–96|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYkqBgAAQBAJ&q=Sleep+and+his+Brother+Death&pg=PA96}}</ref> in [[Greek mythology]], [[Hypnos]] (the god of sleep) and [[Thanatos]] (the god of death) were both said to be the children of [[Nyx]] (the goddess of night).<ref name="William" /> [[John Donne]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], John Keats and other poets have all written poems about the relationship between sleep and death.<ref name="William" /> Shelley describes them as "both so passing, strange and wonderful!"<ref name="William" /> Keats similarly poses the question: "Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-death-13/|title=On Death - On Death Poem by John Keats|date=29 March 2010|website=Poem Hunter}}</ref> Many people consider dying in one's sleep is the most peaceful way to die.<ref name="William" /> Phrases such as "big sleep" and "[[rest in peace]]" are often used in reference to death,<ref name="William" /> possibly in an effort to lessen its finality.<ref name="William" /> Sleep and dreaming have sometimes been seen as providing the potential for visionary experiences. In medieval Irish tradition, in order to become a [[filí]], the poet was required to undergo a ritual called the ''[[imbas forosnai]]'', in which they would enter a mantic, trancelike sleep.<ref name="Chadwick">{{cite journal | vauthors = Chadwick NK |author-link=Nora K. Chadwick|title=Imbas Forosnai |journal=Scottish Gaelic Studies |date= 1935|volume=4 |pages=97–135 }}</ref><ref name="MacKillop">{{cite book| vauthors = MacKillop J |title=A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-280120-1}}</ref>

Many cultural stories have been told about people falling asleep for extended periods of time.<ref name="Hansen">{{cite book| vauthors = Hansen W |title=The Book of Greek & Roman Folktales, Legends & Myths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwZpDQAAQBAJ&q=long+sleep+Epimenides+Rip+Van+Winkle+Seven+Sleepers&pg=PA133|date=2017|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=978-0691170152|pages=132–133}}</ref><ref name="Burstein">{{cite book| vauthors = Burstein A |title=The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving|url=https://archive.org/details/originalknickerb00burs|url-access=registration|quote=Rip Van Winkle.|location=New York|publisher= Basic Books|date=2007|pages=[https://archive.org/details/originalknickerb00burs/page/120 120]–338|isbn=978-0-465-00853-7}}</ref> The earliest of these stories is the ancient Greek legend of [[Epimenides|Epimenides of Knossos]].<ref name="Hansen" /><ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Welch D |title=The Theater|date=9 May 1887|publisher=Theatre Publishing Company|location=New York City, New York|page=139|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-QRAAAAYAAJ&q=ancient+Greek+Rip+Van+Winkle&pg=PA139|volume=3|access-date=21 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="Saint Rip">{{cite web| vauthors = Thorn J | title=Saint Rip|url=https://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic36-1-2/st-rip.html|website=nyfolklore.org|publisher=Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore|access-date=21 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018210936/https://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic36-1-2/st-rip.html|archive-date=18 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Bates A |title=The Drama; Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization: American Drama|date=1906|publisher=Historical Publishing Company|location=London, England|page=121|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nx8ZAQAAIAAJ&q=ancient+Greek+Rip+Van+Winkle&pg=PA121|volume=20|access-date=21 June 2017}}</ref> According to the biographer [[Diogenes Laërtius]], Epimenides was a shepherd on the Greek island of [[Crete]].<ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Rothschild">{{cite book|vauthors = Rothschild CK |title=Paul in Athens: The Popular Religious Context of Acts 17|date=2014|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|location=Tübingen|isbn=978-3-16-153260-3|pages=40–42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zTsvXKcl50C&q=long+sleep+Epimenides+Rip+Van+Winkle+Seven+Sleepers&pg=PA41}}</ref> One day, one of his sheep went missing and he went out to look for it, but became tired and fell asleep in a cave under [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida]].<ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Rothschild" /> When he awoke, he continued searching for the sheep, but could not find it,<ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Rothschild" /> so he returned to his old farm, only to discover that it was now under new ownership.<ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Rothschild" /> He went to his hometown, but discovered that nobody there knew him.<ref name="Hansen" /> Finally, he met his younger brother, who was now an old man,<ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Rothschild" /> and learned that he had been asleep in the cave for fifty-seven years.<ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Rothschild" />

A far more famous instance of a "long sleep" today is the Christian [[Legendary material in Christian hagiography|legend]] of the [[Seven Sleepers|Seven Sleepers of Ephesus]],<ref name="Hansen"/> in which seven Christians flee into a cave during pagan times in order to escape [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecution]],<ref name="Hansen"/> but fall asleep and wake up 360 years later to discover, to their astonishment, that the Roman Empire is now predominantly Christian.<ref name="Hansen"/> The American author [[Washington Irving]]'s short story "[[Rip Van Winkle]]", first published in 1819 in his collection of short stories ''[[The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.]]'',<ref name="Burstein"/><ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Jones BJ |title=Washington Irving: An American Original|location= New York|publisher= Arcade Books|date=2008|pages= 177–178|isbn=978-1-55970-836-4}}</ref> is about a man in [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial America]] named Rip Van Winkle who falls asleep on one of the [[Catskill Mountains]] and wakes up twenty years later after the [[American Revolution]].<ref name="Burstein"/> The story is now considered one of the greatest classics of [[American literature]].<ref name="Burstein"/>