Toasty head warms bed

OPINION: Grant Woodhams gets inspiration from Charles Dickins to cope with a Geraldton cold snap.

Several weeks ago I wrote about a looming mini-ice age.

I based my assessment on the lack of sun spots, which apparently in past decades and centuries have been used to predict an extended period of very cold weather.

I certainly appreciated the feedback, particularly from those who rushed to the barricades to dismiss my case and instead insisted I was in denial about the politically correct global warming.

But the mini-ice ages intrigued me, particularly some of the stories that found their way into popular literature that recorded these very chilly times.

The famous British writer Charles Dickens in his much celebrated work A Christmas Carol describes the attire of one of his most remembered characters, Ebenezer Scrooge, as being pyjamas, a bed shirt and a night cap.

He was well dressed.

Dickens lived through a so-called mini ice age in the early part of the nineteenth century.

In those times there was little to warm a house except a fireplace. But when it was time for sleep everyone in the house would don pyjamas, bed socks and a night cap.

These were the days before hot water bottles, electric blankets or central heating — they were truly cold times.

Now as a good environmentalist I shun artificial means of keeping warm. That’s right, no heaters of any description for me.

It’s not that I warmed to Ebenezer Scrooge’s character (no pun intended) but the night cap in those Dickensian times was said to be essential for keeping ears covered and to stop body heat from escaping through a person’s head. So why should it be any different now?

As some will attest I have been known to wear the occasional beanie to a football match to keep the wolves of winter at bay, but I had seriously never given consideration to wearing one to bed. That is until this recent spell of far lower-than-average temperatures that are closing in on one of our coldest spells on record.

Taking a leaf out of E Scrooge’s book, along with my full body pyjamas, I wore my favourite beanie to bed. It was the best night sleep I have had for over a month. Nice and warm!

It might not be the height of fashion, but if you are looking for a way to beat the winter blues, then a beanie on your head in bed is the way to go.