A bed is a piece of furniture used as a location to sleep or relax. It has a secondary use as a place to engage in sexual relations.
Most modern beds consist of a soft mattress on a bed frame, with the mattress resting either on a solid base, often wooden slats, or a sprung base. In North America many beds include a box spring inner-sprung base, a large mattress-sized box containing wood and springs that provide additional support and suspension for the mattress.
A bunk bed is a type of bed in which one bed frame is stacked on top of another. The nature of bunk beds allows two or more people to sleep in the same room while maximizing available floor space for activities. This leads to them being used in places with limited floor space, such as on ships and in army garrisons or in places where floorspace needs to be maximized, such as dormitories, summer camp cabins, hostels, children's rooms, prison cells, or university residence halls.
A canopy bed is a decorative bed somewhat similar to a four-poster bed. A typical canopy bed usually features posts at each of the four corners extending four feet high or more above the mattress. Ornate or decorative fabric is often draped across the upper space between the posts and a solid swath of cloth may create a ceiling, or canopy directly over the bed.
An infant bed (commonly referred to as a cot in British English, and in American English a crib or far less commonly a cradle or stock) is a small bed specifically for infants and very young children. Infant beds are a historically recent development intended to contain a child capable of standing. The cage-like design of infant beds restricts the child to the bed. Around two or three years of age, children are able to climb out and are moved to a toddler bed to prevent an injurious fall while escaping the bed.
Daybeds are used as beds as well as for lounging, reclining and seating in common rooms. Their frames can be made out of wood, metal or a combination of wood and metal. They are a cross between chaise longue, couch and a bed.
A featherbed is a type of bedding traditionally used on top of mattresses to help make them softer. They can be made either with feathers, down, or a combination of both materials. Such a bed should be frequently shaken out or fluffed, to keep the feathers evenly distributed.
A four-poster bed is a bed with four vertical columns, one in each corner, that support a tester, or upper (usually rectangular) panel. There are a number of antique four-poster beds extant dating to the 16th century and earlier; many of these early beds are highly ornate and are made from oak. An example of such an early 16th-century four-poster resides in Crathes Castle, which was made for the original castle owners in the Burnett of Leys family.
A futon is traditional Japanese bedding consisting of padded mattresses and quilts pliable enough to be folded and stored away during the day, allowing the room to serve for purposes other than as a bedroom. The bedding set referred to as futon in Japan fundamentally consists of a shikibuton (bottom mattress) and a kakebuton (thick quilted bedcover). The word futon is an English loanword derived from Japanese futon. It is Sino-Japanese, originally meaning 'round cushions filled with cattail flower spikes.
A hammock is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two points, used for swinging, sleeping, or resting. It normally consists of one or more cloth panels, or a woven network of twine or thin rope stretched with ropes between two firm anchor points such as trees or posts. Hammocks were developed by native inhabitants of Central and South America for sleeping
The headboard is a piece of furniture that attaches to the head of a bed. Historically, they served to isolate sleepers from drafts and cold in less insulated buildings, and thus were made of wood, which is less thermally conductive than stone or brick. Constructed to create space from the wall (via thicker end pillars) they allowed falling colder air to sink to the floor rather than onto the bed.
A mattress is a large pad for supporting the reclining body, used as or on a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, that contains hair, straw, cotton, foam rubber, etc.; a framework of metal springs; or they may be inflatable.
A Murphy bed (in North America), also called a wall bed, pull down bed or fold-down bed is a bed that is hinged at one end to store vertically against the wall, or inside of a closet or cabinet.
A platform bed, also known as a cabin bed, is a bed the base of which consists of a raised, level, usually rectangular horizontal solid frame, often with a section consisting of rows of flexible wooden slats or latticed structure meant to support just a mattress. This platform provides adequate, flexible support and ventilation for a mattress by itself, eliminating the need for a box-spring or a second mattress as a foundation.
A sleigh bed is a style of bed with curved or scrolled foot and headboards, thus resembling a sled or sleigh. Often made of wood and quite heavy, the sleigh bed is a result of the French and American Empire period of the early 19th century. The Empire style drew its inspiration from the empires of ancient Rome and Greece.
A sofa bed or sofa-bed, (in the US often sofabed, hide-a-bed, bed-couch or sleeper-sofa), typically is a sofa or couch which has underneath its seating cushions a metal frame and thin mattress that can be unfolded or opened up to make a bed. A futon differs from a sofabed, although sofa beds using futon mattresses are common.
A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in 1971, became an extremely popular consumer item in the United States through the 1980s.
