Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Sleep Med. 2021 Dec;88:7-12. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2021.09.018. Epub 2021 Oct 5.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen (c. 1098-1179) was a 12th century Benedictine abbess, a visionary, a composer, a poet, a healer, and one of few medieval women who produced treatises on medicine. In her medical writings, Causae et curae and Physica, the abbess described, among other topics, physical functions and mechanisms of sleep, dreams and waking, emphasizing the importance of sleep for the human body. She regarded sleep as both a passive and an active process. Hildegard warned her readers about sleeping too little or too much, evaluated possible causes of insomnia and nightmares, and discussed potential treatments for these sleep disorders. In this paper, we analyze Hildegard's writings in the context of Greco-Roman physiological theories, which were held to the end of the Middle Ages and later. We also discuss questions concerning the abbess's putative education, the originality of her works, and the significance of her writings in the context of current knowledge on sleep medicine.
圣希尔德加德·冯·宾根（约 1098 年-1179 年）是 12 世纪的本笃会修女、幻象家、作曲家、诗人和治疗师，也是少数撰写医学论文的中世纪女性之一。在她的医学著作《病因与疗法》和《物理学》中，修女描述了包括睡眠的身体机能和机制、梦境和清醒等主题，强调了睡眠对人体的重要性。她认为睡眠既是被动的也是主动的过程。希尔德加德警告读者不要睡眠过少或过多，评估失眠和噩梦的可能原因，并讨论这些睡眠障碍的潜在治疗方法。在本文中，我们将希尔德加德的著作置于希腊-罗马生理学理论的背景下进行分析，该理论一直持续到中世纪后期，并对其进行了探讨。我们还讨论了修女假定的教育、她作品的原创性以及她的著作在当前睡眠医学知识背景下的意义等问题。
