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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This is

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Speaker 1: Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. In today's Vault episode

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Speaker 1: is going to be about the invention of the bed.

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Speaker 1: Originally published novemb Pull the covers uptight and and settle

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Speaker 1: in for a listen. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your

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Speaker 1: Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb

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Speaker 1: and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're gonna be addressing

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Speaker 1: a maybe a surprisingly cozy topic. We're gonna be doing

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Speaker 1: a bit of an invention. Look at the bed, that's right. Uh.

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Speaker 1: We we love to go to bed, especially this time

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Speaker 1: of year. You know, It's just it just seems like

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Speaker 1: the place to be under multiple layers of blanket, um

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Speaker 1: totally over your body. Yeah, my head, just between two pillows,

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Speaker 1: just in the utter darkness there. Uh yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: we it's it's kind of a cliche, especially when it

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Speaker 1: comes to mattress commercials, but we do spend an enormous

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Speaker 1: amount of time in bed, you know. It's we spend

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Speaker 1: a large portion of our life sleeping. Uh, and this

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Speaker 1: is where we do it. One of the sources that

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Speaker 1: I'm going to refer to in this episode as a

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Speaker 1: book that I just started reading called What We Did

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Speaker 1: in Bed, a Horizontal History by Yale University Press, not

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Speaker 1: by Yale University Press. From Yale University Press, by uh

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Speaker 1: Brian and Fagan and Nadia Dorani, and in one of

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Speaker 1: their early chapters they begin with a quote from a

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Speaker 1: writer named Lawrence Wright, who I think wrote on architecture,

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Speaker 1: but who said, from nearly all social history and biography,

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Speaker 1: one third of the story is missing. And that's kind

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Speaker 1: of true. I mean, we've talked before about how a

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Speaker 1: lot of times it's interesting to try to get a

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Speaker 1: flavor of every three day life from the histories written

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Speaker 1: in a certain place and time, and that can be

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Speaker 1: difficult because the histories that people write about are usually

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Speaker 1: devoted to unusual events, are very like like high stakes events,

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Speaker 1: the things we think of as making history, not what

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Speaker 1: everybody happens to go home and do at night. Right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And and the big part of that is sleeping. Not

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Speaker 1: not as many maybe I guess you do have paintings

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Speaker 1: of people sleeping, but for the most part is not

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Speaker 1: the stuff of saga's But it really does define the

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Speaker 1: very texture of our lives. I mean we you know,

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Speaker 1: you spend maybe roughly a third of your life or

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Speaker 1: so in bed and so, uh, what's happening there and

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Speaker 1: what form that bed takes probably matters a lot for

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Speaker 1: your experience of the world. That's right. If it's not

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Speaker 1: the center of your house, it's kind of kind of

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Speaker 1: a center of your house, you know, it's like one

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Speaker 1: of the places that you you spend a lot of time.

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Speaker 1: Uh it, I mean, it's it's it's one of those

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Speaker 1: as you start talking about and it's kind of a

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Speaker 1: an outrageous overstatement of the obvious, but but yeah, we

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Speaker 1: we live in our beds, like our beds are a

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Speaker 1: place we live. So I was wondering, how did our

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Speaker 1: ancestors sleep before the creation of beds. You know, whenever

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Speaker 1: we look at an invention, we like to ask what

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Speaker 1: came before? And h of course, obviously we've been sleeping

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Speaker 1: much longer than we've been sleeping in beds, So what

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Speaker 1: was that transition period like? And there's a lot we

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Speaker 1: don't know, but what we do know is kind of interesting. So,

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Speaker 1: for one thing, it seems like if you go back

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Speaker 1: far enough, much of the life of our hominid ancestors

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Speaker 1: took place in trees. We were you know, we were

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Speaker 1: descended from largely our boreal species, and this probably included sleep.

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Speaker 1: And for some evidence of this we can look to

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Speaker 1: the sleeping habits of our nearest relatives in the animal world,

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Speaker 1: which would be chimpanzees, whose relationship to their environment is

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Speaker 1: we don't know for sure, but we think it is

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Speaker 1: probably pretty similar to that of human ants of Huan

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Speaker 1: ancestors from several million years ago. And in their book,

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Speaker 1: Fagan and Durrani point out that chimpanzees in the Toro

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Speaker 1: sim Leaky Reserve of western Uganda prefer to make their

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Speaker 1: tree top nests out of branches of a particular tree.

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Speaker 1: Actually like their picky about what kind of tree would

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Speaker 1: they want to sleep on. They really like something called

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Speaker 1: Ugandan iron wood. And I went actually to dig up

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Speaker 1: the citation on this because I was wondering about the study.

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Speaker 1: And it looks like this comes from a study by

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Speaker 1: Samson and Hunt published in p Os one that looked

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Speaker 1: at different types of nesting behaviors in chimpanzees and Uganda,

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Speaker 1: and they sampled eighteen hundred and forty four nests and

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Speaker 1: found that chimpanzees selected Uganda ironwood for seventy three point

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Speaker 1: six percent of all those nests, even though it was

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Speaker 1: only a little bit less than ten percent of all

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Speaker 1: the trees within the area that they surveyed. And they

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Speaker 1: found that this was probably related to certain mat curial

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Speaker 1: properties of the iron wood, as would They said it

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Speaker 1: was the stiffest of all the woods around, and they

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Speaker 1: said it quote had the greatest bending strength of all

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Speaker 1: the trees tested, had the smallest distance between leaves on

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Speaker 1: the branches, and had the smallest leaf surface area. And

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Speaker 1: so I'm wondering if all that just kind of adds

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Speaker 1: up to, well, this kind of tree makes the best

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Speaker 1: natural mattress material. It's like that it's got the best

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Speaker 1: sort of the best support structure for you, but it

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Speaker 1: also bends is sort of nicely cushioned. Yeah. And the

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Speaker 1: idea too that it there's the smallest distance between leaves

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Speaker 1: on the branches. Um, you know that that brings that

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Speaker 1: makes you think of something that's almost uh, it's almost

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Speaker 1: like it's woven together, you know. But of course, eventually

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Speaker 1: our ancestors did come out of the trees for the

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Speaker 1: majority of their lives, and the date of this transition

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Speaker 1: is debatable, but uh Fagan and Durrani right that probably

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Speaker 1: roughly two million years ago or so, our ancestors first

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Speaker 1: began to control fire. And it seems that this probably

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Speaker 1: coincided with a transition to sleeping out on the ground

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Speaker 1: in open camps or under the shelter of rock overhangs

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Speaker 1: or caves around fires instead of sleeping in trees. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's an interesting possibility that that fire control

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Speaker 1: of fire would be correlated with changes in where and

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Speaker 1: how we slept. Yeah, we can easily imagine the Gary

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Speaker 1: Larson far Side cartoon showing what happened to our ancestors

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Speaker 1: that decided to have the fires in the tree with them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's not a good plan. Yeah. And then uh Fagan

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Speaker 1: and Doroni go on to mention something that's interesting. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is speculation, but it is interesting to consider the

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Speaker 1: possibility that the introduction of camp fires could very well

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Speaker 1: have shaped the development of what we see as major

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Speaker 1: features of human social life. And they give the example

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Speaker 1: of huddling around fires for warmth and for protection against

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Speaker 1: predators during and jace to sleep time that could have

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Speaker 1: given rise to increasing habituation to prolonged close physical contact,

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Speaker 1: that this could somehow be related towards repeated sex with

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Speaker 1: the same partner in places otherwise used for sleep, as

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Speaker 1: opposed to opportunistic sexual pairing. The possibility that, if this

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Speaker 1: is true the author's write quote, pair bonding maybe a

