Get creative in the kitchen

In the early modern era, homemade remedies were a key weapon in the war on sleep deprivation

When sleep escapes us, many of us today seek solace in sleeping pills. That course of action wasn’t open to early modern insomniacs. But that doesn’t mean that their options were exhausted – they simply had to be a little more creative.

Homemade sleep remedies were an important part of the household’s medicinal stock and it was at home that most episodes of sleep loss were treated with tried-and-tested recipes passed down and adapted across family generations. A recipe book signed by Elizabeth Jacobs in 1654 included four remedies for sleep loss. One was designed “To make a man sleepe”, and it mixed the key ingredient of poppy seeds with beer, white wine or fortified wine depending on the patient’s age.

Less potent remedies included distillations of chamomile flowers (pictured above), rose petals, lavender, cucumber or lettuce that could be swallowed or applied externally to cool the head, neck or stomach. A recipe from c1710 recommended taking red rose leaves, milk and a slice of nutmeg, sewing them into a piece of cloth and applying the parcel “to each temple” before bed. Dried rose leaves were also stuffed inside pillows and mattresses, and sprinkled between the bedcovers to produce a “sweet and pleasant” scent.

Many of these sleepy ingredients were grown at home, so next time you struggle to sleep, you might consider whether your garden could offer some assistance.

Sasha Handley is senior lecturer in early modern history at the University of Manchester. Her books include Sleep in Early Modern England (Yale, 2016)