Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Beds

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey friends, for the best Get Sleepy experience, be sure to check out our supporters feed Get Sleepy Premium for our free listening weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire catalogue. Now, a quick word from our sponsors who make the free version of this show possible. Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. My name's Thomas, and I'm your host. Thanks so much for tuning in. Tonight's fascinating story was written by Jessica Miller. We'll be delving into the rather befitting history of Beds.

Starting point is 00:00:51 From ancient Egypt to the present day, from prehistoric Sapsaharan Africa to the cosy ends of Renaissance England. The story of Betz will carry us through millennia and around the globe. First though, there are plenty of ways to listen to the show, and one of the newest places to do so is on our Get Sleepy YouTube channel. There, you'll find all of our Monday and Wednesday stories and meditations accompanied by soothing visuals to help you drift off. Plus we have a number of playlists featuring specific genres or narrators and community polls and questions where you can get involved and chat directly to the team and to fellow sleepyheads. where you can get involved and chat directly to the team and to follow Sleepy heads.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Our mission from the very beginning and still to this day is to help as many people as possible anywhere in the world to get a better night's sleep. So if you can just spare a minute of your time to check out our YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button while you're there, that would be so greatly appreciated. You can search Get Sleepy to find us on YouTube or follow the link that I'll put in the show notes. Thank you so much for supporting everything we do. Before we begin our story, take a moment or two to pause and prepare your body for sleep.

Starting point is 00:02:38 If it helps you to settle, then just follow my count for a couple of breaths. Taking a deep inhale for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and slowly exhale for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. One more time, breathing in, 2, 3, 4, 5, and out. 4, 3, 2, 1. We'll be talking a lot tonight about different kinds of beds. So if you're lying in bed right now, why not take a few moments to mindfully notice the sensations that you experience in your own bat. Feel how your mattress supports your body. Observe how your pillow feels underneath your head and neck. Run your hands across any blankets or linens that are covering you. Notice how the fabric feels beneath your fingers and against your skin. Are there any other sensations you're experiencing?

Starting point is 00:04:31 Is there a light breeze coming through the window? Can you hear rain outside? It's the air around you, warm or cool. Find a comfortable position, whether you're lying flat on your back or culled on your side, whatever feels good for you. Now that you're relaxed and ready to begin, I'd like you to close your eyes and listen to the sound of my voice as I guide you through the history of Sleep is one of the most basic, primal human needs. A deep deep refreshing sleep is the key to replenishing our bodies' stores of energy, boosting our mood, enhancing health and organ function, and improving our mental agility. While we sleep, our body repairs its cells, our nerves communicate, and our brain creates and stores new memories. Long before the invention of the modern bed, humans slept. We slept in ways that nowadays might seem a little strange.

Starting point is 00:06:53 Sleeping on piles of fern branches, grasses and palm fronds predates anatomically modern humans. its anatomically modern humans. And evidence shows, for example, that pre-human hominids often slept in trees. Snosing several feet above the ground on a precarious tree branch might sound uncomfortable and impractical, but it served an important purpose. Sleeping in this elevated way kept our ancestors safe from the predatory animals that roam to the land at night. How did they keep from falling out? Well, it's hard to say for sure, but have you ever experienced a sensation of falling just before drifting off to sleep and jerked awake. That strange sensation is known as a hypnic jerk.

Starting point is 00:08:10 Some researchers believe this is a reflex left over from the days when we slapped in trees. As soon as we began to fall, our brains snapped to attention so we could stay safely nestled in the branches. When we weren't sleeping in trees, we preferred to take shelter in safe, enclosed spaces, enclosed spaces like caves. Archaeologists studying the traces of early human life in Heinz Cave, Texas, have found small hollows in the ground there. They believe that's where the prehistoric humans who lived in and around this cave slept. They likely passed the night on piles of straw, dried grasses or furs. The shape of the hollows suggests that these early humans set culled up like a ball, probably