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Speaker 1: recent feature of human evolution, and it's intriguing to imagine

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Speaker 1: that technology fire and the bed played a role in

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Speaker 1: its emergence. Now, unfortunately, it's impossible to know for sure

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Speaker 1: at this point given the evidence we have, but that

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Speaker 1: is an interesting possibility. I mean even today, uh, like,

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Speaker 1: what do you think when you see um like this,

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Speaker 1: this this setting, a roaring fireplace and something in the

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Speaker 1: fur of some sort of animal placed in front of

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Speaker 1: it like it is? It is? It is on some level,

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Speaker 1: and this is of course probably a lot of this

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Speaker 1: is probably just cultural uh coding as well, but it's

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Speaker 1: it's an erotic situa. It's like they're a bed, they're

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Speaker 1: a fire, right you're you are in James Bond and

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Speaker 1: the Russian Spies, Shelley. But there is a certain point

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Speaker 1: at which we we don't have to speculate as much

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Speaker 1: what was going on, because we eventually do get some

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Speaker 1: physical evidence from archaeology that can tell us something about

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Speaker 1: the sleeping arrangements of our ancient human ancestors uh. And

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Speaker 1: this would be especially during the Middle Stone Age of

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Speaker 1: South Africa. Now, this next part refers to a study

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Speaker 1: by Lynn Wadley, Christine Sievers, Marian Bamford, Paul Goldberg, Francesco Berner,

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Speaker 1: and Christopher Miller called Middle Stone Age Bedding construction and

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Speaker 1: Settlement Patterns at Subadu, South Africa. This was published in

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Speaker 1: two thousand eleven and Science, and according to widely at All,

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Speaker 1: there are a number of interesting adaptations that all appear

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Speaker 1: or emerge in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa.

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Speaker 1: We noticed the use of shell beads and engraving, UH,

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Speaker 1: innovations in stone technology, the creation in and use of

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Speaker 1: compound adhesives so types of glue, heat treatment of rocks,

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Speaker 1: and circumstantial evidence for snares and for bows and arrows.

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Speaker 1: But along with this all all this stuff in the

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Speaker 1: same period, there's also early evidence of domestic innovations in betting.

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Speaker 1: And this evidence of betting comes from a place known

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Speaker 1: as the Seeboodoo rock shelter. To read from Fagan and

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Speaker 1: Durrani quote in a cliff above the youth Ungathi River

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Speaker 1: in South Africa, forty kilometers north of Durban and fifteen

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Speaker 1: kilometers from the Indian Ocean. Modern people Homo sapiens, who

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Speaker 1: were physically and mentally like ourselves, visited the shelter at

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Speaker 1: least fifteen times between seventy seven thousand and thirty eight

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Speaker 1: thousand years ago and slept there. Thick swaths of grasses, sedges,

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Speaker 1: and rushes that still grow by the river tell a

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Speaker 1: story of regular but careful slumber. Now about the archaeological

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Speaker 1: fine the archaeologist Lynn Wadley, the lead author and the

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Speaker 1: study I mentioned, she said in a separate interview that

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Speaker 1: was quoted in an article I was reading. Quote, the

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Speaker 1: fossilized leaves were uncovered as a sheet of white plant

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Speaker 1: matter overlying layers of sedge leaves and stems. I suspected

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Speaker 1: whilst excavating them that the leaves were deliberately collected as

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Speaker 1: part of betting, because all of the leaves were clearly

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Speaker 1: the same taxon meaning of the same plant. If leaves

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Speaker 1: had simply blown into the side from the forest, there

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Speaker 1: would have been several different tree species represented. So that's

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Speaker 1: about the method of determining what this layer of vegetation

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Speaker 1: that was repeatedly found buried in the ground meant. But

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Speaker 1: Fagan and Dorani also mentioned that there was something careful

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Speaker 1: going on about the construction of this ancient betting here.

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Speaker 1: Where does the careful part come in? Well, when you're

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Speaker 1: sleeping in a cave or a rock shelter, it can

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Speaker 1: be extremely difficult to keep your sleeping area clean and

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Speaker 1: free of insects. I mean, obviously, you know you're laying

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Speaker 1: out there, and you are you and all the stuff

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Speaker 1: you're doing is probably pretty attractive to insects for multiple reasons.

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Speaker 1: There are mosquitoes that want to bite you and suck

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Speaker 1: your blood. There are probably other opportunistic insects that are

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Speaker 1: attracted to whatever food you're eating around your dwelling space.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're like a magnet for insect life. But

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Speaker 1: the Stone Age inhabitants of this cave discovered a way

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Speaker 1: to to improve their their odds with insects. Essentially, they

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Speaker 1: invented an insect repellent mattress. Now, this mattress was made

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Speaker 1: out of not just any leaves and grasses, but very importantly,

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Speaker 1: it contained the aromatic leaves of the cape laurel tree

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Speaker 1: or Cryptocaria woody eye, which smells very nice to humans.

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Speaker 1: I'm told, I'm not sure if I know what that

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Speaker 1: would smell like. But it also bears insecticidal compounds that

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Speaker 1: can drive away mosquitoes and other pests. And this would

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Speaker 1: have been not only to make the beds more pleasant,

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Speaker 1: but to some extent this was a question of life

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Speaker 1: and death, because insect borne illnesses were and are a

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Speaker 1: real threat to survival, especially to young children. But beyond that,

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Speaker 1: there's also evidence that the people who lived here frequently

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Speaker 1: burned their bedding and then replaced it with fresh layers

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Speaker 1: of foliage. And this would be to kill any insects

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Speaker 1: that had taken up residence despite the repellent leaves, and

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Speaker 1: to get rid of trash and garbage. Because one thing

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Speaker 1: is quite clear from the archaeological remains, these people liked

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Speaker 1: to eat in bed. The remains showed that they would

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Speaker 1: consume food on these grass mats that served as their beds,

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Speaker 1: but they would also do other stuff. Tools, debris, and

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Speaker 1: charred bone indicate that they probably worked and did other

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Speaker 1: activities in bed, because hey, beds are nice, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a soft layer like, why leave if you

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Speaker 1: don't have to. They also clearly liked large beds. Fagan

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Speaker 1: and Dorani described these as king sized quote most of

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Speaker 1: the bedding covers at least three well trodden square meters uh.

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Speaker 1: And the fact that they were burning their bedding and

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Speaker 1: replacing it at regular intervals shows early human use not

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Speaker 1: just to fire for warmth, cooking, protection, and tool manufacture,

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Speaker 1: but also for sanitation, which is an important milestone in

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Speaker 1: the history of human hygiene. But I thought this was

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Speaker 1: interesting for a number of reasons. I mean, one is

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Speaker 1: the the ancient insight into the insect repellent properties of

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Speaker 1: these particular leaves that would be woven into the bedding

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Speaker 1: material to keep the insects out. But another thing is

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Speaker 1: what kind of role this bed location would have played

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Speaker 1: in ancient culture, because, at least in American culture today,

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Speaker 1: we usually think of beds as well several things private,

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Speaker 1: right hidden from view. Like if you're showing somebody around

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Speaker 1: your house that you know, you don't usually start with

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Speaker 1: the bed. You might not even show them the bed

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Speaker 1: at all. You think of beds as solitary or at

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Speaker 1: least secluded with a single partner. We think of beds

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Speaker 1: as primarily for sleep, with secondary uses maybe including sex

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Speaker 1: and low energy activities like reading. But historically and around

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Speaker 1: the world, none of this is a given. Like for

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Speaker 1: much of human history and for many people even today,

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Speaker 1: beds have been more public or in plane view, often

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Speaker 1: shared by many people, sometimes even by strangers, and used

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Speaker 1: for lots of activities other than sleep in sex like

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Speaker 1: beds have many times in place has been used for socializing, eating,

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Speaker 1: preparing food, working on projects, etcetera. And I wonder what

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Speaker 1: kind of difference does this make in our lives. Well,

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Speaker 1: I was thinking about this, and I think thinking about

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Speaker 1: like my current living situation and past living situations, and

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Speaker 1: I think one thing we have to to to recognize

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Speaker 1: is that in sort of you know, stereotypical American home,

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Speaker 1: you have the bed, but you also have the couch.

