Folded Up for the Day

If you enter into many Korean homes, the lack of a mattress/boxspring set you make you wonder where its residents sleep. Particularly in traditional homes and those that still have ondol heated floors, people sleep on a mattress called a yo, which is placed on the floor. A quilt known as an ibul and a wheat hull-stuffed pillow known as a pyogae completed the bedding. Personally, I found the yo mattress experience toasty, but way too hard for my tastes. I do love the idea of carefully folding up the coordinated sleeping sets, thus leaving the room available for other uses. Multi-use rooms were particularly important in the small traditional homes. Here, an entire family might huddle together on a large yo, keeping warm despite the cold Korean winter.

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