Starting point is 00:09:29 for warmth. For the same reason, they seem to have slept very close together. The world's oldest known mattress was found in sub-Saharan Africa and it dates back roughly to the year 3600 BCE. This mattress was found in Sibudu Cave in South Africa. It is woven from satch and topped with a layer of dried leaves from the Cape Quint's tree. Early mattresses like this one were probably made with plants that were known to have insect repellent properties. But to uncover the story of some of the world's earliest known bets, we need to visit the

Starting point is 00:10:36 remote Scottish island of mainland, the largest of the Orkney Islands. In 1850, a violent storm whipped up in the bay of scale on the island's west coast. As rain and wind lashed the island. A grassy hill, known to the locals as Scarabray, was eroded. What the islanders found beneath in the rubble of earth was astonishing. The perfectly preserved stone remains of a neolithic village. served stone remains of a neolithic village. The settlement is more than 5,000 years old and consists of nine houses. Archaeologists have uncovered tools, jewelry, and even dice at the site. And in every stone cottage, they found the same piece of furniture, a box that they are made of two discreet compartments, one slightly larger than the other, which suggests that men and women slept in separate but adjoining compartments of the same bed.

Starting point is 00:12:29 Likely, they would have slept on mattresses woven from the sturdy heather that grows wild across the island and slept under furs to keep warm on chilly orkney nights when the wind hound and the sea lashed at the shore. Imagine sleeping in one of these stone beds wrapped in heavy blankets to ward off the fresh, sharp hair of the Orkney Islands. You smell sea salt and the mingled aroma of wood and moss from the heather that makes up your mattress. that makes up your mattress. Outside your hut, gals and kitty-wakes and white tailed eagles swoop and cry.

Starting point is 00:13:41 Inside you are snug and warm. You listen to the low crackle of the fire and the gusting of the wind as you drift into sleep. The lower layers of many of the earliest types of bedding were thought to be similar to branch piles, on top of which softer materials would have been placed for comfort. The purpose of the lower layers was to elevate the sleeping area, to keep the sleeper away from bugs and dirt, and to protect from drafts coming in from under the sides of a tent. Additionally, hammocks are known to have been used by our ancestors for sleeping in places like Mesoamerica and India, though it's on certain when the practice began, given that's hammock materials typically don't preserve well in the archaeological record. However, it's believed by many that the first raised built beds were invented by the ancient Egyptians, who slept on a bed frame with feet, sometimes even carved into the shape of

Starting point is 00:15:19 animal feet, designed to keep the sleeper elevated from the floor, wherein sects and scorpions sometimes roamed. Rather than soft squishy pillows, they favored headrests made from wood or glass, which kept the sleepers head elevated through the night. On a more comfortable note, wealthy Egyptians also slept swathed in linen, which they sometimes dampened before bed to keep them cool through the hot desert evenings. Imagine sleeping in an Egyptian villa on the banks of the Nile River. You hear the swaying of rushes, the gentle ripple of the water and a chorus of frogs and insects outside. In your room you are wrapped in light, cool layers of perfume to linen. A gentle breeze moves over your skin while your eyelids your wealth and status.

Starting point is 00:17:12 Lowly workers slept on wooden bed frames, while high-class Romans slept quite literally at a higher level than their fellow citizens on ornately carved metal bed frames that were raised off the floor. Often they needed a footstool to climb into their elevated beds. The Romans sat well on mattresses made from straw, feathers or leaves, and bedding woven from wool or hemp. But beds were not used exclusively for sleep. The Romans studied, read and wrote on luxurious daybets too. And rather than gather around the dining table on chairs, wealthy Romans reclined on dining beds, propping themselves up with plenty of cushions, so they could help themselves to food and drink.