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Speaker 1: And the couch is a place where we do a

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Speaker 1: lot of the same things that we do in the bed.

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Speaker 1: It's certainly where we I don't know about you, but

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Speaker 1: I certainly get in the occasional nap on my couch.

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Speaker 1: Uh that there have been you know, there have been times.

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Speaker 1: It was particularly recently I lived near some train tracks.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of bright lights that were visible through

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Speaker 1: the bedroom windows. So if it was too bright for

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Speaker 1: me out there, I would come and I would sleep

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Speaker 1: on the couch as well, because it was darker in

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Speaker 1: the living room. So you know, you can you can

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Speaker 1: sleep on the couch. You can. But also I find

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Speaker 1: that generally some of us that are maybe not okay with, say,

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Speaker 1: eating dinner in their bed, you you're probably perfectly okay

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Speaker 1: eating dinner at your couch, like in front of the television. Right.

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Speaker 1: So the couch is basically a bed. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: doing all the same things that a bed does, but

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Speaker 1: it I think in many cases ends up absorbing some

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Speaker 1: of the activities that then we we don't do in

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Speaker 1: bed proper, you know, like eating a meal. That's a

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Speaker 1: really interesting point. I mean, I mean, one very obvious

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Speaker 1: thing is the way that a couch plays a role

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Speaker 1: for like visiting and socialization. Socialization that maybe means something

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Speaker 1: different socializing, uh that would you know it's normal to

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Speaker 1: like have friends over and I'll sit on the couch.

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Speaker 1: It would be kind of weird for a lot of

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Speaker 1: people in America today to have friends over and have

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Speaker 1: everybody get in your bed. Right. But but I think

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Speaker 1: two cases where like you and I have been on

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Speaker 1: the road doing podcast stuff and then what do you

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Speaker 1: what do you do? You're in a hotel room and

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Speaker 1: you gotta go over notes. You end up in a

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Speaker 1: hotel room is generally a space in which there is

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Speaker 1: a bed, you know you Granted, you can go to

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Speaker 1: a business center if they have one, and sometimes you

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Speaker 1: have more of a little study in the room, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of times it ends up like sitting around

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Speaker 1: on the bed laying out notes. I mean that's what

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Speaker 1: I think. Back to, say college, I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of us and probably have this experience, like you don't

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Speaker 1: have a lot of space. Your bed ends up being

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Speaker 1: a place where you can print, take printed sheets and

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Speaker 1: organize them. Uh if it becomes a sort of a

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Speaker 1: table half the time, well no, I but I gotta say,

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Speaker 1: as an adult, I have felt awkwardness for when you're

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Speaker 1: like trying to hang out, say like when we've been

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Speaker 1: on the road for the show and had to hang

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Speaker 1: out in a hotel room and you just have to

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Speaker 1: sit on the bed, Like it feels weird because yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know this, it feels like you're doing something wrong.

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Speaker 1: But uh no, I think I think it's just like

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Speaker 1: you know, we're we're enculturated to think, no, you don't

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Speaker 1: do that with this kind of furniture. The furniture should

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Speaker 1: be shaped a little bit differently in order to do

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Speaker 1: what you're doing right. But then again, we also have

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Speaker 1: like thinking of meals and dad breakfast and bad still

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Speaker 1: has a certain attractiveness to it. I don't know. It's

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Speaker 1: not something I want for myself, but I am at

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Speaker 1: least led to believe it is something that other people want.

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Speaker 1: It's a good way to make a mess, a good

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Speaker 1: way to find find crumbs later the following night, you know. Way, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know. But also like a good reminder

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Speaker 1: to to clean your betting right if you're if you're

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Speaker 1: actively eating dinner in there, maybe the betting gets clean

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Speaker 1: more often, I don't know, possibly, or you could just

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Speaker 1: burn it and start over, yeah, just to be sure. Well,

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Speaker 1: So something that I was just thinking about that maybe

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Speaker 1: this is a psychologically insignificant, But I wonder if there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of times in history when it's been

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Speaker 1: more normal to gather around to bed and and socialize,

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Speaker 1: even for like adults with their own living space or something. Um.

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Speaker 1: But I wonder if even in a culture where that's

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Speaker 1: not very normal. Does the effect somewhat reverse with how

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Speaker 1: much we bring social media into our beds through mobile devices,

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Speaker 1: like you know you tweet from bed, you Graham from

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Speaker 1: bed and so forth? Uh, I don't know. I mean

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Speaker 1: it's I mean, from one level. On one level, we

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Speaker 1: have always been bringing media into our beds. Uh, social

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Speaker 1: media being a like a way of communicating. I mean,

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Speaker 1: given that you're generally I mean, unless you're talking about

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Speaker 1: like a video conferencing type thing. If you're like actively

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Speaker 1: doing like an Instagram story or something from your bed,

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Speaker 1: I can see where that might be a little weight.

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Speaker 1: Otherwise it's like you have are people tagging themselves as

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Speaker 1: being like this, here's my missive from the bed. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, otherwise you could be in your bed, you

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Speaker 1: could be on the toilet. Uh, nobody's gonna know. Isn't

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Speaker 1: it weird how people just read tweets all day without

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Speaker 1: even acknowledging that a good number of these are sent

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Speaker 1: from the toilet. Yeah, I think they should be required

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Speaker 1: to tag them. You know. It's like, did you where

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Speaker 1: where are you tweeting from? And the immediate drop down

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Speaker 1: menu is toilet? Um, you're in all or I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I guess the bed would be on the list driving train,

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Speaker 1: driving doctor's waiting room, supposed to be paying attention in

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Speaker 1: a meeting. All right, on that note, we're gonna take

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Speaker 1: a quick break, but we'll be right back. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: thank Okay, we're back alright. So we talked a little

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Speaker 1: bit about the prehistory of betting, what some some innovations

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Speaker 1: in Middle Stone Age South Africa can can tell us

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Speaker 1: about Stone Age life betting in under rock shelters and

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Speaker 1: things like that. But later on in history we do

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Speaker 1: get more kind of constructed beds, beds that become sort

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Speaker 1: of permanent furniture within dwellings. Uh. So maybe we should

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Speaker 1: explore something about that. Yeah, So I immediately turned, of

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Speaker 1: course to Brian M. Fagan, same Fagan that we mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: his his book The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World.

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Speaker 1: And there is indeed a section in there not about betting,

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Speaker 1: but about furniture. Uh. And this was written with Jeffrey P. Killing,

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Speaker 1: a specialist in ancient furniture and woodworking, particularly ancient Egyptian furniture.

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Speaker 1: So they point out that to have furniture of any kind,

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Speaker 1: you of course need specialized tools and the ability to

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Speaker 1: work natural materials into new forms. Now, at first you

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Speaker 1: would have been limited to materials in your immediate surroundings,

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Speaker 1: um within your range at least, right, but eventually trade

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Speaker 1: opens humans up to more materials and this would expand

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Speaker 1: what they were able to create. So they point to

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Speaker 1: a particular exam pole, uh that stands as one of

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Speaker 1: the earliest examples of furniture within a domestic environment. That's

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Speaker 1: supposed to say, within a tomb, as will explore in

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Speaker 1: a bed, and this example certainly includes a bed. It's

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Speaker 1: from the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland circa

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Speaker 1: one hundred to b C. Now, uh, wood is scarce

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Speaker 1: on the Orkney Islands, so stone was the primary building material.

