A bed ( listen) is a piece of furniture used as a place to sleep, relax, or engage in sexual relations.
Most modern beds consists of a 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.
Most beds have a headboard for resting against, with others also having side rails and footboards (or "footers"). "Headboard only" beds often incorporate a "dust ruffle", "bed skirt", or "valance sheet" to hide the bed frame.
For greater head support, most people use a pillow, placed on the top of a mattress. Also used is some form of covering blanket to insulate the sleeper, often bed sheets, a quilt, or a duvet, collectively referred to as bedding. Bedding is the removable non-furniture portion of a sleeping environment. A bed can be thought of as a body, and the bedding its clothing.
Also, some people prefer to dispense with the box spring and bed frame, and replace it with a platform bed style. This is more common in Europe, Australia and Japan.
Read more about Bed: Bed Sizes, Notable Beds, Types of Beds, Bed Frames
Famous quotes containing the word bed:
“The bed is now as public as the dinner table and governed by the same rules of formal confrontation.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Are flowers the winter’s choice?
Is love’s bed always snow?”
—John Clare (1793–1864)
“Women born at the turn of the century have been conditioned not to speak openly of their wedding nights. Of other nights in bed with other men they speak not at all. Today a woman having bedded with a great general feels free to tell us that in bed the general could not present arms. Women of my generation would have spared the great general the revelation of this failure.”
—Jessamyn West (1907–1984)