Bedroom Stories in Early Modern England
Lead Research Organisation:
Northumbria University
Department Name: Fac of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
Abstract
How did early modern people experience sleep? The unconscious act of sleeping is a fundamentally biological process and one that consumes around one third of our daily lives; but sleeping practices, bedtime rituals and the physical spaces in which sleep took place are also socially constructed and historically specific. This project will shed critical light on this fundamental aspect of the human experience by tracing the diverse and distinctive ways in which early modern people approached, performed and experienced sleep.
The project will examine the material environments and locations in which people slept, alongside a wide variety of sleeping practices such as the regulation of sleeping cycles, habits of early rising, the performance of bedtime and morning prayers and habits of bed-fellowship. These practices will also be placed in a wider context by exploring the ways in which individual experiences of sleep were shaped by variations in gender, age, religious belief, working patterns, socio-economic status and by domestic relations.
The research will significantly enhance existing historical knowledge of sleep in these years, and it will challenge the conclusions of sociologist Norbert Elias who described the privatisation of sleeping practices in the eighteenth century as the result of new political structures and cultures. By contrast, this research will trace the experiences of sleepers themselves through the evidence of diaries, journals and personal correspondence. It will examine the material conditions of sleep for people of different social and economic status, analysing the number and type of beds, mattresses, bolsters and bedclothes that enhanced physical experiences of bodily rest. The research will also trace the movements of sleeping bodies in public spaces by investigating habits of napping and instances of sleep-walking.
Finally, the project will examine the impact of broader processes of social, cultural and intellectual change in shaping sleeping practices. This involves tracing the impact of new medical and philosophical understandings of sleep, and examining Enlightenment concepts of the physical body and mind in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England.
The project will examine the material environments and locations in which people slept, alongside a wide variety of sleeping practices such as the regulation of sleeping cycles, habits of early rising, the performance of bedtime and morning prayers and habits of bed-fellowship. These practices will also be placed in a wider context by exploring the ways in which individual experiences of sleep were shaped by variations in gender, age, religious belief, working patterns, socio-economic status and by domestic relations.
The research will significantly enhance existing historical knowledge of sleep in these years, and it will challenge the conclusions of sociologist Norbert Elias who described the privatisation of sleeping practices in the eighteenth century as the result of new political structures and cultures. By contrast, this research will trace the experiences of sleepers themselves through the evidence of diaries, journals and personal correspondence. It will examine the material conditions of sleep for people of different social and economic status, analysing the number and type of beds, mattresses, bolsters and bedclothes that enhanced physical experiences of bodily rest. The research will also trace the movements of sleeping bodies in public spaces by investigating habits of napping and instances of sleep-walking.
Finally, the project will examine the impact of broader processes of social, cultural and intellectual change in shaping sleeping practices. This involves tracing the impact of new medical and philosophical understandings of sleep, and examining Enlightenment concepts of the physical body and mind in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England.
Planned Impact
1. Public Sector and Wider Public Users
A preliminary outline of this research was disseminated to public users at the Manchester Histories Festival in March 2009 [www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk] and the subsequent monograph design was influenced by suggestions from visitors to the event.
The research promotes the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In an article for the V&A Online Journal, I will place the Museum's collection of sleep-related artefacts in the context of sleep hygiene and comfort in the eighteenth century. The article will add to the Museum's efforts to reveal 'behind the scenes' research currently being undertaken on the collections for public users. The article will be free to access online and users can find it on the main V&A website [www.vam.ac.uk/res_cons/research/online_journal]. This maximises opportunities for dissemination, whilst also tailoring the project conclusions for audiences interested in the domestic interior.
The National Trust will benefit from the research in the form of a public lecture, which will be held at Ham House in 2011 centring on the sleep-related artefacts therein. The lecture will have a financial benefit for the heritage industry, drawing users into the property and it will also be recorded via podcast and deposited on the property's website to emphasise the unique collections at Ham House. The lecture will promote user awareness of the changing nature of sleeping cultures and the role of material artefacts in shaping them. Users of this popular tourist attraction will be able to engage with the main themes of the lecture in the short and long term, with the production of a short information leaflet for visitors and through the availability of the lecture podcast.
