Sleep is a familiar yet mysterious activity. In the bilingual exhibit, Night Journeys: An Adventure into the World of Sleep and Dreams, visitors try out headrests from different cultures, climb on an oversized bed to find charms that ward off nighttime evils, submit their nightmares to the mythic Japanese dream eater Baku, re-enact bedtime rituals, and learn about dream interpretation in other parts of the world among other explorations of sleep and dreaming. 

Bedtime preparation is the transition between the busy, social life of the day and the solitary, often scary experience of nighttime and sleep. For many families, bedtime has become an important and critical time filled with comforting and peaceful experiences, as well as fears and frustrations. Night Journeys: An Adventure into the World of Sleep and Dreams takes families on a fascinating journey through the world of bedtime rituals and routines and into the nighttime experience of sleep and dreams. Combining hands-on activities, collection’s objects, working models, displays, and animated video, the exhibition helps young visitors and their families improve their understanding of the sleep experience.

Visitors enter into a whimsical bedroom setting in “Bedroomland” where they are introduced to sleeping places from many parts of the world. Children of all ages can lie down on an ancient Egyptian bed or try out a headrest from Japan or Somalia. Children will be able to carry dolls in a Mexican rebozo or a Native American cradleboard. They will be able to peek into miniatures of unusual sleeping places or explore bedtime security and comfort by putting dolls to sleep with multi-cultural stories and lullabies. Children can climb over an over-sized bed to find protective sleep charms from around the world or to shine a giant flashlight under the bed to turn a frightening monster into an ordinary pile of socks and toys. Other activities in this area focus on the familiar experiences of sleep preparation—putting off bedtime and nighttime fears. Through hands-on activities, cross-cultural comparisons, and imaginative play, children and parents are able to explore the role of bedtime rituals and routines in their own lives and compare their experiences with those of people in other cultures.

Under an arch of clouds and stars, past sleeping and dreaming animals, accompanied by the sounds of snoring, visitors continue their journey into the world of sleep and dreams, “Sleepland.” Here, visitors explore the active state of sleep in an animated video that shows eye movement, body movement, and brain activity during sleep.

Visitors will learn about common characteristics of dreams as they visit two interactive installations based on actual dream of Brooklyn children. A nearby station compiles the dreams of adults and kids where visitors can look at a list that compares dreams common to adults and dreams common to children.

Finally, the exhibition explores different approaches to dream interpretation by people around the world. In a series of interactive activities, families will be able to share a dream over breakfast in the tradition of the Senoi people of Malaysia, turn a scroll to learn about dream books used in China, and feed a bad dream to Baku, the Japanese dream eater. And, as they leave the exhibition, visitors meet some dreamers, like Frankenstein’s author, Mary Shelley, whose dreams changed the world.

Night Journeys: An Adventure into Sleep and Dreams is the ninth exhibition in the Museum’s Chase Gallery, our new home for visiting exhibitions, generously donated by Chase. The Chase Gallery hosts a changing schedule of new traveling exhibitions from across North America every three to four months.