The Honest Truth

Jessica’s an expert on the place we spend a third of our life

Giant bed that all the inn’s 
guests shared

EVERYONE reading this started the day in one, and they’ll end their day there too. It’s the place you spend as much as a third of your life — more if you’re a teenager, less if you’re a new parent! It’s your bed.
As soon as primitive man could think he started thinking about getting his head down somewhere comfy. Today, in our considerably more stressful and fast-paced lives, it’s just as important to have a pleasant place to kip.
The beds themselves have changed a lot of course, today’s models employ space-age technology rather than twigs and grass. But however fancy they are they all serve the same purpose — somewhere to sleep and let our bodies recharge. It’s claimed a good night’s sleep will leave you happier, healthier, more intelligent and even help you live longer. 
March is National Bed Month, organised by the Sleep Council to raise awareness of the benefits of a good sleep and what makes a good bed. 
Bed expert Jessica Alexander (right), of the Sleep Council, told James Millar The Honest Truth about beds.

FIRST KNOWN example of a bed?

There’s evidence that primitive man slept on a raised bench covered with animal skins. Some tribes continue to sleep on these sorts of beds today.
In New Guinea and South America anthropologists have found evidence that very early man slept in hammocks. 

HOW DID beds evolve? 

Primitive man quickly learned it was more comfortable to sleep on piles of grass and brushwood covered by animal skins. Before too long he was raising the bed above floor level — perhaps for safety reasons and to avoid draughts and pests. 
Ancient civilisations quickly began to produce more elaborate benches or beds as artistic sensibilities developed. There are plenty of fine examples in the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures. 
Metal beds came in with the industrial revolution. Sprung mattresses first appeared in the 20th Century and the divan base started to gain wide acceptance in the 1950s.

WHAT ARE the standard bed sizes?

The most common UK sizes are singles at three feet wide and six feet three inches long, doubles are 4 ft 6 in by 6 ft 3 in, king size is 5 ft x 6 ft 6 in, superkings are 6 ft x 6 ft 6 in.
Some people call our king size queen size but it’s not a widely used term in the UK, although it’s common in the USA. Other countries around the world have different standard sizing although some use similar names to us — but not for quite the same sizes. 

ARE THE sizes the same in the EU?

Continental Europe doesn’t really use names for bed sizes at all — it pragmatically sticks to measurements and avoids the occasional confusion! Their sizes are different too. 

WHEN DID four foot six become the standard size for a double bed?

Around the advent of industrialisation when spring units started to be made by machines rather than by hand. Pressure to have standardised sizes for separately purchased headboards and bedding would also have had an impact. 
The sizes were probably chosen using the average sized adult of the time as a guide. But we’ve grown taller and wider since the war years so we actually need bigger beds for comfort — although, during the same period, bedrooms have become smaller! 

WHEN WAS the sprung mattress invented?

Metal springs started to be used within seating and then in bedsteads to support mattresses in the early to mid 19th Century. Apparently the first sprung mattress was patented in 1826 by a man named Samuel Pratt — but it took a while before they became commonly used. 
The first pocket spring mattress was reputedly introduced by Vi-Spring, who are still in business today, in around 1906. 

RECENT INNOVATIONS?

The current bed buzz is about memory foam — a material which is pressure and heat sensitive and moulds itself to the body, the technology for which was originally developed for the US space programme. It has become very popular as an excellent material for beds in the past few years. 
Sprung mattresses you don’t have to turn is another recent innovation. Materials and mechanisms which regulate the bed temperature to be more sensitive to changes in body temperature are among the latest developments. 

WHAT’S THE next big thing in bed design?

On the horizon are beds designed to be more easily broken down for recycling and materials made from sustainable resources. Also more developments on beds which can adjust tension automatically to support different parts of the body and body movement. 

WHAT MAKES a good bed?

A good bed is supportive — i.e. firm enough to hold your spine in correct alignment when lying down, so the tension required will vary according to height, weight and build. 
It must also be comfortable — the cushioning will mould itself to your curves, although whether we prefer a soft, sink-in feel or a firmer, more resilient one is much more subjective. 
It’s also big enough for two people to sleep side by side and turn from side to side without disturbing each other. 

WHAT MAKES a bad bed?

A bad bed is too old (more than eight to 10 years if used regularly), too small, too hard or too soft, too low or too high, and too hot. An uncomfortable bed can cost the sleeper up to an hour’s sleep a night.
That’s important because without sufficient sleep your physical and mental wellbeing will suffer. 

HOW MUCH money should we spend on a piece of furniture in which we spend a third of our lives?

As much as you can afford! You do get what you pay for in terms of comfort, luxury and durability. Think value, not price — a £1500 bed over seven years will cost a couple less than 60p a night. 

ANY UNUSUAL designs?

Space-age designs were popular in the 1960s — usually with control panels for curtains, lighting, music etc. Such fun designs seem to have dropped out of favour in recent years. 

WHAT WAS the point of four-posters?

Privacy and warmth. In the 16th and 17th Centuries when they became popular people often shared their bedroom with servants or other family members.

MOST EXPENSIVE bed?

It’s possible to spend many tens of thousands of pounds on beautiful bespoke bedsteads but the most expensive mattress and divan base on the market currently is one of Vi-Spring’s at £50,000 plus! I believe David and Victoria Beckham are proud owners of one of these.
A reasonable price range for top-end beds is around £3000 to £5000. 

FAMOUS BEDS?

The Great Bed of Ware is one of the most famous, it’s mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It was built for an inn about 1590 and used by multiple guests — at the same time! It’s about 11 feet wide, 10ft long and 9ft high and twice the size of normal beds of the time. It’s now in the V&A Museum in London. 
More recently John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent their honeymoon in 1969 tucked up in bed at the Amsterdam Hilton, and were filmed for a large part of the time, to draw attention to their peace campaign. They recorded Give Peace A Chance while in bed at a hotel in Montreal later in the same year.

WHY HAVE water beds never really caught on?

Well, they’re not widely available for one thing. Because they are “different”, most shops aren’t too comfortable selling them. They tend to be available only in specialist outlets and there are less than 100 of those in the UK. 
People are reluctant to try something new and worry about their weight or the bags bursting (neither of which happen very often, except on TV shows!) 
Also, for a seafaring nation, we seem remarkably susceptible to being worried about sea sickness. Some people, however, are totally sold on them and wouldn’t sleep on anything else!

© All copyright D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd., 2010