What Does the Phrase “Goodnight Sleep Tight” Mean and Where Did it Come From?

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Karen Hill

Sometime during the sixteenth century, British farmers moved from sleeping on the ground to sleeping in beds.

These beds were little more than straw-filled mattress tied to wooden frames with ropes.

To secure the mattress before sleeping, you pulled on the ropes to tighten them, and that’s when they began saying, “Goodnight, sleep tight.”

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