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Speaker 1: So there were stone dressers, stone cupboards, and yes, stone

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Speaker 1: beds are more particularly stone bed boxes. Okay, so this

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Speaker 1: might be imagining something that looks a little bit more

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Speaker 1: like a stone bath tub that you could fill with

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00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:46,479
Speaker 1: betting material exactly. Yeah. And and if you you travel

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Speaker 1: to the Orkney Islands you can you can actually see

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Speaker 1: an example that The site here in question is called

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Speaker 1: Scara Bray. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Uh. The

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00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:58,240
Speaker 1: domicile here features two beds, one smaller one a bit larger,

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Speaker 1: often interpreted as belonging to husband and wife of the

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Speaker 1: people who would have lived here. Now we don't know

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Speaker 1: for sure, but there there might have been based on

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Speaker 1: the evidence, there might have been a curtain of some

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00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,880
Speaker 1: sorts separating the beds from the rest of the domicile. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Though they would have had little privacy either way. And

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Speaker 1: these stone beds would have been filled with a mattress

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Speaker 1: of bracken or heather, and for covers they would have

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00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,399
Speaker 1: used animal skins. I feel like I should know what

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00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: bracken and heather are. What are they? Well, by bracken,

396
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,720
Speaker 1: it's a you know, it's a type of fern. Oh, okay,

397
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:34,159
Speaker 1: that's nice. And head there is an evergreen flowering plant. Okay, okay,

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00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: Oh well, the brackens I just looked up. They have

399
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: their their immature fronds or fiddle heads, like fiddle head ferns. Yeah,

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00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 1: so you know that it doesn't doesn't sound horrible at all.

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00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:46,919
Speaker 1: I mean, I encourage you to look up examples of

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00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,199
Speaker 1: this out there as you're listening to this episode. If

403
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 1: you have a chance, after you listen to it, because

404
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 1: it it looks fairly comfortable. I mean, like you said,

405
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:55,480
Speaker 1: it looks kind of like a stone bathtub, but you

406
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Speaker 1: can imagine it filled with some some cushy mattress material

407
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 1: and it being you know, not that get me in there.

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00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 1: I'll sleep in it. I'll sleep there. I'll do it now.

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Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that Killing's main area focuses ancient Egypt,

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Speaker 1: So that raises the question what about ancient Egypt. Well,

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Speaker 1: say Fagin and Killing right, that ancient Egyptian homes were

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Speaker 1: sparse and most people could not afford wooden or certainly

413
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Speaker 1: ivory objects or any kind of you know of fancy metalwork,

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Speaker 1: so they would have had simple stools, tables, and screens

415
00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:30,640
Speaker 1: made from bound red stems and rush that were employed

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Speaker 1: for most things. And that the bed consisted of, quote,

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Speaker 1: a small platform built from mud brick. This is something

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Speaker 1: I've noticed in looking at a bunch of ancient beds

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Speaker 1: and ancient bedding materials. They don't always really seem to

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Speaker 1: emphasize softness. A lot of them are just sort of

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00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:50,359
Speaker 1: like hard platforms of various kinds. Yeah, and I guess

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00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:52,719
Speaker 1: part of that is there is the idea that there

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Speaker 1: would be something else there as well. You know that

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00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,680
Speaker 1: they would have furs or you know, or or vegetation

425
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:01,439
Speaker 1: that would be added into the mix. Um. But but then,

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00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 1: but then also, I guess it's kind of like raising

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00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 1: something up right, creating a platform on which to sleep

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00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 1: that is a little separate, that's not quite the floor,

429
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 1: which if you're thinking about you know, I'm just imagining

430
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,719
Speaker 1: like all the kind of things that could happen in

431
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 1: a space like this. You have water, say running in,

432
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: or you have um, you know, any kind of you know,

433
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 1: insect or or a crab or whatnot that wanders into

434
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: I'm mainly thinking back to um, yeah, my my honeymoon

435
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 1: when I was in this like little beach side place

436
00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 1: and there with the crabs would come in at night

437
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:33,080
Speaker 1: and it would just be all over the floor. They

438
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:36,199
Speaker 1: just came right in under the door and so you

439
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 1: had to watch where you step. But of course they're

440
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 1: not gonna get up in the bed, but they are

441
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: going to like crawl the walls a bit. You've mentioned

442
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 1: that before. That sounds awesome. Yeah, I'm sure that would

443
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,560
Speaker 1: make midnight trips to the bathroom a little bit scary. Yeah, well,

444
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,480
Speaker 1: you know, more like a video game yeah, but but

445
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: I mean just as a yeah reminder, it's like it

446
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: it makes sense to maybe lift your sleeping area up

447
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: a little bit from the surrounding floor or or ground.

448
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 1: Well imagine also uh heat, heat plays a role there

449
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 1: because sleeping on the floor is usually going to be cold. Right. Well,

450
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: we'll come back to that because there's a there's a

451
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 1: wonderful example from from from Chinese history. But as for

452
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 1: the ancient Egyptians, Fagan and Killing mentioned that there were

453
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 1: crude batted frame attempts during the pre Dynastic period b C,

454
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: which they described as boundary branches and twigs, but it

455
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 1: wasn't until the following Dynastic period the copper woodworking tools

456
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,919
Speaker 1: began to make a real difference in what was possible,

457
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 1: and this resulted in wooden stools, frames and carcasses or

458
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: cabinet frameworks. UH. Simple joint cuts and woodworking were key here,

459
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 1: but materials played a big role as well. At first,

460
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 1: they were limited by the wood UH that was available

461
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: to them, which was sparse and poor in quality, but

462
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: by the mid third millennium BC, Syrian and Lebanese timber

463
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:58,720
Speaker 1: provided far improved raw materials and Egyptian furniture surged in quality,

464
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: and we have some surviving examples of this sort of thing.

465
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 1: And again this is coming via what was put into

466
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: the tombs of royal individuals. And does it seem like

467
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:11,359
Speaker 1: that that would mainly be because a tomb provided an

468
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: opportunity for furniture to be preserved across the ages, as

469
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 1: opposed to just sort of like chucked when it fell

470
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: into disrepair. Right, I mean, even though the wooden furniture

471
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 1: in question, um, you know, basically turned to dust. Uh,

472
00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 1: at least the dust and the pieces are still all

473
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: in the same place. It's like far easier to put

474
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 1: things back together again. Yeah. So the key bed from

475
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: this period is the bed of Hiteferies from around twenty

476
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: b C, which was buried with the queen in her

477
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: Giza tomb as So this would have been a fine

478
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 1: wooden bed frame with a portable bed canopy. The wood

479
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: just decayed to powder, but egypt Egyptologist George Reisner was

480
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,919
Speaker 1: able to reconstruct it from the remaining metallic parts, and

481
00:26:57,960 --> 00:26:59,800
Speaker 1: you can look up images of this. It's I mean,

482
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: it looks nice. It's it's just a wooden flat bed

483
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:06,359
Speaker 1: with a like a head. You look at it and

484
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 1: you you instantly recognize, like that's a bed, that's the invention.

