ABSTRACT
Sleep represents the most common case of social isolation, there by providing us with a continuous experimental situation organized around the theme night and day. The literary tradition suggests that to fall asleep is—in part, at least—a motivated act and that the idea of sleep has been bestowed with moral, that is social, connotations. The normal state of sleep means to occupy a culturally determined role which includes the behavior in the transitional periods before and after physiological sleep. The concept of role-playing is usually based upon the notion that incumbents of positions respond with consciousness to expectations from the social environment. Even if dreams are interpreted as invalid descriptions of outer reality, they may be conceived of as reliable experiences of the inner world of the sleeper, providing insights possibly denied the person when awake.
