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Comment by dewbrite | Hacker News Reader

I can't tell from the pictures, but these almost look too small to sleep in. Would people curl up inside them? I'd like to see a human for scale

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If they're about warmth, then maybe keeping the air volume to a minimum is part of the function, so maybe curling up was a part of it. The other part was probably that people were statistically shorter in the middle ages.

The one pencil sketch gives you some idea. I think they just have a smallish opening — it looks like there is room to the left and to the right (inside) of the shuttered area.

People were smaller on average. But also, I've read it wasn't uncommon to sleep with legs/knees pulled up somewhat (maybe using pillows?). And that the changed bloodflow due to non-horizontal sleeping position (legs above head) contributed to higher prevalence of brain strokes.

Don't know if the latter is true. But doesn't seem too implausible - life back then was generally less healthy & more dangerous.

People were also smaller.

I've heard or read people say that hundreds of years ago people were taller than now. even much taller. no idea if that is true or not.

This is false. If you're ever in Europe come visit an old castle, the kings of old slept on what would today be seen as child sized beds.

incomplete argument. those could have been the beds of their children. not saying you are wrong, but you would need to substantiate it better, imo, to convince.

We clearly haven't been to the same castles. Also, you could always curl up in a bed or sleep in a sitting position (which or may not have been common in Western Europe a few years ago). If you go visit museums that have full suits of armour that were actually worn by knights and kings, you'll be surprised. You clearly had plenty of tall people. Average size was certainly much lower than today, but spread was higher and you had plenty of tall, well-fed nobles. Charlemagne was apparently 1.84 m, Francis I of France was almost 2 m tall, Sancho VII of Navarre was even taller than that.

It's most likely false, considering the rate of malnourishment before the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions.

There’s some nuance/caveats, but here’s a study showing humans lost height during the switch from hunting/gathering to agriculture:

https://modernfarmer.com/2022/04/farming-made-our-ancestors-...

And, though I'm sure there are going to be objections, in both time periods people would be considered nutritionally deficient when compared to today.

Yes, however I don't think many hunter/gatherers had cupboards to sleep in...

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