Shoes under the bed
Shoes under the bed were once part of a bedtime guard: in Lancashire, people set them there toes up to keep off the nightmare. Today they point to something simpler: the small rituals you use to close a day.
What it may mean
In Lancashire, the nightmare was once imagined as a dog that came in the dark, and people answered it with a pair of shoes set under the bed with the toes turned up. It sounds odd until you notice how much of going to sleep is still ritual. Phones go face down, the door is checked twice, a glass of water waits on the nightstand, a child's shoes are lined up in a row. None of it is strictly needed, and much of it helps a mind let go of the day. Some habits do the opposite: the last scroll through the news, the email read in bed. The shoes under your bed are a good place to start sorting which of your bedtime moves settle you and which keep you awake.
Depending on how you saw it
Toes pointing toward the bed
One old encyclopedia of superstitions told readers who slept badly to check their shoes, in case the toes pointed toward the bed. It is an easy thing to check, which may be the point. When a night goes wrong, what is the first thing you look for as the cause?
Toes pointing toward the door
The same source thought it fortunate to leave your shoes at bedtime with the toes toward the door, as if ready to walk out. Some people still like the next morning lined up. What do you set out at night that makes the start of your day easier?
Slippers at the head of the bed
In Portugal, leaving boots or slippers at the head of the bed was said to cause bad dreams. Most people keep slippers at the foot, where feet find them first. Which small object near your bed has a fixed place that you would feel uneasy changing?
A child's shoes kicked under the bed
Children push shoes under the bed at bedtime and hunt for one of them every morning. A basket by the door ends most of the search. Which daily scramble in your home would vanish with one small change at bedtime?
Why it happens in nature
The space under a bed is dark, rarely cleaned and right at hand, so shoes, dust and stray socks collect there. Shoes pushed underneath are out of the way of feet at night, though a pair left at the edge is easy to trip over in the dark, and outdoor shoes carry dirt and damp into the bedroom.
What folk beliefs say
England (Lancashire)
In Lancashire, people imagined that the nightmare came in the form of a dog, and to thwart it they placed their shoes under the bed with the toes turned upward.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 221. View the page
Portugal
In Portugal, leaving boots or slippers at the head of your bed was said to give you bad dreams.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 494. View the page
To reflect on
Which of your bedtime habits helps you settle, and which one keeps you awake?