Following monograph publication, a book launch and public lecture will be held at the Literary & Philosophical Society, Newcastle in 2011. This event will enhance the profile of this independent library and cement existing partnerships with Northumbria University. The library has significant eighteenth-century collections which compliment the chronology of this research and it also offers an important interface between the academic community, members of the society and wider public users from the north-east and beyond.
This research will be disseminated to users with a particular interest in history via two public lectures: the first to the Hexham Local History Society and the second to the Bolton Historical Society. These lectures will encapsulate the main conclusions of the project, and will allow the audience to contemplate the specificity of sleeping practices in different historical contexts.
Professor Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre and Jessica Alexander at the Sleep Council have agreed to publicise web-based newsletters relating to the project to enrich public awareness of the historical relationship between sleep and physical health.
2. International Knowledge Transfer
A varied international audience will be reached by the dissemination of teaching materials through the Canadian project 'Making Publics: markets, media and association in early modern Europe' hosted by McGill University. The project is committed to producing materials for use by high-school students and teachers in the US and Canada and my research will help fulfil this objective. These materials will be adapted for UK students and disseminated through Northumbria University's links with local schools and colleges.
3. Long-Term Engagement
The project's focus on sleep disorders will be incorporated in a future exhibition that forms part of the major research bid 'Fashionable Diseases in Eighteenth-Century Britain'. The exhibition will take place at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle and will incorporate sections on insomnia and sleepwalking. This event will ensure that this research co
A preliminary outline of this research was disseminated to public users at the Manchester Histories Festival in March 2009 [www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk] and the subsequent monograph design was influenced by suggestions from visitors to the event.
The research promotes the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In an article for the V&A Online Journal, I will place the Museum's collection of sleep-related artefacts in the context of sleep hygiene and comfort in the eighteenth century. The article will add to the Museum's efforts to reveal 'behind the scenes' research currently being undertaken on the collections for public users. The article will be free to access online and users can find it on the main V&A website [www.vam.ac.uk/res_cons/research/online_journal]. This maximises opportunities for dissemination, whilst also tailoring the project conclusions for audiences interested in the domestic interior.
The National Trust will benefit from the research in the form of a public lecture, which will be held at Ham House in 2011 centring on the sleep-related artefacts therein. The lecture will have a financial benefit for the heritage industry, drawing users into the property and it will also be recorded via podcast and deposited on the property's website to emphasise the unique collections at Ham House. The lecture will promote user awareness of the changing nature of sleeping cultures and the role of material artefacts in shaping them. Users of this popular tourist attraction will be able to engage with the main themes of the lecture in the short and long term, with the production of a short information leaflet for visitors and through the availability of the lecture podcast.
Following monograph publication, a book launch and public lecture will be held at the Literary & Philosophical Society, Newcastle in 2011. This event will enhance the profile of this independent library and cement existing partnerships with Northumbria University. The library has significant eighteenth-century collections which compliment the chronology of this research and it also offers an important interface between the academic community, members of the society and wider public users from the north-east and beyond.
This research will be disseminated to users with a particular interest in history via two public lectures: the first to the Hexham Local History Society and the second to the Bolton Historical Society. These lectures will encapsulate the main conclusions of the project, and will allow the audience to contemplate the specificity of sleeping practices in different historical contexts.
Professor Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre and Jessica Alexander at the Sleep Council have agreed to publicise web-based newsletters relating to the project to enrich public awareness of the historical relationship between sleep and physical health.
2. International Knowledge Transfer
A varied international audience will be reached by the dissemination of teaching materials through the Canadian project 'Making Publics: markets, media and association in early modern Europe' hosted by McGill University. The project is committed to producing materials for use by high-school students and teachers in the US and Canada and my research will help fulfil this objective. These materials will be adapted for UK students and disseminated through Northumbria University's links with local schools and colleges.
