Would you be comfortable sleeping on the same bed with a stranger? Communal sleeping sounds such a weird idea today. But, today’s needull discusses how communal sleeping used to be a common practice till very recently.
It was not uncommon for strangers and traveling companions to share a bed while on the road. Etiquette dictated that to ensure relative tranquility when sharing a bed with strangers, a bedmate was to lie still, not hog the blankets, and generally keep to one’s self. But that didn’t always work. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams spent a night sharing a bed at a New Jersey inn which was largely passed bickering over whether to keep the window open or closed.
Needull in a haystack 
On a slightly related note, there is a view amongst some academics that we used to sleep completely differently as well – people would have two “sleeps” a night, with an “awake” period in between. Apparently it is only fairly recently that we have thought that sleeping in a single 8-hour segment is best. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783
Good to know this. But what would they do in darkness without electricity?
Candles!