Sleeping together

How is it that in adulthood you end up with less personal space than in childhood? I had my own room growing up, now all my stuff is crammed in cupboards that seem to get smaller and more overcrowded every year.

Sharing a bed is part of this grown up life. But a leading sleep researcher, Neil Stanley, says that we should consider the joys of sleeping apart. The British Science Festival heard suggestions that sleep is less likely to be disturbed when couples sleep in separate beds. It might feel as though sleeping together is more comfortable and reassuring, but apparently we end up wrecking each others' shut-eye.

It's interesting how the idea of living together has becomes so associated with sleeping together. Aristocrats in previous centuries would have had their own separate sleeping quarters, there was no assumption that his lordship and her ladyship would have to kip on the same pillow.

It was poor families in cramped houses that were forced to share beds. And sharing a bed didn't necessarily mean anything romantic. Large families were squashed into a single bed, strangers staying at inns might be expected to share a bed. Pepys records sharing a bed with friends who stayed over.

There were also pungent words to describe lots of people sharing a bed or a sleeping place together: "Pigging" and "Chumming."

Lying down on the job

It must be in the running for the best job. A 22-year-old student is being paid to test luxury beds, with the comfortable hours of 10am to 6pm.

According to an interview in the Telegraph, student Roisin Madigan will report on what makes a really good sleeping experience, while testing the beds of Simon Horn Ltd.

For anyone who thinks this seems rather indulgent, then I'd say why shouldn't we get as much pleasure as possible from sleep? Sleep is a very good thing, so why can't we allow ourselves to enjoy it. Sleep shouldn't be something hurried and neglected, it should be luxuriated in, savoured like a fine wine or a really pleasurable meal. We should recognise the different types of sleep and differentiate between what makes a good and a bad night.

And so to bed.

Beauty sleep

Sleeping beauty, beauty sleep... there has always been a sultry side to sleep, something sensuous. There's an undeniable physical pleasure in lying back and stretching and getting ready to sleep.

An enticing bed is a form of seduction. It has its own irresistible come hither look. So it's no surprise to see the Daily Mail carrying a picture of Lisa Snowdon wearing a small sheet and a big smile. It's promoting a Body Beautiful Bed which promises to make gorgeously rested sleepers.

It's not that much of a leap from news to folk stories, they all draw from the same well, they all appeal to the same ancient instincts of fear, greed, curiosity and dreams. A princess asleep in a skyscraper of beds is a fairytale, enchanted sleeps are a staple of classic myths, and women being made beautiful by the beds they sleep in... that's news.