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The article discusses the history of sleep in the Western world. Details on biphasic patterns of sleep common before the Industrial Revolution are presented. Particular focus is given to changes in sleep behavior during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Topics discussed include insomnia, the effects of technology on sleep patterns, class differences in sleep behavior, time, the physiological aspects of sleep, and the treatment of sleep in popular advice literature.

This article addresses the economic relationship between knights and merchants during the late Middle Ages in England. The author states that contrary to medieval literary portrayals, which indicate that knights were not involved with trade, they actually were due to necessity. Their involvement in trade both secured their wealth into the fifteenth century, as well as contributed to the social upward mobility of the merchant class.