Bed Head

A pic of the bed that encouraged this crazy writing. I hope you sleep well tonight, dear readers!

Wikipedia makes me laugh sometimes. For the wealth of knowledge that can be found on the internet, I find it interesting that some people see Wikipedia as a reliable source  of complete information. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the concept and also look at the information that is on the site.

Tonight's blog was inspired by a picture and a challenge. The challenge was to write about the picture, yet keep the blog PG. Too funny! Really… would I ever stray from a PG rating? After considering my options, I decided to look at Wikipedia just to see what it said about sleep.

"Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by…" (Yada, yada…) The next paragraph continued, " The purposes and mechanisms of sleep are only partially clear and are the subject of intense research." (Great...) Thankfully, the article was spattered with numerous citations and links for anyone who wanted to learn more, but for a goofball like me looking for a "hook" to captivate my readers' attention, it was typical Wikipedia, filled with plenty of "duh" type statements.

Sleep is obviously important. It helps us to function properly. (Those are my "duh" statements.) Have you ever taken time to think about the evolution of the beds we sleep in though?

Egyptian pharaohs are credited with discovering the benefit of raising a pallet off of the earth to sleep on. The common people of the day, though, continued to sleep on palm bows thrown in a heap.

The Romans were pretty amazing people. They decided to decorate their beds and have mattresses stuffed with reeds, hay, wool, or feathers. Not only that…they discovered the first water bed! You're going to be jealous… The sleeper would recline in a cradle of warm water until drowsy, then be lifted onto an adjacent cradle with a mattress, where they would be rocked to sleep!

I suppose if I had taken the time to think about this, I would have realized that it wasn't until the late 18th century that people began sleeping on cotton mattresses on cast iron beds, providing a space much less attractive to bugs!

Beyond that, we can generally see how our bedding has improved. We have seemingly endless choices now. The words that come to mind to describe mattresses are foam, air, waterbed (certainly different than the Romans' version!), pillow top, and of course there are various luxury mattresses. Comfort is essential!

Not only is comfort essential, we have come to live in an era where the design of the bed frame  is important to us also. When we look for beds, we can choose from a day bed, a sleigh bed, bunk bed, poster bed, Murphy bed, platform bed, trundle bed, or even a sofa bed! And that is just for starters!

I leave you tonight with a fun fact about Louis XIV...

Louis XIV was inordinately fond of staying in bed, often holding court in the royal bedroom. Reportedly, he owned 413 beds and displayed a special liking for the ultra spacious and ostentatious variety.

Also, here are my references for my writing: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed#Types_of_beds

http://www.bettersleep.org/mattressology/bed_in_history.asp