Old time beds sizes so people don't die

[Level3Navigator]

@Jomo Mojo

Visit Monticello, and see Thomas Jefferson’s bed.<snip> It is only big enough to fit one person (you can’t imagine him accommodating Sally there; they must have had their fling elsewhere), and then only because he slept sitting up.

Nitpick: Although the DNA evidence shows Sally Hemming’s children to have been fathered by a male of the Jefferson line, but there is no proof that it was Thomas. Many historians ascribe the children to his brother, a common visitor at Monticello. Since this is GQ, I thoguht I would correct this mistake.

And I have been to Monticello many time as well, and can attest that, although it would have been a tight fit, the bed was certainly long enough for Jefferson to lie down at his full length. Perhaps he just prefered the snug fit? Or people commonly slept in the fetal position (curled up on their side) and didn’t need all that room?

[Cervaise]

*Originally posted by mrunlucky
I recently read the book Buried Alive by Jan Bondeson

I was going to recommend this book to anybody who’s interested in the wave of paranoia that swept the West a while back regarding misdiagnosis of death and premature burial. As stated, there’s nothing in the book about sleeping upright, and the author’s survey of methodologies for preventing such a horrific occurrence is quite thorough. Very interesting, if morbid, reading.

[Kalhoun]

@mrunlucky

I recently read the book Buried Alive by Jan Bondeson, and I don’t recall any sort of sitting-up-while-sleeping-to-prevent-misdiagnosis-of-death theory in there. Also not everyone was afraid of being buried alive, and public hysteria about the fear didn’t really pop up until about the 18th century. Beyond which, no one would be presumed dead and immediately buried just because they were slumped over in bed, if they had been sleeping in a sitting position. There were doctors and such to inspect seemingly dead people, plus by the 18th century there were waiting periods between apparent death and burial (usually 12 or 24 hours).

Speaking of apparent death…my husband’s grandfather was shot six times by a machine gun in the war. And stabbed with a big sword. They thought he was dead and he was laid out in the morgue and sat up screaming. Scared the bejeezus out of the attendant. He lived another 50 years.