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. This leads to them being used in places with limited floor space, such as on ships and in army garrisons or in places that wish to maximize bedspace such as: dormitories, summer camp cabins, hostels, children's rooms, prison cells, or university residence halls.
Bunk beds are normally supported by four poles or pillars, one at each corner of the bed. To get to the second bunk a ladder is used. The top bed is normally surrounded by a railing to prevent the sleeper from falling out, and some models also have a privacy curtain for the lower bunk. Because of the need for a ladder and the height of the bed, the top bunk of a bunkbed is not recommended for children under six years of age.
A loft bed is an elevated bed similar to a bunk bed, but without the lower beds - freeing floor space for other furniture (such as a desk) which might be built into the loft bed.
Famous quotes containing the word bed:
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)