Exploring the sociological aspects of sleep and their links to current health debates, this unique text discusses why sleep has been so neglected in sociological literature and examines significant modern issues such as:

• the 24-hour society
• sleep and work
• homelessness
• dream analysis
• the medicalization and commodification of sleep.

Written by a key international figure in medical sociology, this is the first sociological examination of sleep, making it important reading for academics and advanced students of medical sociology, health studies, and sociology, as well as for professionals and policy makers involved in the area.

This book draws on a variety of substantive examples from science, technology, medicine, literature, and popular culture to highlight how a new technoscientifically mediated and modified phase and form of technosleep is now in the making – in the global north at least; and to discuss the consequences for our relationships to sleep, the values we accord sleep and the very nature and normativities of sleep itself.The authors discuss how technosleep, at its simplest denotes the ‘coming together’ or ‘entanglements’ of sleep and technology and sensitizes us to various shifts in sleep–technology relations through culture, time and place. In doing so, it pays close attention to the salience and significance of these trends and transformations to date in everyday/night life, their implications for sleep inequalities and the related issues of sleep and social justice they suggest. 

Full Contributors:
Ellen Annandale, University of Leicester, UK, Mildred Blaxter, University of East Anglia, UK, Michael Bury, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, Helen Busby, Salford University, UK, Michael Calnan, University of Kent, UK, Simon Carter, University of Glasgow, UK, Judith Clark, University of Warwick, UK, Robert Crawford, University of Washington, Tacoma, USA, Nick Crossley, University of Sheffield, UK, Nick Fox, University of Sheffield, UK, Jonathan Gabe, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, Graham Hart, University of Glasgow, UK, Deborah Lupton, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia, Emily Martin, Princeton University, USA, Virginia Olesen, University of California, San Francisco, USA, Lindsay Prior, University of Wales, UK, Alan Prout, University of Hull, UK, Chris Smaje, University of Surrey, UK, Deborah Lynn Steinberg, University of Warwick and the Open University, UK, Gareth Williams, University of Salford, UK, Simon J. Williams, University of Warwick, UK

Taking as its point of departure recent developments in health and social theory Health, Medicine and Society brings together a range of eminent, international scholars to reflect upon key issues at the turn of the century.
Contributors draw upon a range of contemporary theories, both modernist and postmodernist, to look at the following themes:
*health and social structure
*the contested nature of the body
*the salience of consumption and risk
*the challenge of emotions
Health, Medicine and Society provides a 'state-of-the-art' assessment of health related issues at the millennium and a cogent set of arguments for the centrality of health to contemporary social theory. Written in a clear, accessible style it will be ideal reading for students and researchers in health studies, public health, medical sociology, medicine and nursing.

Contents:
1.Sociology and the 'problem' of the body 2.Bodily 'order': cultural and historical perspectives on conformity and transgression 3.Bodily 'control': body techniques, intercorporeality and the embodiment of social action 4.The body in 'high' modernity and consumer culture 5.The 'libidinal' body: psychoanalysis, critical theory and the 'problem' of human desire 6.'Uncontainable' bodies: feminisms, boundaries and reconfigured identities 7.The emotionally 'expressive' body 8.Pain and the 'dys-appearing' body 9.The 'dormant body: sleep, night-time and dreams 10.Artistic bodies: representaion and resistance. Conclusions.

The Lived Body takes a fresh look at the problem of human embodiment through a critical examination of the dualist legacies of the past. A broad range of classical and contemporary social theorists are surveyed - from Marx to Freud, Foucault to Giddens, Deleuze to Guattari and Irigary to Grosz - in terms of the bodily themes and issues they raise. A variety of new areas of research in this rapidly expanding field are also considered, including medical technology and the 'fate' of human embodiment, the relationshio between the body, art and society. The notion of an Embodied Sociology is put forward; one which outs minds back into bodies, bodies back into society and society back into the body. The Lived Body will provide students and researchers in medical sociology, health sciences, cultural studies and philosophy with clear, accessible coverage of theory and debate in body and social theory from basic issues to complex ideas and a challenging new way of thinking.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415137985

Do lay people view modern medicine as a fountain of hope or a font of despair? What are their experiences of modern medical care and technology, and how do their views and experiences differ across different social groups? Combining theoretical insights with a range of qualitative and ethnographic research, this volume examines lay experiences and evaluation of medicines and drugs, chronic illness and life-saving technology, and reproductive technologies. It also considers the growing popularity of complementary therapies as a potential challenge to orthodox medicine.

Chronic obstructive airways disease (COAD: bronchitis, emphysema and chronic asthma) is a major medical, psychological, social and economic problem. Breathlessness is one of the most distressing and disabling symptoms of COAD, and it has long been apparent that the condition results in impaired quality of life. Drawing upon sociological and psychological sources, and his own detailed research in this area, Simon Williams sesitively portrays the meaning, experience and impact of COAD. Sufferers' and their families' own accounts are used to portray the various stages and aspects of COAD, ranging from the experience of symptoms and the management of medical regimens, to the practical problems it creates in daily life and the more diffuse and intangible ways in which it impinges on social and family life. He also provides a comprehensive review of the psychosocial literature and concludes by discussing some of the policy implications for health care professionals.

Do lay people view modern medicine as a fountain of hope or a font of despair? What are their experiences of modern medical care and technology, and how do their views and experiences differ across different social groups? Combining theoretical insights with a range of qualitative and ethnographic research, this volume examines lay experiences and evaluation of medicines and drugs, chronic illness and life-saving technology, and reproductive technologies. It also considers the growing popularity of complementary therapies as a potential challenge to orthodox medicine.