Sleep incubation [enkoimesis] in medical practice at Asclepieia of ancient Greece – The ancient Greek sleep medicine

The ancient Greeks gave a special importance to sleep, both because of the interpretation of dreams and because of its healing properties. Therapeutic incubation [enkoimesis] was a ritual practice, resorted at the healing sanctuaries of antiquity in Greece, such as those of Asclepius [Asclepieia] and was the culmination of a process of sleeping in a sacred space in order to receive an apocalyptic dream. Although the early character of therapeutic incubation was purely ritual and mystical, however, the concept of this process seems to be matched with that of the holistic and personalized modern medical approach. Moreover, the importance of its role is in the transition of medicine from its pioneer empirical practices to the most modern scientific concepts, since it was incubation that sowed the seeds of modern medicine and established it from art to science. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of therapeutic incubation, either as an holistic approach to the patient and as a placebo effect, as well as its relationship with modern procedures of therapy.