People slept far worse before modern times, notes The Doomslayer. That contradicts the widespread myth that before modern times, nighttime was more peaceful, with no blue light from smartphones and TV screens to interfere with sleep, and no noise from traffic to keep people awake. Nights were actually noisier and more chaotic before modern times:
Most preindustrial people suffered from very high levels of stress, making it difficult to relax and sleep soundly….Bedsharing with family members and overnight guests was extraordinarily common; most ordinary people grew up sharing a bed with several siblings. Beds were expensive, often representing “over one-third the value of all domestic assets” in a modest household. “Inadequate bedding meant that families in the lower ranks routinely slept two, three, or more to a mattress, with overnight visitors included . . . Entire households of European peasants, numbering up to five or six persons, occasionally shared the same bed.” Even well into the industrial era, such arrangements continued in impoverished communities. Of early 19th-century Irish household sleeping configurations, it was said, “They lie down decently and in order, the eldest daughter next the wall farthest from the door, then all the sisters according to their ages, next the mother, father and sons in succession, and then the strangers, whether the travelling pedlar or tailor or beggar.”…
Sharing a bed with one’s servants was also quite common. “Female domestics, when sleeping with their mistresses, afforded protection at night from abusive husbands.”…
In both urban and rural areas, “peasant families at night brought farm animals under their roofs” and slept huddled together for warmth. A British term for sharing a bed with many bedfellows was “to pig,” and in some cases, the bedfellows were literal swine….One shudders to think of the barnlike smell that bedchambers took on, in addition to the chorus of barnyard sounds that filled every night. The hubbub “from frogs and katydids to barking dogs, lovesick cats, and needy livestock, not all of which grew familiar with time.”
