Sleeping Well

In celebration of World Sleep Day, we’re reflecting on the progress of our research project Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World, and some of the exciting sleep-based activities happening with our partner Ordsall Hall. We are also excited to announce the launch of...

Every January, Ordsall Hall celebrates Twelfth Night with the blessing of the apple trees in the orchard. This date would have been 5th January before the English calendar changed in 1752. At Christmas it was traditional to celebrate festivities with wassail, a spiced...

On Monday 31st October the Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World team from the University of Manchester met visitors in the bedchamber at Ordsall Hall to discuss the history of Halloween and how night-time fears affected sleep at this scary time of year. Visitors of...

My name’s Anna and for the next two years I’ll be working closely with the Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World team at the University of Manchester and staff, volunteers, and visitors at Ordsall Hall in Salford. It’s my job to take the research from the University...

In the next instalment of our mini-series ‘Materials of Sleep’, Dr Holly Fletcher explores the role of plant 'down' in the bedding materials of early modern England and early America. Beds, mattresses, pillows and quilts were filled with a variety of stuffing...

In this latest instalment of our mini-series ‘Materials of Sleep’, Professor Sasha Handley explores the importance of hemp and flax in the production of bedding materials in early modern England and early America. Hemp (Cannabis) and flax (Linus usitatissimum) were...

In this fourth post for our mini-series on materials of sleep, Dr Holly Fletcher examines the significance of lime for creating healthy sleeping environments in early modern England and early America.Lime is a versatile mineral commonly created by burning limestone...

This blog ‘mini-series’ explores the uses of specific materials for sleeping well. In this third post, Lucy Elliott investigates the relationship between tobacco and sleep.Publishing his history of the colonisation of the Americas in the mid-sixteenth century, the...

This blog ‘mini-series’ explores the uses of specific materials for sleeping well. In this second post, Dr Leah Astbury investigates the connections between lust, lilies and sleep.Lustful thoughts and feelings were thought to be a significant impediment to getting a...

Our first blog ‘mini-series’ explores the uses of specific materials for sleeping well. In this first post, Dr Holly Fletcher reveals the importance of cypress bark for native communities and colonists in early America.In March 1728 a team of surveyors set out into...