Starting point is 00:18:34 Beds were just as important for the ancient Greeks, and even feature in one of the epic Greek poems, The Odyssey. Odysseus, the hero of the tale, sets off on an eventful voyage around the Mediterranean that sees cyclops and linger on the enchanted island of the witch, Cersei, before finally returning home in disguise to his wife, Penelope. Penelope devises a test to uncover Odysseus' true identity. She asks him to move their carved wooden marital bed. Odysseus panics, he knows the bed cannot be moved. He carved it himself before he left from the stump of a nolev tree. The bedroom and house have all been built around the tree that

Starting point is 00:19:56 makes up their bed. Seeing Odysseus' panic, Penelope knows her husband has returned. The immovable wooden bat is said to symbolize the strength and steadfastness of Penelope under Odysseus' union. is Union. Traditional bed design in northern China was influenced by the frigid weather in the region. Here, people used to sleep on gangs, stone beds ingeniously heated by a flu system that was connected to a house's central fire, usually the kitchen fire. While it took some time for the stone to heat up, the can retained its heat for the course of the night. Swaddled in bedding, and with the heat of the stone gently seeping through their limbs,

Starting point is 00:21:15 sleepers stayed warm even through wintry blizzards. In some houses, the Kang was very large and took up most of the room. It would also be used for eating and socializing. And in inns, travellers often slept together on one enormous kang. Imagine sleeping on a kang in northern China. Outside, the wind is whipping across the plains and snow is falling heavily. When you wake up, the world outside will be blanketed in a thick white layer of snow, muffling every sound. Now you feel the warmth of the stone creeping up through the layers of blankets and into your body, warming your muscles and your bones. Feeling deliciously comfortable, you drift into a deep, deep sleep. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, the bed was considered the most important and valuable

Starting point is 00:23:04 item in the home. From the 1400s on, wealthy Europeans preferred to sleep in four-posted beds, hung with thick canopies that formed a curtain around the sleeper. These canopies gave beds the look of a miniature theatre, which was certainly appropriate as nobles and wealthy merchants also used their beds to display great quantities of fine textiles. In addition to showing off sumptuous fabrics, pillows, bolsters and tapestries, people would also signal how wealthy they were by stacking mattresses on top of each other. As many as six mattresses might be stacked onto a bed frame, a marked difference to some other countries like Japan and Kazakhstan, where even the wealthiest calls, elected to sleep on thin mattresses on the floor. These European beds were so lavishly decorated and dressed, that often a sleeper would need

Starting point is 00:24:38 the help of a servant to ascend the bed frame and push their way through the heavy canopies surrounding the mattress. Some beds even had space under the ornate bed frame for another far simpler, trundle bed, where a servant could sleep overnight. where a servant could sleep overnight. The lower and middle classes didn't sleep in such opulent style, but it was not uncommon for even poorer homes to feature a proper bed. This was made up of a bed frame, a mattress, and a lattice of interlocking rope or cord at the base of the frame, designed for the mattress to rest upon. Every few days the cords of this lattice were pulled taught by hand to prevent the mattress from slipping and sliding in the night.

Starting point is 00:25:55 Up to a third of the typical Renaissance family's wealth would be spent on the bed and its linens. It's no wonder then that beds were treasured air looms, handed down from one generation to the next in wills. William Shakespeare famously left his wife Arn, his second best bet. This second best bet was likely to have been William and Arn's marriage bet. In many Renaissance homes, the best bet wasn't kept in the bedroom at all, but displayed in a living area, decked out in sumptuous linens and blankets, in a show of wealth. Only guests actually slept in the best bed.

