Why do we say sleep tight when someone goes to bed?

Answer 1

The popular theory to this is that beds used to be supported by a web of ropes. When the ropes started to stretch a little, the bed would sag and you'd have to tighten the ropes. Hence the phrase. However, this theory is bogus.

In fact, the word "tight" originally meant "soundly" or "properly". The phrase "sleep tight" is the only remaining use of the word in that context.

Answer 2

Back in the days of pioneer's bed frames were made from logs and then rope was strung tightly from side to side across the frame to hold a large ticking stuffed with straw for a mattress. Every now and then the ropes had to be tightened up so the bed didn't sag. From that came the old saying, "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite." Bed bugs came because of the nature of the mattress stuffing's.

Answer 3

"Sleep tight" has been used as early as 1866 on the diary by Susan Eppes (Through Some Eventful Years) and such phrase appeared in L Frank Baum’s "Rinkitink In Oz", dated 1916 while the Oxford English Dictionary records it only from 1933 , of which one version is “good night, sleep tight” as a part of a rhyming formula addressed to children.
The suggested origin of the possible sense of "sleep tight" was when people used sprung mattresses in which one method of creating a comfortable surface to lie on was to stretch ropes across from side to side of the bedframe in a criss-cross pattern which had to be tightened from time to time. It is possible that sleep tight originally referred to a bed of this kind. However, the earlier use of the phrase doesn,t support this suggestion.
Source:http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sle1.htm
In my own opinion saying "sleep tight" means you have to sleep very well without any interruption at all, You see if something is tight there is no free movement isn't it. So it means if your sleep is tight then your tendency is to remain on such sleep-no getting up,no turning left and right,etc. until you will awake.
Anyway whatever might be the origin of the meaning of this phrase, just keep on saying it before someone goes to bed. Everyone deserves to "sleep tight",isn't it?-"SLEEP TIGHT EVERYONE!"

Answer 4

I heard it was the ritual of male guest back in the old west.
In the old west if you had an unmarried daughter in the house and you were a male guest sleeping over that was outside the family you would literally be tied up for the night. They would wrap you in a burlap sack and tie you down to the bed so that you could not get up in the night and deflower their daughters.
I believe there was a movie at one time that depicted this....it had Heath Ledger in it I believe.
Anyway, "sleep tight" was said, almost jokingly because of it.

That's what I heard anyhoo.

Answer 5

Because of how beds were made in the past--ropes strung to each of the bedposts to keep the cushions off the ground and level. They had to be tight or the bed itself was uncomfortable.

Answer 6

Beds use to be made with ropes under the matress to hold it up. You would tighten them up to make the matress level hence the term sleep tight.

Answer 7

Good question, and answers here...

I knew nothing of the origins until reading a couple of the replies, and was just going to say that you wouldn't tell your wife or girlfriend to "sleep loose" for obvious reasons.

And, if you said it to your young child, they may be running in and out of the bathroom instead.

Answer 8

Maybe because it rhymes with "don't let the bed bugs bite." as in "Night night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite."

Answer 9

do we really say sleep tight

Answer 10

Because newborns are always wrapped tightly in a blanket to sleep. To remind them of their mother's womb. Security.