A Couple Of Interesting Things

Whilst having the tour of Shakespeare's birthday place last week, I learnt a couple of interesting tid-bits. Firstly, the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" comes from the days when the mattress for a bed was laid on top of a rope that was woven into the frame of the bed. The nearest analogy I can think of is how a tennis racquet is strung. When the rope got loose, it needed to be tightened using a neat little tightening tool. The expectation was that with a 'tighter' bed to put the mattress on, the better the occupant would sleep.

People also used to sleep sitting upright, or at least propped up, as they believed that the devil might come and take you if you slept lining horizontally. The only time humans laid out horizontally was when they were dead and if you slept in that position, it was thought that the devil may come and take you away. So if you see a much shorter bed dating back a few hundred years, it wasn't just that people were shorter, it was as much about concern about the devil.

Little boys were dressed up as little girls because the infant mortality rate amongst boys was higher than girls. People believed that by dressing little boys up in dresses and the like, the devil would not be able to spot them as boys and therefore not 'take them'.

Fascinating. Also shows the power of collective beliefs.