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Precarious sleeping, those Elizabethan nights were, when beds were kept from sagging with a rope strung around the mattress. This, our guide tells us, was the origin of, "Good night, sleep tight."
What does the first sentence mean?
Is the "sleeping" here a noun or adjective?
In my interpretation, a gerund would be modified by an adjective not an adverb. The nights weren't sleeping- people did that. However, the act of sleeping was precarious because it was dangerous.
precarious sleeping 
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