Stick to a routine

Early modern sleep gurus believed that consistency was the key to a long, virtuous life

We’re all obsessed with sleep – or the lack of it. In our modern world of long working hours, high stress levels and soaring screen time, the quest to get the recommended eight hours a night has become something of a holy grail. So what did our forebears do? How did they combat the ogre of sleep deprivation? Top of their list of priorities was to put aside a set period dedicated to sleep – and to stick to it every night. In fact, they believed that keeping fixed sleeping hours was one of the keys to keeping body, mind and soul in good order. John Wesley, leader of the Methodist movement, echoed the views of his 17th-century ancestors when he advised his followers to “lay all things by til the morning… keep your hour or all is over”.

Such was the importance of regular sleep in the early modern psyche that – along with air, diet, excretion, exercise and passions of the mind – it was considered one of the six key ingredients in balancing the body’s four humours of phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile. This, it was believed, helped maintain long-term physical and mental health.

Regular sleeping hours were also regarded as an important barometer of an individual’s reputation and spiritual health. Those that kept erratic sleeping hours, or lay in bed for too long, invited a variety of insults. Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Livingston, a maid in the privy chamber of Charles II’s queen, Catherine of Braganza, called herself “Soloman’s sluggard” when she confessed to “staying in bed until noon”. Elizabeth was clearly fearful that her “acustomed lasynesse” was damaging the health of both her body and her soul.