The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams

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Founding Father and all-around Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin considered and wrote about many topics. In this essay from 1786 on restful sleep, Franklin advises exercise before meals, moderate eating (“full feeding, occasions nightmares and horrors inexpressible; we fall from precipices, are assaulted by wild beasts, murderers, and demons, and experience every variety of distress”), and fresh air in the sleep chamber, to avoid perspiring in a hot bed. Most importantly, he says, one must be sure to preserve a Good Conscience.This short work is part of Applewood’s “American Roots” series–tactile mementos of American passions by some of America’s most famous writers.