The history of the bed

Both for primitive man with limited needs and modern man, tempted by all the benefits of civilization, a place to rest is of great importance. The history of the development of the bed reflects the stages of society and technological progress.

Archaeologists say that the most ancient pieces of furniture, acting as a bed, resembled, rather, a large trough, designed for several people at once. Primitive people slept on the ground, making a small hollow corresponding to the height of the person. This hollow was covered with branches, grass and animal skins.

The Egyptians were the first to realize to raise the bed above the ground, creating the first semblance of a modern bed. Bronze Age Egyptian wooden beds were a rectangular frame on four legs in the shape of an animal's legs, covered with straps or ropes in the form of netting. From afar, this bed, covered with a golden cover, resembled a proudly striding lion or wolf, on whose back a sleeping person might lie. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs rested on beautifully decorated benches, and ordinary Egyptians slept on elevations of planks and stones, and sometimes on bunks with hay.

Ancient Roman bronze bench beds also had a slightly raised headboard. It was in Rome that the wooden bed (lectus) with a headboard decorated with bronze overlays originated. Pillows and mattresses were stuffed with ordinary wool, and later with the now familiar goose feathers. The Romans would drape their sleeping place with an expensive translucent material, which later became a canopy. In the twelfth century, canopies were attached to ceiling beams, and a little later (in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) to the frame. In the XVI-XVII centuries, canopies spread throughout Europe, becoming real tents.

The Greek bed for sleeping was called a crabbathione. Apparently, from this word comes the modern name of such an indispensable interior object as "bed". Greek men reclined on the meal bed (klina) during the meal, while women usually sat on chairs. Kline was characterized by shaped legs, splendid bunks and a distinctive low headboard.

The beds of the eastern nobility were decorated with elaborate curtains or canopies. During the Early Middle Ages, beds were characterized by luxury and delightful inlay of gemstones and ivory at the headboard. In the Middle Ages the bed was raised higher and higher above the floor because of elementary cold and banal draughts. People ended up climbing up the stairs to the bed. Then the beds started to turn into real works of art. They were made of precious woods, decorated with ornaments and painstakingly covered with the finest carvings. Such beds, because of their high cost, even became war booty.

In the Middle Ages, only rich people had beds on their beds. Rolls were placed under the pillows in pillowcases. The bunks were covered with a featherbed on which two sheets were laid. In the homes of non-wealthy people, the bed penetrated only in the Late Middle Ages in the form of one large bed on which all the household slept.

In 1824, French craftsman Delagle made a notable invention - he came up with the spring mesh. Metal tubing replaced wood in the production of beds, and inventors' ideas were based on such metal construction until the mid-20th century.

In the middle of the XX century in small apartments of city dwellers began to appear sofa beds. In 1968, Ch. Hall and his team created the water bed, which grew in popularity in the 1970s. In 1990, a craftsman named Murphy took out his patent for a folding wall bed. These models can be found in fashionable furniture catalogs even today.

Nowadays, the choice of beds is simply enormous. The progress of the XXI century has made it possible to create beds of any design, any size, height, width, with a whole set of diverse features: from a classic bed to a stunning hi-tech, from a bed on air cushions to a waterbed mattress. The main thing when choosing a bed is not to forget that your sleep, well-being, health and, as a consequence, success in all endeavors depends on its comfort.