485
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: That is the thing. Now one thing that we should

486
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 1: come back to in just a minute. But it's an

487
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,199
Speaker 1: interesting visual feature of this bed is it has this

488
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,479
Speaker 1: little spike at one end. It's almost like a like

489
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,880
Speaker 1: an eagle atop a pedestal or a little y shaped

490
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,160
Speaker 1: stud of some kind. I wonder what that for. Yeah,

491
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 1: the the Egyptian headrest, which is very y shaped or

492
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: kind of slingshot frames shaped. Uh. You know, we'll come

493
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:35,959
Speaker 1: back to that in a minute, because that's certainly one

494
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,360
Speaker 1: of the more interesting artifacts you tend to see when

495
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: you see um, you know, ancient Egyptian beds, uh or

496
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: reconstructions of them in museums, and you think, what what

497
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:48,640
Speaker 1: was that? How did that? How did that work? Can

498
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 1: I imagine myself using such a thing at night? But

499
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,600
Speaker 1: we'll come back to that in a minute. Um. Some

500
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,960
Speaker 1: of the other beds that they mentioned, there's a really

501
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:59,640
Speaker 1: nice folding Z type bed frame with metal hinges found

502
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: in the two of tutin Common from the fourteenth century BC.

503
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: You can you can look up images this as well.

504
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: But kind of think of the way that some beach

505
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: recliners fold up and that's basically what you have here. Now,

506
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: some of these ancient Egyptian beds, they were made to

507
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 1: be not flat, but at an angle, right, Uh is

508
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 1: the tuting common example like that it would be kind

509
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:28,360
Speaker 1: of like slightly inclined towards the headrest. I think so

510
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:31,399
Speaker 1: now they had taperies. Example from earlier is is pretty

511
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 1: u or as a least reconstructed as being pretty flat

512
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:36,679
Speaker 1: across the top. But yeah, I think some of them

513
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: had kind of a slant to them. It looks like

514
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 1: it might have a slight incline you've read some of

515
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 1: them had a slight incline and then often had like

516
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: a little wall down at the bottom that you would

517
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:50,720
Speaker 1: put your feet on that would prevent you, I guess,

518
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 1: from sliding out of the bed. Well, it's interesting to

519
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: remind uselves of the role the gravity plays in sleep.

520
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 1: Come back to that in a bit. But but you know,

521
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:02,240
Speaker 1: it's sleeping in a bed is very much a gravity

522
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: dependent um uh mode of human behavior. Now let's get

523
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: back to the headrest though, because there Yeah, there's a

524
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: lot that's interesting here. Um. It's one of the most

525
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 1: notable aspects of Royal Egyptian sleeping arrangements. Often you'll find

526
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 1: gilded ornate examples, because yeah, the ancient Egyptians did not

527
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: use pillows, but instead used a wooden or stone stand

528
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:30,680
Speaker 1: for their head. Why does that not sound very comfortable? Uh?

529
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: That that? I mean, that's the thing I always I

530
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:34,240
Speaker 1: always wondered when I when I looked at It's like

531
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,239
Speaker 1: I I tried to imagine what that was like, you know,

532
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: because I would think, well, wouldn't you just fold your

533
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,160
Speaker 1: arms up under your head? Instead? Like? Why is why

534
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: is this a good choice to make? And I found

535
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: an interesting article about this from Kira Foley. She wrote

536
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: an article for the John Hopkins Archaeological Museum, and she

537
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: points out that Egyptian headrest had two purposes, one practical

538
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: and the other um uh apotropaic. So, first of all,

539
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 1: they did the same thing that a pillow does. They

540
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: account for the gap between your head and shoulders during sleep.

541
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: But they also were items of of apotropaic magic. In

542
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 1: other words, they serve to protect the individual from evil

543
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 1: influences during sleep. Ah. So they were kind of like

544
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: a like almost like an amulet, but a feature of

545
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 1: furniture that served the same purpose. Well both actually, because

546
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: they start off as being this thing that is seen

547
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 1: as a a magical item of key importance, like so

548
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 1: important that when you die, you are buried with your

549
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 1: head rest in order that you can take it with

550
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: you to provide protection in the next life. But eventually,

551
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: by the third Intermediate period this would have been seven

552
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 1: seven b C, they start using amulets in the shape

553
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,920
Speaker 1: of headrests instead, like the thing becomes a symbol of

554
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 1: the thing, and you take this with you into into

555
00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: the grave for the same purpose. Interesting. Yeah, so it's

556
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:02,200
Speaker 1: like a little you can look up images of this

557
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: amulet and it it's basically just a small version of

558
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 1: the headrest, the headrest made into a symbol. You know.

559
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: It looks, uh, you know, look looks a little bit

560
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:11,959
Speaker 1: like if you don't know what it is, you might think,

561
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 1: what looks kind of like a saddle on a stand

562
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 1: or something, and fully writes that the Book of the Dead,

563
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 1: the Egyptian Book of the Dead, elaborates that these amulets

564
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:24,800
Speaker 1: could protect you from decapitation in the afterlife. WHOA, yeah,

565
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: so I had to look this up. Uh. It's often

566
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,440
Speaker 1: referred to as the chapter of the Pillow. Uh. In

567
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: the Book of the Dead, and this particular example, I

568
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: believe is from the Wallace Budge translation from I'm just

569
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 1: gonna read a part of this. Uh you can, you

570
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 1: can look up the whole text online, but it goes

571
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: son of hathor nessert Nessertet, who giveth back the head

572
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 1: after the slaughter. Thy head shall not be carried away

573
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 1: from the after the slaughter, thy head shall never never

574
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: be carried away from the the That's the headrest guarantee. Now,

575
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 1: one of the big things from any Westerners when we

576
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: view Egyptian headrest is again not the idea that they

577
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 1: might protect us from evil, but rather that this sort

578
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: of thing is comfortable at all during sleep. Well, I

579
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 1: ran across a wonderful article about this very topic. This

580
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: is from the the Glencren Museum in Pennsylvania. They have

581
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 1: a nice article with illustrations on this topic from Jennifer

582
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: hawser Vegner, pH d, Associate Curator Egyptian Section Pin Museum,

583
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: and in it she points out several key facts about

584
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,719
Speaker 1: the use of of headrest and this headrest in these

585
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: headrest in particular during sleep. So for starters, this wasn't

586
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 1: just an Egyptian thing. Uh, ceramic pillows were used during

587
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: the Ming dynasty of China through sixty four. She mentions

588
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 1: that this was a time when elaborate female hairstyles were fashionable,

589
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 1: so a headrest in these cases would protect an elaborate

590
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: hair treatment from what we'll we would think of his

591
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,719
Speaker 1: bed head today. Oh. Interesting. And then headrests are not

592
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 1: just an ancient or even historical things. She points out

593
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: that we see them used to this day in parts

594
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 1: of Africa, and it comes down to two key reasons. First,

595
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: there's the elaborate hair issue thing quote groups whose cultural

596
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: expressions involved the wearing of elaborate hairstyles. Uh. These are

597
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 1: the types of cultures where we may see the use

598
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,720
Speaker 1: of a headrest at night, and this would have included

599
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 1: the Egyptians. Uh. Secondly, there's climate. So if you use

600
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: a traditional fabric pillow, you know as well as we know,

601
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: that the cold side of the pillow is where it's

602
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 1: at right in a hot climate. Uh. This feeling, the

603
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:41,840
Speaker 1: feeling of the cold pillow that may be harder to

604
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: come by. A headrest provides a cooler sleeping experience by

605
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,000
Speaker 1: lifting the head up from the sleeping surface and allowing

606
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:53,520
Speaker 1: air to flow under and around the head and neck. Nice. Okay,

607
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 1: I think I understand now. That makes a lot of sense.

608
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 1: And then another reason they mentioned this comes to what

609
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 1: you were talking about earlier with the burning of the betting.

