> My husband and I just ordered a new king-sized bed and it was surprisingly difficult to find the kind we wanted, so I got curious about how beds (and more generally, sleep habits) have changed throughout history. There was more variation than I expected.  ## Fun Facts - King Tut had a [folding camping bed](https://www.livescience.com/59999-king-tut-camping-bed-ancient-marvel.html) with a three-fold "z" mechanism. - In Mesoamerica, [hammocks and mats on low platforms](https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztec-life/aztec-furniture) were common places to sleep. - The first water-filled beds were [goatskins filled with water](https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-beds-1991347), used in Persia more than 3,600 years ago. - Roman mattresses were made of [cloth and stuffed were hay and wool](https://slumbersage.com/mattress-guide/history-mattress-industry-timeline/), or, for the rich: feathers. - The _huoqiang_, which is basically a flat, [rectangular stone fireplace](https://porch.com/advice/history-bedroom) that is heated up and then cleaned out before someone sleeps on top of it, is still in use in some parts of modern [[China]]. %% I should use this for the [[Voldshee]] %% ## Ashy Grass Beds As much as 200,000 years ago, people were mixing campfire ash with sedge leaves and aromatic grasses to create bug-repellent bedding in Africa. \[[Read More](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-grass-beds-insect-repellent)\] ## Heirloom Four Poster A bed would have been the prized possession of women in high and late medieval cities. They were even given to a woman's eldest daughter upon her marriage. \[[Read More](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4qkr04/what_was_sex_like_when_most_people_lived_in_1/)\] %% - This [thread about privacy and sex in different cultures throughout history](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4qkr04/what_was_sex_like_when_most_people_lived_in_1/), which involves a very polite disagreement (aka a bare-knuckle brawl by academic standards) between academics about how the Protestant Reformation impacted European ideals about sex and privacy, the importance of beds (and more importantly, bed *curtains*) as cultural heirlooms, and some interesting legal cases, particularly relating toward the evolution of Italian sexual mores from the Roman era to Florence with regards to sodomy norms at different ages. %% ## Fireside Sleep The Aka people, who are foragers, build their (wooden) houses only big enough for a hearth fire and a bed, and wake up often to tend the fire. Their houses are situated closely together. \[[Read More](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/fanssm/have_sleep_patterns_always_been_the_same_i_read/fj1ejya/)\] ## The Bedroom Office People in ancient [[Egypt]] typically arranged their houses for multi-functional purposes, and their beds probably doubled as an seating and status indicators for high-level meetings. \[[Read More](https://hannahpethen.com/2019/02/20/re-thinking-beds-and-bedrooms-in-ancient-egypt-thoughts-provoked-by-nadine-moellers-the-archaeology-of-urbanism-in-ancient-egypt/)\] <div class=infobox>If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy </div>