Starting point is 00:27:17 In royal circles, it became increasingly fashionable for rulers to hold court from their beds. In France, Emperor Louis XIV routinely received visitors in his bed chambers, including foreign dignitaries on sensitive political missions. Louis was reported to own 413 beds. His favorite bed at Versailles was hung with rich fabric, embroidered with real gold. Courteous who were in favour with the French Emperor were even invited into his bed chamber while he was sleeping. Being granted the opportunity to watch Louis nod off at night, or slowly wake in the mornings, was considered an exceedingly high honour. The English monarch Elizabeth I rivaled Louis XIV in her taste for lavish beds. Depending on which of her palaces she occupied, Elizabeth had a choice of beds to sleep in. Richmond Palace situated on the bank of the River Thames in a large leafy park where

Starting point is 00:28:51 dear nibbled at the grass was one of Elizabeth's favourite retreats. When she stayed here she slapped in a bed carved in the shape of a boat, and hung with seafoam green curtains. At Whitehall Palace in the heart of London, Elizabeth would stay up late into the night, banqueting and meeting with nobles from across the continent. Before falling asleep in a bed hung with hand-painted curtains of Indian silk. And, just for good measure, one of Elizabeth's beds always travelled with her from Palace to Palace. Its tapestry curtains were started with gold and silver buttons, and ostrich feathers decorated the headboard.

Starting point is 00:30:08 In the intimate confines of her bed chamber, Elizabeth would take off her heavy make-up and gossip with her favorite ladies in waiting. waiting. Although she never married, Elizabeth rarely slapped her loan. One of her ladies often slapped with her, being chosen to share the Queen's bed was considered a great privilege. a great privilege. Imagine sleeping in the ornate boat-shaped bed. You lounge back on a mound of silk pillows covered in heavy blankets woven from the finest fabrics. From a distance you hear the gentle chatter and bustle of the palace.

Starting point is 00:31:17 Not loud enough to disturb you but a pleasingly quiet hum. You draw the ocean-colored silk curtains around you, and nestled in the prow of the boat-shaped bed. sense the rocking of waves up and down, up and down. As you left yourself, ease into sleep. In fact, throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Europeans rarely slept alone. Families slept together, not just peasant families, but aristocratic ones too. Travellers and guests were invited to share the family back. Strict rules of etiquette governed who slapped where, and sleepers were often separated by age and gender. Infants sapt in cradles, which their parents hung with amulets made from coral, believed to promise a long life, or Wolf's teeth, believed to ward off attackers. Under the domed ceiling of London's Victoria and Albert Museum of decorative arts, visitors can see one of the most impressively large large beds to have survived from this period, the Great Bed of Ware. Ware is a town in Hartfordshire not far from London.

Starting point is 00:33:38 In the days when the Great Bed took pride of place in the white heart in. Where was a small, picturesque cluster of cottages, shops and farms? Two rivers meet air, the riverbanks and swans swim in feathered white flocks along their glossy surfaces. In the 16th century, when the bed was built, where was about a day's journey on horseback from the capital. It lay on one of the old Roman roads, known as Irmine Street, joining London with Lincoln, a bustling city in the English Midlands. city in the English Midlands. Come nightfall, the inns of where would fill with travellers, stopping on their way to

Starting point is 00:34:54 one of the destinations along Irmine Street. Like the university city of Cambridge, the rolling green of the Lincolnshire walls, or even further north to York, once a Viking settlement. Travellers at the White Tart Inn would have had the opportunity to stay in the great bed. Built by the Hartford Share Carpenter, Jonas Fosberg, it was one of the largest beds in the country, standing more than 2.5 meters high and over 3 meters wide. It comfortably accommodated up to 4 couples at a time. In keeping with the fashion of the time, its oak frame is richly carved with a ribbon motif, carved with a ribbon motif, a can'tthus leaves, and mythical creatures like fawns and satas. Fossberg's craftsmanship was added to and embellished over the years.

