Night, sleep and insomnia in Boris Pasternak’s Doktor Zhivago
In the novel the night is usually recalled as a time intended for sleep. Sometimes, however, it creates special circumstances for confessions or earnest conversations, which take up the time of sleep. Similarly, sleep is an ordinary physiological state serving rest and the regeneration of strength. Nonetheless, it can also fulfil additional psychological functions, and be associated with profound experiences and recollections or give rise to reflections. Insomnia is an abnormal phenomenon, always caused or conditioned by some sort of exceptional events disturbing the activity and psychic states of the protagonists.