This is a companion piece to Holly Fletcher and Sasha Handley’s article Sleep, Scent, and Household Medical Care in Early Modern England recently published Open Access in History Workshop Journal 101.
Roughly one third of adults worldwide are thought to suffer from some form of insomnia and about ten percent experience chronic sleep loss. Yet sleep is recognised to be essential for physical and emotional well-being. It’s little wonder, therefore, that many of us are seeking solutions for a better night’s sleep. On TikTok #sleepmaxxing videos, in which influencers suggest strategies for maximizing sleep, have hundreds of thousands of views. A critical part of their advice involves the use of scent, including perfumes to wear specifically at bedtime, as well as devices such as scent pods which release calming smells throughout the night. Sales in scented pillow sprays are also growing rapidly, with the market predicted to be worth 6.66 billion USD by 2034.
The use of smells for encouraging sleep is not just an influencer-driven fad. Research suggests that smell can directly affect sleep outcomes. Our sensitivity towards smells is informed by our circadian rhythm, known for its influence on sleeping and waking, and lower sensitivity during the night is thought to promote restful sleep. Studies have also found that specific scents can have particular effects on sleepers, for example the scent of damask roses was found to improve sleep quality among cardiac patients, while lavender has been shown to calm the nervous system. Other studies have found that smells can influence dreams, with pleasant smells encouraging positive dreams, and unpleasant smells leading to nightmares.
While the relationship between smells and sleep is gaining increasing attention, it is by no means a new topic of interest for those seeking to sleep well and stay healthy. In our article for History Workshop Journal 101 we show that people in early modern England were particularly conscious of this connection which was reflected in contemporary sleep therapies. Scent-based soporific treatments increased in volume and variety in this period as medical explanations of sleep increasingly identified the brain, rather than the heart, as the chief organ directing sleep outcomes.
We discovered hundreds of recipes for sleeping well within handwritten books of medical care, which show how hard people worked to try and maintain healthy sleep. These treasure troves of household medical knowledge were often compiled, expanded and edited by multiple generations of a single family. They indicate that sixteenth and seventeenth century English households were engaged in pioneering medical experiments relating to sleep on an unprecedented scale. Women and men from many different walks of life went to great lengths to design, test, and adjust recipes that could cause sleep, that could extend or shorten its duration, that could prevent nightmares, or that alleviated joint pain, headaches, and a host of other bodily ailments that regularly interrupted a peaceful night’s sleep.
These efforts were motivated by the value that early modern communities placed on sleep. Regular and healthy sleep patterns were one of the ‘Six Non Natural Things’ – a set of principles for healthy living designed to guide bodily action and medical care. Taking care of one’s sleep was considered essential to preserve the body’s health and vitality, and to prevent the onset of disease. Keeping stable bedtimes, taking regular exercise, and eating the right foodstuffs all helped to maintain healthy sleep, but sleep loss could also be mitigated by a stock of medical treatments that were carefully developed to meet the specific needs of early modern households.
The experimental trials and treatments uncovered by our research were typically based around various plant materials, drawing on householders’ botanical knowledge. The range of plants used to influence sleep in this way grew rapidly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as colonialism and global trade expanded and increased access to different botanical ingredients such as the American ‘Virginia Asarum’ – a species of wild ginger whose spicy aroma was said to induce sleep when rubbed into the forehead.
Many early modern recipes using soporific botanicals focused on calming sensory manipulation and especially on the application of smells. This was connected to the growing importance of the brain in physiological understandings of sleep, as scents were understood to be carried via the nostrils directly to the brain, where they could either comfort or disturb the bodily spirits which governed sleep. It was important, therefore, that sleepers smelled sweet, pleasant and calming scents at bedtime to ensure rest. The significance of scents for sleep was also based on the relationship between smells and air quality, as unpleasant smells could indicate infectious or polluted air which would be dangerous for sleeping bodies.
Like today’s sleepmaxxers, early modern people used soporific scents in a variety of ways, including application to both their bodies and sleep environments. Some recipes involved dampening a piece of cloth in scented waters and applying it to the temples or nostrils. Others instructed readers to dry and crush botanical ingredients and tie them in a linen bag around the head so that their scents could infuse through the nose and into the brain overnight. To make sure early modern bedchambers smelled fresh and calming, scented botanicals could be placed alongside linens in storage or strewn on the ground. Smells which were understood to be cooling for the brain, including roses, violets and juniper, were particularly prized. While the sleep-inducing properties of lavender were recognised in the period, it was not the dominant sleep-related scent that it is today and instead, was one among many smells that were thought to encourage rest.
The high stakes of sleeping well in early modern England made scent-based soporific experiments a crucial aspect of household medical care. By trialling and preparing a stock of sleep therapies that met the needs of individual households, early modern people developed an unprecedented range of ways to treat sleep loss, or sleep disruption, caused by common ailments such as headaches, fevers, colds, and joint pain. These methods, in turn, show that female and male householders were aware of shifting medical understandings of sleep, and that they adapted their practices in line with new brain-centred models of sleep. That women took an especially important role in trialling soporific scents, sheds new light on the significance of sleep care within the gendered labour of household life. The capacity of households to treat sleep problems in these years marks a critical transformation in sleep habits that has so far gone unnoticed. The early modern period thus fostered unparalleled investments of expertise, time and labour in pursuit of a good night’s sleep. Those hoping to use scents to promote healthy sleep today are part of a long and rich historical tradition dating back to the early modern period.