Sleeping in Cupboards

Think your sleeping situation is challenging?  In days of yore, people slept in cupboards, as Zuria Gorvett describes in “The Strange Reasons Medieval People Slept in Cupboards (2024, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240122-the-strange-reasons-medieval-people-slept-in-cupboards): “Otherwise known as a closet bed or close bed, the box bed was surprisingly popular across Europe from the medieval era to the early 20th Century. These heavy pieces of furniture involved exactly what you would expect – a box made of wood that contained a bed. Some were plain and humble, no more than basic wooden containers. Others were elaborately decorated, with carved, panelled or painted sides. Often the cupboards had doors that closed to impound the sleeper within the blackness of their cramped interiors, or a little curtained window. The fanciest had a variety of uses – with bonus drawers and a seat at their base. For centuries, drowsy farm-workers, fish-gutters, and even members of the nobility would crawl inside these cosy wooden dens each night, presumably being careful not to bash their elbows as they did so, and shut themselves in.”

These sleeping conditions were certainly “close” and there weren’t many options for using colors, textures, lighting, etc., to relax, as we talk in many Space Doctors articles.  These cupboards do seem to have kept people warm, however, and research does consistently show that we have trouble falling asleep when we’re cold, so the cupboards did have something going for them.

I just hope I don’t find myself sleeping in one any time soon.