610
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 1: Organic fabric pillows may have posed more of an infestation risk,

611
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:11,399
Speaker 1: but a solid headrest, uh, that would have that would

612
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 1: have removed this particular threat. You know, you might have

613
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 1: to worry with the rest of your betting, but at

614
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 1: least the head region is is safe and secure. Oh.

615
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 1: This is uh, sort of the same logic for why

616
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,399
Speaker 1: I was kind of grossed out when we were reading

617
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,279
Speaker 1: about in the history of the toilet that there were

618
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:30,680
Speaker 1: these cushioned toilets with like fabric that for the seat area,

619
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:34,120
Speaker 1: which just seemed awful, Like, wouldn't it be better to

620
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:37,880
Speaker 1: just have like hard, non porous surfaces that are easy

621
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: to clean? And I guess the same that's true of

622
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,280
Speaker 1: a toilet would apply to a bed. Uh. They're probably

623
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,400
Speaker 1: equally like germ infested and gross. Yeah, but you know,

624
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 1: if you if you have just um, you know, this

625
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 1: this wooden platform on which to lay your head. Uh, yeah,

626
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: that removes at least some of the risk here, but

627
00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 1: it still leaves that that remaining question was this comfortable?

628
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:03,600
Speaker 1: Is this a comfortable way to sleep? Well? Vegner takes

629
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:06,239
Speaker 1: the extra step of testing it out herself in this

630
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:10,319
Speaker 1: article so Um, she constructed a wonder one replica of

631
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:13,320
Speaker 1: one of the headrests found in the Pen Museum's collection,

632
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,120
Speaker 1: and I just want to read her results here she

633
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 1: she writes it up rather nicely, quote The experiment clarified

634
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: a few things for me. Firstly, I had always assumed

635
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: that the curve support of the headrest could be used

636
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 1: to support either the head or the neck. This was

637
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: an incorrect assumption. The headrest can only be used to

638
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,160
Speaker 1: support the head, not the neck. Trying to use the

639
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: headrest on one's neck was an uncomfortable impossibility. There is

640
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:42,960
Speaker 1: a reason it is called a headrest. Secondly, the headrest,

641
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: when positioned correctly on the head, can't be used fairly

642
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,920
Speaker 1: comfortably while resting on one's back. Many representations of the

643
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 1: headrest in use, such as in the glencre And figurine,

644
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 1: show the sleep arresting on their side. Again, it was

645
00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 1: possible to position the headrest in such a way just

646
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:03,359
Speaker 1: above one's ear that this pose was also not completely uncomfortable.

647
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: I can also let any stomach sleepers know that using

648
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 1: headrest and trying to position it on the forehead while

649
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 1: facing downwards is impossible. There seems to be some evidence

650
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:16,880
Speaker 1: that the headrests in ancient Egypt were padded or wrapped

651
00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 1: with linen when used. I would imagine this would make

652
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: the headrest even more comfortable as it lightning as this

653
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: experiment was, I do not think I will trade my

654
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:30,760
Speaker 1: trusty pillow for a wooden headrest anytime soon. That's interesting.

655
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,399
Speaker 1: I mean, I wonder if it's a it's a matter

656
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 1: if it's a matter of getting used to it, or

657
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,440
Speaker 1: if it's a matter of maybe like we don't know

658
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:39,480
Speaker 1: exactly how it was used. It sounds like it's a

659
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 1: it's it's a combination of those. Yeah, Like like there

660
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:44,960
Speaker 1: are particularly what particular ways to use it and not

661
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 1: to use it, and you have to take an account

662
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:49,759
Speaker 1: that you would have like added um uh, you know,

663
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 1: padding and whatnot. But kudos to Vegner for for taking

664
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 1: the you know, the step of trying it out for herself.

665
00:36:57,320 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 1: It makes me wonder too. It's just the kind of

666
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:00,920
Speaker 1: thing we can see make to come back, you know.

667
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:04,919
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm surprised I mean, on one one hand,

668
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,400
Speaker 1: it's something humans do and certainly did in the past

669
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: as well, so it's the kind of uh sleep choice

670
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: that could make a comeback. You could also imagine it

671
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 1: becoming fashionable, be becoming the next big thing that you

672
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 1: buy you know online or you know order with a

673
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:24,759
Speaker 1: podcast code. It's the next Squaddy potty. Well, and then

674
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you could imagine someone coming up

675
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 1: with outrageous claims for why like this is the this

676
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 1: is the way to sleep, you know, give you the

677
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:36,440
Speaker 1: the enlightened mind of the ancient Egyptian or something you know, uh,

678
00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:40,240
Speaker 1: some sort of you know, spiritual or pseudo scientific reason

679
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:42,279
Speaker 1: for why this is the best way to sleep. Yeah,

680
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 1: like some chiropractors theory about our pillows are responsible for

681
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 1: all Western diseases. Now now Vegner, you know very much,

682
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: and is someone who normally uses a you know, a

683
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: soft pillow and try it out using uh one of

684
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: these head rest I would be interested to hear from

685
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,319
Speaker 1: any listeners out there who either have tried the same

686
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 1: experiment or have any experience using a headrest regularly. Uh. Yeah,

687
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,319
Speaker 1: I'd love to. I'd love to hear the reverse, you know,

688
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: someone who regularly uses a headrest, a hard headrest, and

689
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: then tries a soft pillow, because I mean, I'm very

690
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:20,360
Speaker 1: particular about my pillows. I need a certain amount of

691
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:25,239
Speaker 1: firmness otherwise I'm not getting that in that next support. Now,

692
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,480
Speaker 1: Fagan and killing back in. They're they're right up. They

693
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 1: mentioned some other examples of note. The ancient Greeks developed

694
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,719
Speaker 1: a bed that was larger and higher than the Egyptian bed,

695
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:36,839
Speaker 1: called a client, and it was the sort of thing

696
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 1: that you could lay on, prop yourself up on a

697
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 1: pillow on, and of course enjoy a hearty meal upon. Yeah. Uh,

698
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 1: you know you. I don't know if you were in

699
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,160
Speaker 1: the city at that this point, but that's there was

700
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: a There was a restaurant in Atlanta for a while

701
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:54,560
Speaker 1: called Bed and all of the tables, or at least

702
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 1: a number of the tables were beds, and that was

703
00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 1: the whole attraction. But it was like a big canopy

704
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: bed and you hung out on it and you ate

705
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:04,280
Speaker 1: U huh, Yeah, I mean I never went, but I

706
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 1: I've heard about it. Oh, maybe I'm being unfair. That

707
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 1: strikes me as very gimmicky, but I don't know. I'd

708
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 1: give it a shot. If somebody at trusted said the

709
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: food was good. Now we mentioned the idea of a

710
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:21,080
Speaker 1: platform and temperature earlier. Um the the ancient Chinese fagan

711
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 1: and and killing right where a matt level culture, so

712
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:27,200
Speaker 1: they used lower simply wooden bed frames, and they don't

713
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:29,080
Speaker 1: really get into this, but one of the cooler sleep

714
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,400
Speaker 1: innovations in Chinese culture, at least in northern China, was

715
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:37,200
Speaker 1: the kind an integrated home heating system for cooking, sleeping.