Starting point is 00:36:21 As those who stayed the night in the great bed made their own marks on its impressive wooden frame. These days, visitors to the V&A museum can still see the carved initials and red wax seals imprinted on the bed by past sleepers. People didn't just share beds with their families or fellow travelers. Young unmarried couples often spent the night in the same bed, in a courtship ritual known as bundling. In places like Corrural Wales, before courting couples could marry, they first had to spend the night together, talking and getting to know each other, to ensure the union

Starting point is 00:37:27 would be a happy one. And to ensure they remained chaste, they were quite literally bundled into sacks up to their wastes, and sometimes even separated by a wooden board laid across the bed. If after spending the night bundled together, the young lovers still liked each other well enough to marry, their union could go ahead as planned. Until the advent of electric lighting, our sleeping habits waking in the morning, people slapped in two shifts, known as first sleep and second sleep, punctuated by a period of wakefulness known as the watch. The watch occurred roughly between midnight and 2am. Under the light of oil lamps, candles, or rush lights, a kind of taper fashioned from

Starting point is 00:39:00 the waxed stems of rushes. People would tend to household tasks like mixing bread dough or stoking the household fires, engage in reading, prayer or quiet contemplation, or simply sit and talk with one another about the days of ends. Imagine returning to bed after the watch. Your mind is calm and quiet after the hours you have spent, reading, thinking and gazing into the dwindling fire, your pillow is cool and your sheets are smooth. You climb gratefully back into bed and fall almost immediately into a deeply refreshing sleep. The industrial revolution and the invention of electricity saw people slowly move away from sleeping in two shifts.

Starting point is 00:40:32 Rather than working in time to sunrise and sunset, more and more people began working in regimented factory shifts. Meanwhile, electric lighting meant it was easier to work late into the night and compress sleep into one efficient eight-hour shift. In Europe and especially in England, the Victorians began to place more value on both privacy and sleep hygiene. This meant an end to practices like bedsharing. Among the upper classes, every member of the family had a separate sleeping space. This was sometimes even true for married couples.

Starting point is 00:41:35 And the bedroom was reserved for sleeping, not gossiping, eating, or entertaining. Bed frames began to be made from iron instead of wood as it was easier to clean. For this same reason, ornate drapery and heavily embroidered linens also begun to fall from favour. Of course, not everyone was so strict about sleep hygiene. Born in the Victorian era, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spent a large amount of each day in bed. Although he woke shortly after seven most mornings, Churchill would stay in bed until after 11. after 11. He breakfasted in bed and caught up on the day's newspapers there, and even invited his secretary into the bedroom so he could dictate correspondence to her. He also famously was a great believer in the powers of napping and made a point of having

Starting point is 00:43:09 a refreshing sleep at about 5pm each evening. At the end of the 19th century, New York City was growing increasingly crowded, as people from all over the globe arrived to try and make their fortunes in the modern metropolis. As a result, sleeping quarters grew more and more cramped. The solution, the folding bed. The first folding bed was designed in the late 19th century by Sarah Good. When Good registered the patent for this innovative bet, she became one of the first African American women to receive a patent. It was designed to be tucked away during the day be tucked away during the day in a roll-top cabinet that could double up as a desk. And at night, Good's folding bed could be lifted from its hidden compartment and stretched out without breaking. Folding beds quickly became popular among the inhabitants of New York's Tenement Apartments,

Starting point is 00:44:52 who wanted to maximize their small living spaces. We're coming to the end of this sleepy history of beds now. We've heard about beds in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Scottish Islands, Renaissance Europe, and turn of the 20th century New York. Beds covered in light linen and beds draped in rich embroidered blankets. But all these different beds share one common purpose to support deep refreshing and replenishing sleep. Perhaps you're feeling ready for sleep now yourself. If you're lying in a bed, sink back into your pillows. Feel the mattress underneath you.

Starting point is 00:46:16 Notice the way your blankets are arranged around you. Let your eyes drift slowly closed if they aren't closed already. Relax your body from the top of your head out to the tips of yourhales and exhales. And let yourself be carried off into sleep. As you dream about all the wonderful, comfortable beds, people have slept in throughout history. I'm going to do a little bit of the work. I'm going to do a little bit of the work. I'm going to do a little bit of the work. I'm going to do a little bit of the work. ... ... ... ... I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room.

Starting point is 00:49:28 I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room.

Starting point is 00:49:44 I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ... ... you ... you ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... you ... you you

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Beds

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