An Introduction to the Sleeping Well Resources
The Sleeping Well resources on our hub come as a result of the Wellcome Trust-funded project Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World, a collaboration between the University of Manchester’s Prof. Sasha Handley and Ordsall Hall, Salford.
Use the resources to explore the links between the healthcare practices of the Tudors and Stuarts (in what historians call the early modern period) and our everyday 21st century lives. This is centred around the benefit of good sleep, what people did in the early modern period to ensure good sleep, and ways we can be inspired to sleep well today.
There are a range of links, sources, and learning resources that can be used in conjunction or on a standalone basis, depending on your requirements. These materials can form the basis of school follow-on tasks after a visit to Ordsall Hall, or be used alongside our other digital resources on our hub.
We do recommend that you use our Narrated PowerPoint to introduce the topic to your class.
Dr Anna Fielding
University of Manchester and Salford Community Leisure Sleeping Well Project Officer (2022-2025)
Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall Project overview
Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall’ was a two-year engagement project, which is part of ‘Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World’ a four-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Led by Dr Anna Fielding, ‘Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall’ took research into Tudor practices on health and sleep and applied it towards creating activities to intrigue both adults and children.
To find out more about the Wellcome Trust-funded project which included fresh research into sleep and the natural materials of sleep please visit this website.
What does Sleeping Well Cover?
• Learning things about Tudors/Stuarts healthcare that have relevance to health and wellbeing management today through a case study of sleep
• Tudor/Stuart medicine and sleep remedies
• Tudor/Stuart soporific (sleepy) food and drink and early modern understandings of good diet
• Tudor/Stuart approaches to scent and smell
• The importance of good sleep and time spent outdoors today
• The sources historians of the early modern period use e.g. recipe books, medical manuals
• How we can test food and medicinal sources through remaking recipes echoing some historians’ hands-on approach to historical learning
• How exploring Tudor/Stuart people’s beliefs can make them seem more understandable
• The links between health, wellbeing, and balance today and Tudor/Stuart approaches to physical and emotional health
Curriculum Links
KS2 PSHE:
Food choices, physical activity, balanced lifestyles, sleep, rest and relaxation, calming and relaxing activities, hobbies and interests, mental health and happiness, time spent outdoors, emotional wellbeing
KS2 History:
Features of the past (attitudes, beliefs, experiences), historical interpretation (using a range of sources), historical enquiry (finding out about the past using different media), communicate knowledge and understanding in variety of ways, local history study, aspect of British history beyond 1066, complexity of people’s lives.