716
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 1: Domestic heating and ventilation is still apparently widely used in

717
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:45,479
Speaker 1: northern China, and it's a heated h raised bed pat

718
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:48,839
Speaker 1: platform that is thought to have its origins and Neolithic

719
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 1: designs but for for a long time. Basically, what you

720
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:56,760
Speaker 1: have is you have hot exhaust from a fire housing

721
00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:01,720
Speaker 1: another room circulating through this pla form of stone or brick,

722
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 1: creating a heated platform on which to sleep but also

723
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 1: to work and to live. If you if you end

724
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,319
Speaker 1: up looking at it, you probably have seen images of

725
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:16,840
Speaker 1: this of a Chinese household, either contemporary or historic, and

726
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:18,799
Speaker 1: maybe not realize exactly what you're looking at. But it's

727
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:21,280
Speaker 1: like a it looks like a raised corner or portion

728
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 1: of a room, but it is also heated. Now, uh,

729
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: one quick note about something we're not really going to

730
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: get into in these in this episode, and that is

731
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:35,359
Speaker 1: the hammock um because the hammock. I was looking into

732
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,360
Speaker 1: this a little bit. It seems to have its own

733
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 1: really interesting history, one that we could potentially come back

734
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 1: and discuss in greater detail. But it's an example the

735
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,799
Speaker 1: hanging bed that is based on fabric technology, and so

736
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: we see examples of its use in the ancient world

737
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: as well as among the fiber technology using peoples of

738
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 1: the of the America's We should definitely come back to

739
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 1: the hammock. Yeah, I love I love a good hammock.

740
00:40:57,840 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna take another break, but we'll be

741
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 1: right back. All right, we're back. So I want to

742
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:10,279
Speaker 1: come back to some of what we were talking about

743
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,399
Speaker 1: earlier about just sort of the basic function of a bed,

744
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: like what does a bed do? Um, you know, because

745
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,840
Speaker 1: it is essentially a kind of nest, like like the

746
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 1: nest of virtually any terrestrial animal you can name, um,

747
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 1: if not nest construction, then at least nest behavior. But

748
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:28,840
Speaker 1: we also have to think of the human bed in

749
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 1: terms of physiological and techno cultural adaptation. So I was

750
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,279
Speaker 1: looking for for some examples of this. I was looking

751
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 1: at aticle and evolutionary anthropology titled Sleep Intensity and the

752
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 1: Evolution of Human Cognition by David R. Sampson and Charles L. Nunne,

753
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,759
Speaker 1: which considers the view that our our species sleep architecture

754
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: is in accord with that of other animals and presents

755
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 1: and they present an alternate hypothesis that human sleep is

756
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:01,200
Speaker 1: highly derived relative to that of other primates. So the

757
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:03,720
Speaker 1: idea that they present here is that the human sleep

758
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,760
Speaker 1: is superior to that of other primates. It's shorter, it's deeper,

759
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:10,680
Speaker 1: it exhibits a higher proportion of of of rem sleep

760
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:14,439
Speaker 1: than expected. Uh. They call it the sleep intensity hypothesis.

761
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:18,640
Speaker 1: That early humans would have experienced selective pressure to fulfill

762
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 1: sleep needs in the shortest time possible. Interesting, So what

763
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 1: would that selective pressure be other that was different than

764
00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: other animals. Well, that's a part of it was of

765
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 1: course survival from predation like all animals would have had

766
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: to deal with, as well as from human violence, uh,

767
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,479
Speaker 1: the violence of other humans. But it also this would

768
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:43,400
Speaker 1: have by being able to get like maximum but short sleep,

769
00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:46,680
Speaker 1: it would have allowed them more time to engage in

770
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:50,959
Speaker 1: social interactions. Again, we're talking we're talking earlier about these

771
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 1: these these creatures that we're living around fires, sleeping among fires,

772
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:59,160
Speaker 1: having this enhanced social time. But then part of that

773
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:01,520
Speaker 1: also become you know, it becomes essential to humans that

774
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 1: were transmitting skills and knowledge to the next generation of humans, uh,

775
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:09,880
Speaker 1: and to each other. And so the less time you're sleeping,

776
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 1: the more time you have to do that, and most

777
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 1: of that knowledge, I mean pretty much, I guess all

778
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: of the knowledge and skills that you're dealing with at

779
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 1: that point are survival skills and survival knowledge. This is

780
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 1: one of those hypotheses that would it seems like it

781
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 1: would be hard to prove something like this, but it

782
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: is interesting and I often find myself at least intuitively

783
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 1: sympathetic to um explanations for in human origins that have

784
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:39,319
Speaker 1: a lot to do with social groups and social relationships. Yeah,

785
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,200
Speaker 1: it seems very likely to me that it's actually social

786
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 1: pressures that were some of the dominant pressures on early humans. Yeah.

787
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:48,760
Speaker 1: I mean, it also lines up with the old addities

788
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 1: snooze you lose, right, Yeah. Uh. They also point out

789
00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,400
Speaker 1: that that deeper sleep might have also been key to

790
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:59,360
Speaker 1: the consolidation of the skills and questions. So you know,

791
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 1: the more you're you're you're out of bed, the more

792
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 1: you're potentially learning new skills. And then if sleep is

793
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:09,880
Speaker 1: is indeed important to the consolidation of those skills in

794
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:13,320
Speaker 1: the mind, then it it pays to have deep sleep

795
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 1: when you are sleeping. But of course, in order to

796
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 1: get the sleep they needed, our ancestors would have needed

797
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 1: social and physical security, and beds are just part of

798
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:22,960
Speaker 1: that equation, both in terms of the general sort of

799
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 1: bed that primates make and the technological bed that humans developed.

800
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 1: They also point to an interesting study that Samson, along

801
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 1: with Rob Shoemaker wrote in looking at how nests and

802
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:39,319
Speaker 1: sleep enhance cognitive performance in non human grade apes. They

803
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 1: quote quantified the sleeping platform complexity each night, measuring it

804
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 1: as an index of the number of material items available

805
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 1: to construct a bed, and found that complexity co varied

806
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: positively with reduced nighttime motor activity, less fragmentation, and greater

807
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:59,320
Speaker 1: sleep efficiency. I think one of the authors here, David Sampson,

808
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,759
Speaker 1: is also one of the authors of that study about

809
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: chimpanzees preferring certain kinds of wood for their sleeping arrangements.

810
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:10,200
Speaker 1: The wood of the Ugandan ironwood tree. Oh that well,

811
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 1: that would make sense, Yeah, because I did look him

812
00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: look him up in a lot of his work seems

813
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 1: to revolve around UM sleep cognition and UH and primates. Interesting. Yeah,

814
00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:21,319
Speaker 1: but but yeah, I bring this up not so much

815
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,799
Speaker 1: to to lobby for their hypothesis here, but I do

816
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 1: think it's a very interesting hypothesis, but rather to use

817
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 1: it as a way of rethinking exactly what role of

818
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,319
Speaker 1: bed plays in our lives, you know, as part of

819
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:36,040
Speaker 1: this suite of technocultural adaptations that support human sleep cycles,

820
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:39,160
Speaker 1: sleep cycles that that you know very well could could

821
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 1: be essential to UM to many of the other cultural

822
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: and technical uh adaptations that end up taking place afterwards. Yeah.

823
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 1: On one hand, I think like, well, okay, so the

824
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,680
Speaker 1: bed doesn't seem like a realm of technology that's ripe

825
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:58,040
Speaker 1: to change much in the future. But then again, I

826
00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:01,640
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, the humans patterns have changed before.

827
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:04,759
Speaker 1: I think there's like, there's some evidence that throughout much

828
00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 1: of history people slept at kind of different times and

829
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,640
Speaker 1: in different segments than they often do, at least you

830
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:13,759
Speaker 1: know that we're familiar with in the in America today.

831
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:15,759
Speaker 1: UH and so so I don't know, maybe there is

832
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:19,279
Speaker 1: more room for change in the technology support structure of

833
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:22,360
Speaker 1: our sleeping habits than then I would be led to assume.

