How Did Medieval Peasants Sleep Through Freezing Winters? | Calm History for Sleep

How did medieval peasants sleep through freezing winters, with no glass in the windows, no chimney, and sixteen hours of darkness? Tonight, spend one December night in the year 1390 with a farming family on the edge of Dartmoor, from dusk at four o'clock until the fire is lit again at dawn. Calm history for sleep: a slow, gentle story with soft water sounds, read in a quiet voice. Put it on, dim the lights, and drift off whenever you like. Tell me in the comments where you're listening from, and what time it is there. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open: a December night in 1390 1:18 Dusk at four o'clock 13:35 The house: a Dartmoor longhouse 25:44 Supper by firelight 38:18 Meanwhile: up at the manor 47:26 The fire must not die 57:17 Getting ready for bed 1:07:08 Meanwhile: a bed at the inn 1:13:02 The first sleep 1:20:59 Meanwhile: a night on the open moor 1:25:26 Meanwhile: the monks who rose at night 1:32:04 The waking in the night (the second sleep) 1:43:19 The weeks around this night 1:50:07 Toward morning 1:54:38 Drifting off ABOUT THIS STORY The places, customs and objects are historical. The village of Ashcombe and the family, knight, merchant's man and shepherd are illustrative, built from what historians describe. Narration voice and paintings are AI-generated. SOURCES Christopher Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages (1989); Making a Living in the Middle Ages (2002) Barbara A. Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (1986) Frances & Joseph Gies, Life in a Medieval Village (1990) Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (2008) A. Roger Ekirch, At Day's Close: Night in Times Past (2005) C. M. Woolgar, The Senses in Late Medieval England (2006); The Great Household in Late Medieval England (1999) G. Beresford, "Three Deserted Medieval Settlements on Dartmoor", Medieval Archaeology 23 (1979) The Rule of St Benedict, chapters 8, 16 and 22 William Langland, Piers Plowman (B-text, c. 1377–79) Dartmoor National Park Authority guides on the longhouse and turbary #historyforsleep #sleepstory #medievalhistory #calmhistory #bedtimestory