Two adults and five children. A sofa that becomes a bed and a couple of mattresses in the kitchen. This is how a typical family slept in Stockholm in the early 20th century. It was crowded and often everyone had to go to bed and get up at the same time so as not to disturb each other.
Then came the construction of public housing, and studies were carried out on how we should make our beds and sleep. Brochures were published on what kinds of beds and mattresses we should have, says Anna Fredholm.
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With the establishment of public housing, it also became more common to have a dedicated bedroom.
In pre-industrial society, before electricity, we often slept in shifts to get up, light a fire and look after the animals, she continues.
Anna Fredholm is one of those working on the Nordic Museum's newly launched collection that will map how we sleep. Until the end of 2027, anyone can submit their stories and images about evening routines, sleep patterns and dreams to the digital collection.
We want to know everything: what aids people use to fall asleep, what the bedroom looks like and what they dream about, says project manager Jörgen Löwenfeldt.
The Nordic Museum's mission is to preserve and bring to life the memory of life and work in Sweden. Sleep, and the night in particular, have so far been neglected.
We spend about seven years of our lives dreaming and we don't want to miss that part, says Anna Fredholm.
Salty porridge gives answers
Dreams have always fascinated us, but their importance and what can be gleaned from the nightly stories have shifted. During certain times, dreams were used to provide answers.
One tradition was to cook a dream porridge, a very salty porridge eaten in the evening. The person who came to you in the dream and offered you a drink was the person you were going to marry, says Anna Fredholm.
Stories about earplugs, audiobooks, weighted blankets and medicines are expected to appear, as well as the occasional smartwatch.
The fact that so many people want to measure and record their sleep says a lot about our times, says Jörgen Löwenfeldt.
Parts of the collected material, such as descriptions of dreams, will be continuously displayed on the museum's website. Whether there will be a larger exhibition has not yet been decided, but anyone who wants to can go to minnen.se and contribute.
Petra Hedbom/TT
Facts: Bed standards for sleep
TT
In the post-war period, experts worked to improve nighttime sleep and bed hygiene. In the late 1940s, a special bed study was conducted. It showed that Swedes' beds were substandard: too short, too narrow, too uncomfortable and worn out. The researchers also examined how the size of the beds related to different sleeping positions and body measurements.
The study laid the foundation for a Swedish bed standard that established that a bed for an adult should be 195 centimeters long and 80 to 90 centimeters wide.
In 1952, the publication “Bädda rätt och sova gott” was published. It was intended to make citizens aware of the importance of a good night's sleep. There they could learn how a good bed should be equipped and how often they should change the sheets.
Another aim of the campaign was to persuade citizens to invest in real beds instead of, for example, sofa beds. The document explained that “The bed should be a soft embrace to rest in, not a device to wrestle with and toil on before it reluctantly serves as a resting camp.”
Source: Nordic Museum