834
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,560
Speaker 1: I wonder. Yeah, I guess one of the questions would be, like,

835
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: what would we intentionally change about human sleep? You know,

836
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,840
Speaker 1: we've all had those those sort of lingering fantasies like

837
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:34,920
Speaker 1: what if I didn't have to sleep, I wouldn't have

838
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,240
Speaker 1: to own a bed. I could just I don't wander around,

839
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 1: not pay rent. But um, I could doom scroll all

840
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: night long. I know, I mean, I I certainly don't

841
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 1: feel that way now. I'm kind of like, oh, man, sleep,

842
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,640
Speaker 1: that's um you know, when it's when sleep is good

843
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:54,320
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, and you're not dealing with nightmares

844
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,239
Speaker 1: or awkward dreams. It's a pretty great place to be.

845
00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:59,120
Speaker 1: But but but I guess what one of the things like,

846
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 1: we can sort of fantasize about what we want sleep

847
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:06,880
Speaker 1: to be, but one of the problems is that we

848
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:11,239
Speaker 1: don't have a perfect understanding of what sleep really is,

849
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:14,920
Speaker 1: like what what it's key role is for for human existence?

850
00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:18,560
Speaker 1: You know, Um, yeah, we know it, we know it's necessary,

851
00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:22,240
Speaker 1: we know it's necessary, but we but we don't fully

852
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:24,920
Speaker 1: understand all of it, all the roles it plays in

853
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:27,920
Speaker 1: human health and psychology and all that. Yeah, I mean,

854
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: is it? Is it defragmenting the hardware? Is it as

855
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 1: David Eagleman hypothesizes, is it is it? Is it? Is

856
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 1: it tied to um uh to to to neural visual processes.

857
00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:43,160
Speaker 1: You know, we were not entirely sure. So before we

858
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,960
Speaker 1: start messing with it and and reshaping sleep in our image,

859
00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:50,919
Speaker 1: it would pay to to understand exactly what it is doing. Oh,

860
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:55,359
Speaker 1: humans would never intentionally mess with their sleeping patterns through technology,

861
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:58,279
Speaker 1: saying like bringing a small blue light device into their

862
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:00,879
Speaker 1: bed and staring at it for four hours before they

863
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:04,640
Speaker 1: go to sleep. Oh one other thing. Long time listeners

864
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 1: of the show remember previous co host Christian Savior, who

865
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:11,000
Speaker 1: joined me on topics such as Timothy Leary, we could

866
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,719
Speaker 1: problems and are creepy pasta episodes. Well, Christian has an

867
00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 1: awesome new project, Corridor Magazine, a new horror magazine that

868
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:22,759
Speaker 1: brings the weird worlds of short fiction, art, comics, and

869
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:26,319
Speaker 1: essays together under one roof. It's going to feature a

870
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:29,880
Speaker 1: new original work of science fiction by me titled Leviathan c.

871
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:32,520
Speaker 1: I'm very excited about it. Touches on some stuff to

872
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:34,719
Speaker 1: blow your mind topics I think many of you will

873
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:38,600
Speaker 1: dig it. As well as Christian story Rescue and Alter,

874
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:42,799
Speaker 1: it will also feature fiction by other names you may

875
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,800
Speaker 1: be familiar with, such as the incredible horror author Christie Demester,

876
00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 1: and you also find works in there by authors you

877
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:52,759
Speaker 1: might know, such as Ed Grabanowski. You might recognize him

878
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: from his work with stuff you should know. As far

879
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:57,880
Speaker 1: as art goes, this is gonna be a beautiful publication

880
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:01,240
Speaker 1: with work from from such artists as J. M. Jo Grants,

881
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:06,080
Speaker 1: who creates his amazing woodcut style images super into his work,

882
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 1: but also the psychedelic art of Malachi Ward. But for

883
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 1: this magazine to actually exist as a digital and physical product,

884
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 1: they have to they have to reach their Kickstarter go

885
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:19,239
Speaker 1: and as of this recording, they're not quite there yet.

886
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,200
Speaker 1: So if you want to get your eyes or hands

887
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:26,040
Speaker 1: on Corridor, you'll need to back it, and the easiest

888
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,279
Speaker 1: way to do that is to head on over to

889
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:32,880
Speaker 1: kickstarter dot com and search for Corridor Magazine. Again. Go

890
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:36,239
Speaker 1: to kickstarter dot com search for Corridor Magazine and you'll

891
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:38,640
Speaker 1: find it. Back it, and then you can get your

892
00:49:38,840 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 1: your hands and your eyes on this. Uh, this very

893
00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 1: promising project. I'm I'm super excited about it. All right, Well,

894
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:48,359
Speaker 1: we're gonna go ahead and close out this episode here,

895
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 1: but like I said, we may have come back in

896
00:49:49,600 --> 00:49:52,440
Speaker 1: the future to talk about hammocks, etcetera. This is this

897
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 1: is an Invention based episode of stuff to blow your mind,

898
00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:58,759
Speaker 1: continuing the legacy of the show that we did for

899
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 1: what about a year titled Invention. Uh. You can still

900
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: find all those episodes online as a podcast that you

901
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 1: can subscribe to and download, etcetera. But we're we're continuing

902
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 1: that here. We can continue to do Invention episodes from

903
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:16,399
Speaker 1: time to time as we enjoy doing them, and we're

904
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 1: led to believe you enjoy listening to them as well.

905
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:21,960
Speaker 1: This book by Fagan and Dorani about the history of

906
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:24,279
Speaker 1: sleeping habits is interesting and I think there's stuff in

907
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:27,360
Speaker 1: it that we could come back to again in the future. Absolutely,

908
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:29,120
Speaker 1: I mean, sleep Again is one of those things we

909
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 1: all can relate to. We we all have have some

910
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:34,359
Speaker 1: bit of insight there, and likewise, we'd love to hear

911
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:36,760
Speaker 1: from everyone out there. If you've ever used a head rest,

912
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:40,080
Speaker 1: if you have thoughts on different beds and different cultures.

913
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,360
Speaker 1: If you've you know, tried out a wide variety of

914
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:44,800
Speaker 1: them and would like to uh to share what works

915
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:47,759
Speaker 1: what doesn't work. Yeah, we we'd love to hear from you. Uh.

916
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:49,239
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you want to check out other

917
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:51,080
Speaker 1: episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, you'll find us

918
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:53,319
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts and wherever that happens to be.

919
00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:56,360
Speaker 1: We just asked that you rate, review and subscribe. You

920
00:50:56,360 --> 00:50:57,960
Speaker 1: can always find us by going to stuff to Blow

921
00:50:58,000 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. That will take you to the

922
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:01,279
Speaker 1: I heart listing for our show, and if you look

923
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:04,200
Speaker 1: around on that page long enough, you'll find a little

924
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,400
Speaker 1: bit that's a store. Click on that that'll take you

925
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:08,080
Speaker 1: to a T shirt shop where you can buy some

926
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 1: shirts or bags, or stickers or what have you that

927
00:51:11,719 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 1: have our logo or various monsters or fun designs on

928
00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:18,480
Speaker 1: the huge Thanks as always to our excellent audio producer

929
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:20,880
Speaker 1: Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in

930
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,239
Speaker 1: touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other,

931
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:25,640
Speaker 1: to suggest a topic for the future, just to say hello,

932
00:51:25,719 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

933
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:38,239
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

934
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my

935
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 1: heart Radio with the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or

936
00:51:44,080 --> 00:52:01,360
Speaker 1: wherever you're listening to your favorite shows. User has his

937
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:02,279
Speaker 1: funds back a bott