Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite!

Good night
Sleep tight
Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

My mother used to say that to me before I went to sleep. It was just a silly rhyme that made me smile as I snuggled beneath the covers. But for a nineteenth century young lady, the rhyme had greater meaning.

“Sleep tight.”

Before the nineteenth century, many bed frames were strung with ropes. You had a little wooden or metal tool that allowed you to wind the ropes tightly enough that your mattress didn’t sag. So, sleeping tight meant the ropes were wound just right, and you’d get a good night’s sleep. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, most beds had wooden slats holding the mattress in place.

Of course, not everyone even had a bed stead (the wooden or metal railings around a mattress). A lot depended on your social status. Poorer young ladies were likely piling on a tick (a cotton bag stuffed with straw or leaves) with other members of their families with wool blankets and homemade quilts. The stuffing was changed periodically (and that might be your job as a teen). If you were fortunate, the tick was set on a wooden frame with slats to hold it in place.



The daughter of a gentleman farmer might go to sleep in a box bed built into the wall of her cottage, particularly in the north of England.


But if your family was well-to-do, or had been, you might sleep on something more substantial. Your mattress might be covered in linen and filled with cotton, feathers, wool, or horse hair. You might sleep in a walnut tester bed like this (the tester being the canopy that covers part of the bed).


Or a bed with fancy hangings like this one from a duke’s castle.


Or this one from a more modest manor house.



Or if this you just wanted a little nap or to relax with a good book, you might curl up on one of these.


“Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

As the century wore on, beds became less ornate and more simple; mahogany and satinwood replaced walnut. The first coil spring mattress wasn’t invented into 1865. Wood frames were gradually replaced with metal frames. Why? They took up less space, and they were less likely to attract bed bugs. Bedbug bites were nasty things like welts. No one wanted the bedbugs to bite!

Which reminds me of the second verse of our rhyme, which a good friend once taught me:

And if they do
Take your shoe
And beat their little heads in two.

Sleep well tonight!

Nighty Night . . .

Silly things, really, bedtime routines. My dentist wants me to start brushing my teeth before I go to bed. The problem for me is that my brain seems to think brushing is a morning activity. Brushing says “Wake up!” and then I don’t want to go to sleep!

Brushing teeth was the least of a nineteenth century young lady’s tasks when she headed for bed. Talk about a bedtime routine! First you had to get out of your clothes, and, as we’ve discussed, you generally needed help to do so. For the first part of the nineteenth century, buttons were more decorative than useful; a complicated set of pins and tapes held those gowns together. For the second part, buttons could number in the dozens! Once your maid or sister or mother navigated that obstacle, there was the corset to unlace.

Once everything was off, the bedclothes came on. Very often you wore a nightdress, similar to the chemise you wore by day (and for some poorer ladies, it was the chemise you wore by day), with a single button at the high color. Sometimes a soft, short jacket went over the top. These would be linen in the summer and perhaps flannel in the winter. Until the middle of the century, nightdresses were plain and loose and handmade. Around 1850, some manufactured nightdresses were advertised with lace and frills; many people called this need to be attractive in bed scandalous.

So, you’re undressed and dressed for bed. But wait, don’t put your head on that pillow just yet. Next you had to prepare your hair, one way or another. You might brush it a hundred strokes as Marissa has mentioned. You might wrap your hair around strips of paper or rag hoping for some curl in the morning. Either way, until rather late in the century, you very likely tucked it up into a sleeping cap for the night.

Tired yet?

You also need something to warm your bed. For most months of the year, England can be clammy without indoor heating or air conditioning. You might heat a brick or stone by the fire and place it between the sheets (careful not to burn them!) or fill a warming pan with coals or hot water and run it up and down the bed.

But wait, you’re still not done. The fire must be banked so it’s ready to light in the morning. The window must be closed so no night air seeps in (many believed night air to be unhealthy). Has your dress been pressed or given to the maid to press for the morning? Stockings mended? Shoes polished? Gloves soaked to remove stains?

Okay, now I’m really ready to crawl between the covers and close my eyes. How about you?