The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams [Hardcover]

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 Applewoods American Roots seriestactile mementos of American passions by some of Americas most famous writers. Both my wife's family and my own have Philadelphia roots. My grandfather-in-law was president for a time of the Franklin Institute. His Philadelphia home had a sleeping porch. There he would sleep, even on the coldest winter nights, in the open air under blankets. It is no wonder this sleep habit has been passed down through the family to my wife, who, like her grandfather, needs her sleep to be surrounded by the fresh air of any season. Phil Zuckerman, Publisher