origin of: sleep tight, make sure the bugs don’t bite

Question

Where does the phrase sleep tight, make sure the bugs don’t bite come from? Is it part of a longer poem?

A Google web search didn't reveal anything useful. I'm not a native speaker of English, I don't know the English nursery rhymes.

Elliot · Accepted Answer

It begins with the rhyme that good parents (from at least the 50's) tell their children as they tuck them into bed and immobility.;
 Good night, Sleep tight, Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Like any good rhymes the origin is in dispute.

This source is so good I've included a bit below. 
it is here:  https://www.bedbugguide.com/dont-let-bed-bugs-bite-origin-rhyme/

Some historians refute these theories [above] and point to the Oxford English Dictionary, which claims ‘sleep tight’ simply means to ‘sleep soundly’.

Etymologist [bug scientist] Barry Popik claims the rhyme actually originated in the USA in the 1860s, and in some versions the biting referred to mosquitoes. One version from the 1860s is ‘Good night, sleep tight, wake up bright in the morning light, to do what’s right, with all your might.’

In a novel called ‘Boscobel’ written in 1881 by Emma Mersereau Newton, a boy says to his parents, ‘Good night, sleep tight; And don’t let the buggers bite.’ And in the 1884 book ‘Boating Trips’ by Henry Parker Fellows, a little girl says ‘Good-night. May you sleep tight, where the bugs don’t bite!’.

The precise phrase ‘Good-night, Sleep tight, Don’t let the bedbugs bite’ first appears in the 1896 book ‘What They Say in New England: A Book of Signs, Sayings, and Superstitions’, and it later appeared in a 1923 text by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

lbf · Answer

The exact etymology of the entire phrase you question is unclear.  The following citations thought provide much food for thought:

Huffington Post 2018  'Here’s Why People Say ‘Don’t Let The Bedbugs Bite’

There are multiple origin theories around the rhyme, specifically the
  “sleep tight” portion and its relation to “don’t let the bedbugs
  bite.” One popular theory suggests that it relates to the way beds
  were made during the 16th and 17th centuries. Before the introduction
  of spring mattresses in the 19th century, mattresses were often filled
  with straw and feathers and sat on a latticework of ropes.

origin of: sleep tight, make sure the bugs don’t bite

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