Dr Holly Fletcher has been awarded the 2025 St Andrews Article Prize by the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) for her article ‘Making Beds in Early Modern England: Sleep Matter and Environmental Change’, published in Historical Research in 2024. The...

In this blog series, Ifeoma Akobi, doctoral candidate at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indianaopolis, reflects on her time with the Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World project as a visiting scholar. In this second post, Ifeoma explores the connections...

In the next two blog posts, Ifeoma Akobi, doctoral candidate at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indianaopolis, reflects on her time with the Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World project as a visiting scholar. In this first post, Ifeoma introduces us to her...

The Wellcome Trust-funded Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall project finished in Autumn of 2024, rounding off two years of collaboration and exploration with our partners at Salford Community Leisure. Our work has been aided by our use of the hall’s gardens, surviving...

In the last instalment of our winter blog mini-series, Anna looks at various early modern recipes which included the spices we now associate with Christmas and which have known sleep benefits. She also details some of the teas we have been creating with visitors. Our...

In the second instalment of our winter blog mini-series, Anna details our experiments at Ordsall Hall with sugar and roses, both sleepy ingredients. Sugar was important at this time of year – in autumn and winter – as it allowed other sleepy ingredients to be...

At the start of September adult visitors to Ordsall Hall took part in a preserving workshop as part of our ongoing Sleeping Well project. Led by project officer, Dr Anna Fielding, groups of participants helped process produce from the Ordsall garden and orchard....

By Leah Astbury. Amidst the swirling panic about a surge in bedbug infestations in France and the UK, and the various articles instructing worried travellers on how to prevent or get rid of the insects, have you ever wondered how people dealt with these pesty critters...

By Holly Fletcher.  Light is one of the most important external factors to affect sleep. It is known to regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, the internal clock which tells us when to be alert and when to rest, and to affect the production of the sleep-promoting...

In March 2023, Leah Astbury, Holly Fletcher and Lucy Elliott travelled to the USA for the project. While there they visited a range of archives and museums, hunting down materials relating to sleep. They also attended two major conferences, The Renaissance Society of...