Sleep Like a Norwegian

Or perhaps not? Photographer and GP Regin Hjertholm’s 2011 photo project “Sleep” began with a doctor’s interest in what we actually do when we sleep. The project shows real sleep. However, studies show that no one has a poorer sleep quality than Norwegians. Sleep like a Norwegian.

Regin Hjertolm’s art project “Sleep” is a series of photographs and videos in which 112 sleeping people were photographed over 66 nights in a studio in Bergen. Over four years, an automatic camera captured more than 4,500 photos of models on a large mattress, focusing on sleep-related body language, unique positions, and the unconscious movements that occur during the night.

Sleep is a huge part of our lives, and every night we enter this state. Yet, no one who sleeps can see themselves, and what we see of others’ sleep is also limited. The project provides access to images of real sleep and allows us to study and experience this partly hidden commonality.

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The average Norwegian takes seven minutes to fall asleep. For him or her, the night is a refuge from the battlefield. For many, however, the night is the battlefield. One in ten Norwegians has serious sleep problems that should be treated, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Doctor Per Egil Hesla at the Colosseum Clinic in Oslo has noticed that insomnia is spreading like an epidemic.

“The current level of activity has extended the day far into the night and cut our sleeping time by twenty percent in a few decades,” he told D2 magazine in 2011. “A tougher working life has nevertheless maintained the expectation that we are morning larks the next morning. This also makes us more vulnerable to poor sleep,” he adds.

All photos in Hjertholm’s project were taken with a fixed camera mounted on the ceiling, focusing on classic white bedding to highlight the body’s shapes and shadows. The sleep images have a quiet, pure visual expression that draws attention to the body language of sleep and to how we interact with each other at night. What happens in sleep is beyond our control. During sleep, one sometimes loses muscle tone completely, so that the body adopts peculiar poses that one never sees during the day.

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Related: Why Do Scandinavians Sleep So Well?
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Studies show that no one has a poorer sleep quality than Norwegians. The Internet and coffee habits keep us awake longer. The aging population and increased obesity also have a major impact on sleep statistics. A third of Norwegians report that psychological or physical reasons create problems falling asleep – or staying asleep – even when everything is in place for sweet dreams. According to Hesla, Norwegian children have the poorest sleep quality in the world.

According to the 2025 IKEA Sleep report, mainland China is the only place with a regular average of over 7 hours of sleep. But for the rest of us, adequate sleep is something we can only dream about. It’s no surprise, then, that 65% of us take naps. The IKEA sleep report is one of the world’s largest surveys on sleep habits and sleep differences. The research was conducted online with Globescan, using national consumer research panels to recruit respondents in 57 markets where IKEA is present.

In Hjertholm’s project, the sleepers sleep alone, with friends, parents, children, lovers, or their animals. They went to bed as they wished, and their movements were allowed to develop freely from then until they got up.

From the nights, single images have been extracted that work on their own, as well as series that show development. In the videos, a sleep dance is created by all the night’s images in chronological order.

Sleep has gone from being a blip on the health radar to becoming a critical health issue – and a lucrative market – on par with fitness and diet. The latest sleep cure is offered on tabloid front pages and from the nearest store window. Sleep specialists discuss the benefits of sleep on the radio and television.

In the process, it was important to learn from what the recordings revealed, as he could not know this in advance. The final visual expression and the decision to also use animated video were strongly influenced by this exploration.

Sleep Like a Norwegian, written by Tor Kjolberg.

All images © Regin Hjertholm.