Do you know that your sleep experience could have turned out differently if the Egyptians hadn’t decided to place a sleeping pad on an elevated and framed platform? Let’s get to know a bit more about bedsteads and their role in sleeping history.
In world history, bedsteads can be traced all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Elaborately detailed bed frames reserved to royalty and the very wealthy of the era have been discovered by archeologists, and are thought to date from 5,000 to 3,000 years ago.
A word invented by the British, a bedstead is normally a frame for a bed that’s made of wood or iron.
As a sleeping aid, the use of bed frame became an integral part of almost every household in Great Britain going back to the days when it was under Roman occupation and known as Britannia. As an item of furniture, the wooden or metal bedstead was often passed down through generations in a single family’s history.
During the 17th century, huge four-poster bedsteads became the rage in British households that could afford them. Think of any period movie depicting that era and it’s for sure that there are elaborately carved four-poster sleeping units with fine silk or heavy linen curtains to keep out any light displayed in the sleeping chambers.
Today, four-poster bed frames come in numerous styles and sizes. The barest of them consist solely of a metal frame, a few wooden cross rails, and a mattress while others are finely detailed works of art, with massive headboards, brass or oaken frames, and four-posted curtaining modules. And many times, they’re still handed down from generation to generation in a household.
Looking back, we now know that bedsteads have long held a place in our sleeping activities going back millennia.
