sleep tight...

[dinoboy]

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msleepti.html

A few words on the orgin of the phrase, “sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite”:

I think that your explanation of the “commonly accepted” rope bed reference is a bit misleading. Though it would otherwise sound plausable, this seems to be an after-the-fact kind of reasoning that is not so commonly accepted as you state (in historical museums anyway).
I have done a bit of research on many such (supposedly) 19th century metaphors for my job at a living history museum outside of Chicago and have found that most are simply that, metaphorical. In this instance, I could find no written example of this phrase in any children’s stories (or otherwise) from that or earlier time periods (by the way, if anyone has any evidence, please let me know of it). I find it unlikely that for the hundreds of years that rope beds have been around, nobody ever wrote this phrase down.
Further argument for countering this reasoning stems from the use of the words; the use of “sleep tight” in the phrase may also be derived from the tight meaning “fast” or “well”, and not the tightening of ropes. This seems more plausable from early recordings (see link).
As for bed bugs; the real ones (of the Cimex species) have been known about since at least roman times, so it is not inconceivable that the reference is to them and their painful bite or simply other bugs like fleas that would exist in less sanitary conditions of the time.
One good reference (one I wish I had found earlier) regarding this is here:

http://www.takeourword.com/TOW113/page1.html

Though this “lack of evidence” is not difinitive (you may argue that this evidence was lost to time or that I just missed it - both possible) it does give good reason for doubting the rope bed explanation. More likely, this term is probably a late 19th/early 20th century rhyme (made after rope beds went out of common use and probably unrelated to them) which was only later assosiated with the rope bed because it seemed plausable.
Perhaps we hear something so often it becomes true to us even though all evidence is to the contrary.

– Dinoboy

[samclem]

dinoboy. Welcome and a great first post.

I’m afraid I’ll have to agree with you that SDStaff Hawk might have flubbed this one(although I’m assured that the CIA[Cecil Info Agency] assurred him that he was using correct info. Got it from the British or something like that.

There are a number of GREAT sites on the Web that are run by professional etymologist and linguist. Their take on the matter can be found at

http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm#sleep

Penguin Random House

World Wide Words: Sleep tight

There is always a 1% chance that the expression could have evolved from Hawk’s explanation, but the evidence is against it.

A few relevent quotes from the sites offered(for lazy readers who come here and don’t feel like clicking on and reading links):

One of the archaic senses of tight means soundly or roundly. It dates to the late 18th century and survives today only in the phrase sleep tight. The usage postdates Shakespeare and Elizabethan England by a century or so.

And then there’s the unnamed nursery rhyme, which seems to support the ‘soundly’ meaning of “tight.” I haven’t been able to find a date for it, but the final two lines have a distinctly Victorian flavor:

Good night, sleep tight,
Wake up bright
In the morning light
To do what’s right
With all your might.

Most people are probably more familiar with the other version, which apparently originated in the U.S. in the 19th century: “Good night, sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

[dinoboy]

Thanks for the web sites (and supporting words) samclem, those have already come in handy…