The Sandman, Morpheus, and the Lord of Dreams… all names for the same character. But who is he exactly?
What does sand have to do with sleep?
The Sandman is generally described as an elf or a small man who wanders around at night, sprinkling a special magic sand over children’s eyes that makes them fall asleep. While the tradition originates mainly in Northern Europe, there are several variants of the legends about the Sandman, and any diversification generally applies to children's behavior.
Some sources say, for example, that sand is meant for the naughtiest children who do not want to go to bed, while other sources speak of sand being used for all children, regardless of behavior. There are still other much creepier versions, in which the Sandman is capable of gouging out the eyes of children who do not want to sleep, then kidnapping them and forcing them to live in darkness forever: such a frightening tale is bound to persuade children to fall asleep without any fuss!
Given the large number of legends featuring this little elf, some places have stories featuring two Lords of Dreams, a goodie and a baddie.
The elf that makes you dream
The character was also presented differently depending on a child’s behavior. The Sandman always carries two umbrellas: one with bright colors and lively pictures and one without pictures and with duller, greyish tones. An obedient child who goes to bed without making a fuss knows that the Sandman will open the colorful umbrella over their head during the night, so they will have beautiful dreams; naughty children, on the other hand, or those that have got up to trouble during the day, risk falling asleep below the grey umbrella, so they will have no dreams at all and might even give them nightmares.
Over the years, the legend of the Sandman has been the inspiration for a great number of stories. One of the most well-known is certainly the story tale by Hans Christian Anderson, Ole Lukøje, the Sandman character in the film Rise of the Guardians by DreamWorks Animation, or the Sandman cartoon series by Neil Gaiman, on which the TV series distributed by Netflix in 2022 was based.
So now you know everything about the Sandman. If you sleep on a Magniflex mattress, you are bound to have wonderful dreams and wake up refreshed and revitalized: who knows if this character had a hand in it?