How Did the Bed Develop as Household Furniture

We spend much of our lives in beds and numerous adverts discuss the merits of different types of beds that are intended to give us better sleep and comfort. Today, what represents a bed differs greatly from culture to culture. The history of the bed, like most furniture, has been shaped by its complex development. It is, on the one hand, an essential item of furniture, but for different cultures it has varied as an important object of cultural value to simply a utilitarian furniture piece.

Early History

The bed develops as humans began to built long-term settlements or more permanent dwelling places. Before this time, beds were mostly ad hoc construction that would have been made from surrounding materials (e.g., straw or twigs) and often discarded as human populations moved.