3. Long-Term Engagement
The project's focus on sleep disorders will be incorporated in a future exhibition that forms part of the major research bid 'Fashionable Diseases in Eighteenth-Century Britain'. The exhibition will take place at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle and will incorporate sections on insomnia and sleepwalking. This event will ensure that this research co
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Sasha Handley (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Handley S
(2015)
From the Sacral to the Moral Sleeping Practices, Household Worship and Confessional Cultures in Late Seventeenthcentury England
in Cultural and Social History
HANDLEY S
(2011)
Sleepwalking, Subjectivity and the Nervous Body in Eighteenth-Century Britain
in Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Handley S
(2013)
Sociable Sleeping in Early Modern E ngland, 1660-1760
in History
Handley S
(2020)
Accounting for sleep loss in early modern England.
in Interface focus
Handley Sasha
(2016)
Sleep in Early Modern England
| Description | This project traced the transformation of perceptions and practices of sleep in English domestic households from 1660-1760. The evidence examined incorporates original analysis of 200 probate inventories from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the same number of personal testimonies (including diaries, correspondence), combined with a diverse range of printed primary source materials. My research revealed three important 'relocations'. The first was the spatial relocation of beds from downstairs, multifunctional parlour chambers to designated sleeping chambers on the upper floors of many domestic households. The second relocation was medical: this period witnessed a reconceptualisation of medical understandings of sleeping and waking, in which the brain and nerves were considered the principal organs directing sleep rather than the stomach. The third relocation was cultural: sleeping patterns were increasingly understood in psychological terms, and as a way of framing personal identity. In addition, the research project demonstrated the importance of religious beliefs in shaping bedtime routines and hours of sleep in these years. This dimension of the research challenges linear narratives of desacralisation that have been prominent in the historiography. Overall, the research is an important contribution to knowledge about the experience and management of sleep: a ubiquitous, yet historically and culturally-specific, experience. |
| Exploitation Route | This research is very suggestive for non-academic audiences since sleep is a universal experience. It draws attention to the crucial significance of socio-cultural influences in shaping bedside habits, sleeping hours, and sleeping environments, which have transformed in very suggestive ways. The project thus prompts future researchers to explore further the diverse ways in which this daily habit has been understood and practiced across time and space. Furthermore, the project has revealed important information about the role that artificial lighting and timekeeping technologies have had upon contemporary sleeping practices. Given the widespread interest in sleeping habits, the 'sleep industry' and the establishment of sleep centres at leading universities across the UK, the research should speak to a wide audience of academics in the Humanities, biological sciences and neurosciences, but also to an interested general public. Public interest in my work is evidence in the annual guided tours that I run at the National Trust's Ham House in Richmond: 'Forty Winks" Sleeping Habits through the Ages'. |
| Sectors | Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://historiesofsleep.wordpress.org |
| Description | I have recently been awarded an AHRC Follow On Funding award for Impact and Engagement for the project 'How we used to sleep'. This will involve a year-long collaboration with the National Trust's Little Moreton Hall to bring early modern sleep to life through reenactments, exhibitions, talks and demonstrations as well as a gardening project to cultivate an early modern 'sleep-bed' of soporific plants. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Public Guided Tours, Ham House |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I ran a series of guided tours for the general public at the National Trust's Ham House from 2011 on the theme of historic sleeping practices. Although numbers on the tours were restricted, over 100 people attended them in each year that they ran. In 2015 I developed a script for the tours for the use of the staff and volunteers at Ham House in collaboration with Victoria Bradley to enable them to be delivered on a regular basis. They are included in the annual event cycle for 2016. In 2014 I also delivered a training session to the staff and volunteers at the House to give them the necessary knowledge to engage visitors with aspects of sleep's history. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016 |