Treasure your own bed
Never underestimate the power of a safe, soothing and, above all, familiar sleeping environment
“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed!” As this famous line from Goldilocks and the Three Bears reveals, people have long cherished the security, familiarity and comfort that comes with sleeping in their own beds. And they don’t take too kindly to it when that space is violated. This is as true today as it was when Robert Southey’s celebrated fairy tale first became popular in the 1830s. And it was certainly the case in the early modern era.
Beds were cherished because they had important social, ritual and emotional functions, as well as being places of refresh-
Women made bedsheets, coverlets and quilts for loved ones – so imbuing bedding with huge sentimental value
ment, comfort and security. Our early modern ancestors often slept in beds and beneath textiles that had been handed down through their families, or gifted to them upon marriage or the birth of a child.
Women made or decorated bedsheets, coverlets and quilts for loved ones – in doing so, imbuing bedding with great sentimental value. Little wonder that Yorkshirewoman Alice Thornton fought tooth and nail against court appraisers in the 1660s to keep possession of the scarlet bed that her mother had given her. This was the bed in which Alice and her offspring had recovered from childhood illnesses, and in which Alice had mourned the death of her husband, William.
This 17th-century obsession with familiarity appears to be supported by science. Sleep researchers have long been aware of the ‘first night effect’ – the idea that people sleep badly in unfamiliar environments. Scientists now believe that this is due to one half of the brain being on ‘night watch’, sleeping lightly in case the new environment is unsafe.