hit the hay

Meaning of the phrase:

Origin of the phrase:

Hay friends! Today we’re going to be discussing the origin and meaning behind the phrase “hit the hay.” Now, I know what you’re thinking: did people really punch hay when they got tired? Well, as much as I would love to picture that, the reality is a little less hay-punchy.

For centuries, hay has been used as a stuffing for mattresses. As early as 200 BC, the ancient Romans practiced this, and it remained a common way to create a sleeping surface until the 20th century. Although it may seem strange to modern people, sleeping on a hay-filled mattress was a regular part of our ancestors’ lives.

But when did people start saying “hit the hay”? The phrase first appeared in print in the early 1900s, suggesting it may have been around since the late 1800s. Back then, people would stuff sacks with hay to create a cheap and easy sleeping surface. This practice gave us the idiom “hit the hay” and its sister phrase, “hit the sack.” Essentially, people would throw their bodies against their hay-filled mattresses to get some shut-eye.

Of course, if a sack wasn’t available, one could easily “hit the hay” in the barn without it. And while the phrase might seem a little strange to us today, it’s actually been around for quite some time. The earliest known use of “hay” to refer to a bed comes from the American author George Ade in his 1902 work, People You Know:

After Dinner he smoked one Perfecto and then, when he had put in a frolicsome Hour or so with the North American Review, he crawled into the Hay at 9.30 P.M.

Okay, so the expression “hit the hay” was not explicitly used in Ade’s work, but we’re certainly getting close.

Just a year later, in 1903, the more familiar form of the phrase appeared in The Oakland Tribune:

Sam Berger, the Olympic heavyweight […] was sleepy and he announced that ‘he was going to hit the hay’.

So there you have it, folks: the history and meaning behind “hitting the hay.” And while the idea of sleeping on a mattress stuffed with hay might seem a little odd to us now, it’s important to remember that our ancestors were just doing the best they could with what they had. Who knows? Maybe one day, our own great-great-grandchildren will look back on our memory foam mattresses and wonder what we were thinking. Until then, though, I think I’ll go take forty winks and hit the hay myself.