Some things to consider when undertaking research on this subject:

1) Even today within our own country people don't do things the same way, and when they do it may not be for the same reason;

2) For the proponants of short height or economics - go to Fallingwater and you will see what a combination of short height and money will do to the proportions of a house and its furniture even in the 20th century. Watch your head, especially in the son's bedroom, and note the height of the toilets. I was told the owner was about 5'4" tall. Also, we lived in a house in Connecticut that was built in the 1960's by a man who was 5'5" - as a result my younger sister was the only one who could stand up in the basement - hand-built houses and furniture can result in unusual proportions. Why waste money on extra materials?

3) Go back to Dickens and earlier writers and see how often people slept propped up on bolsters, especially elderly folks or invalids but sometimes wealthy or eccentric folks that received visitors in their private chambers, or those that just slept that way. You don't need a long bed if you sleep on a bolster. 

4) Health reasons do need to be considered. Those of us with hiatal hernias can very clearly see one important reason to sleep propped up as our doctors tell us to do - heartburn! Ditto anyone in congestive heart failure or with other breathing problems. Whether people knew what caused the problems when lying down I suspect that they quickly figured out that sleeping propped up worked.

Do we have a potential PhD. dissertation or Masters thesis here?

Jane Deisler-Seno
Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
1900 North Chaparral
Corpus Christi, TX 78401





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