Eat, Sleep, Lust, Repeat: Bedtime Routine, Health and Herbals in Early Modern England

Abstract

ABSTRACT Getting a good night’s sleep was of great importance to early modern people because it was central to healthy routine and the practice of piety. Re-examining printed regimens and herbals reveals that lust was thought to interrupt slumber and that managing sexual impulse and activity is a hitherto unexplored aspect of sleep care. Aspects of routine had to be repeated moderately and in succession in order to prevent disease and imbalance. Feeling sleepy and feeling lustful were, this article finds, connected in complicated and often conflicting ways in bedtime routine. Printed herbals and domestic recipe books shows that soporific materials were also useful in lessening lust. Such findings point to a shared culture of herbal knowledge that centred around bedtime and beds. Early modern people grappled with social, practical, moral and medical concerns when deciding how and when to use their beds, revealing the ways in which sleep care, sexuality and the pursuit of a healthy body and soul intersected.