The Bed – What Is It and What is it for?

According to Wikipedia, a bed is defined as “a piece of furniture which is used as a place to sleep or relax.”  You already know that you don’t use your bed only for sleeping or relaxing, but also to make love to that special someone of yours. We’ll deal with that topic a little later.

You surely don’t need a bed just to relax. You can sit on a sofa, you can even lie on it and relax. Most of us could even sleep without a typical bed. A piece of foam like in camping,  an airport lounge floor or chairs squeezed together, even a plank of wood will do for some people just to get some needed rest.

So, why the bed as we know it? What exactly is it and why do we need it?

The modern bed consists of a mattress and a base. There was a time in the past when the base and mattress were made to work in conjunction with each other. Sometimes the base had springs that were designed to work with a specific mattress, but not so much these days. In more recent times, most bases are made solid and flat, and the mattress is designed to go on either a flat platform base or a piece of furniture with a solid flat surface.

As the user of the bed, your main focus is the mattress. The most common or popular mattress, nowadays, is the sprung mattress with various foam comfort layers on top. There is also the full foam mattress, made normally of latex or memory foam comfort layers at the top; this can be more expensive. There’s also also a basic foam mattress, which is usually cheaper and used for camping or emergency situations at home.

Of course there are lots of other variations but these are the mattresses that are generally for sale in retail shops today.

What mattress is best?

What does it provide and how does it affect your life, particularly your sleep quality and your love making? Well, that depends upon the person, his/her preferences and requirements. The comfort factor is all important here and that obviously depends on the structure and components of the mattress, the size of the people sleeping on it, and their weights and their sleeping positions. Anything that supports well enough to allow for the spine to be maintained in its natural position will be the best for sleeping and health, and it will likely feel more comfortable.

Pocket sprung mattresses with foam comfort layers on top can reduce partner disturbance, as do foam mattresses. Continuous spring mattresses with foam layers on top will be slightly cheaper; however, they will produce more partner disturbance. Full foam mattresses are also excellent, even slightly better for reducing partner disturbance.