[MR] BBC: Mystery of Two Sleeps

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today BBC Future has an interesting piece on "biphasic sleep". During the
middle ages, people usually had two "sleeps" each night, separated by a
period of wakeful activity. Actually, the author makes the point that this
sleep pattern is mentioned in pre-medieval sources as well, and continued
until the Industrial Revolution. Knowledge of these sleeping habits is not
as new as the article implies; Lucy Worsley covered this in one of her
delightful videos many years ago.

Along the way, the BBC story explores other aspects of sleep habits of
interest to Scadians (though without recommendations!) including
mattresses, bed bugs and other crawlies, the way families were arranged in
beds, sharing beds with complete strangers of either sex, and how one
conducted themselves in bed (including procreation).

The article is both entertaining and thought provoking:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep
.

The Great Bed of Ware is not mentioned in the BBC article, but certainly
would fit right into the story. The Great Bed of Ware was built around 1590
as a sort of tourist trap for the White Hart Inn in Ware. It was so large
the bed could fit four couples, though the claim has been made that it
could hold many more. The bed was mentioned by Shakespeare in TWELFTH
NIGHT, and has popped up from time to time in other works, both old and
modern. Today it is displayed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Lady Sarah and I just had to see the Great Bed of Ware (in our pre-Scadian
days), and so it was the main object of our visit to the museum. Well, it
turned out to be sort of a "ho-hum" by itself, but when we added Becket's
reliquary chest and the plaster replicas of famous royal tombs the visit
was worthwhile. You can read about the Great Bed of Ware at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bed_of_Ware .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