Beds; everybody has them yet not much is known about how they were invented or how they became what they are today. For something so massively consumed, it’s time to educate ourselves about this mythical piece of furniture that would seem to have appeared from nowhere.

History outlines that the very first types of beds largely consisted of shrubbery and greenery piled on open ground.  In an attempt to increase comfort, there has also been evidence of ancient man creating a palette from rock in which to place the shrubbery – although it would be a fair assumption that this was most certainly more uncomfortable!

Progressing into ancient Egyptian times yet still many years BC, it is known that upper class citizens actually manufactured the first beds. This consisted of a hay or grass filled mattress which was supported via a frame made of gold. It was then discovered that over time the Egyptians began to fill their mattresses with wool or feathers to increase levels of warmth during the night.

The Renaissance Era introduced a much more luxurious adaptation of what the Egyptians began. The rough mattresses that were originally made of rags extracted from legumes were then covered with soft and luxurious sheets of silk.

Heading into the 20^th century, the first spring mattresses were created in America as well as the orthopaedic bed with foam mattresses in the 1950’s. By the 1980’s the industry became a lot more creative with airbeds and water beds being introduced.

Although the mechanical adjustable bed had already been used in hospitals in the 1940’s, the 1990’s saw the introduction of electrical adjustable beds not only in hospitals but also within homes.

Beds have come along in leaps and bounds and with the now state of the art electrical beds, it’s safe to say goodbye to mounds of shrubs and leaves and hello to quality and luxurious sleep time.

Most of us sleep on a normal sprung mattress bed. However, adjustable beds are becoming ever more popular as more and more people suffer from sleeping problems and bad backs and choose to relax in an electric bed. An ageing population is also a reason for this increase in popularity of electric beds as sitting up and getting in and out of bed poses problems for more and more people.

As always there are pros and cons for every type of bed and the electric bed is no different. The positive points for having an electric bed are plentiful, whilst the negatives are more a matter of personal taste and cost. If you are considering investing in an electric bed, it is important to know the good points along with the worst.

The main purpose of an electric bed is to allow you to control the movement and position of the head and foot end of the bed. This allows you to raise your head, up to the point of sitting up, or to raise your feet to help circulation, or any combination of the positions to find a comfortable and supportive position for you during sleep and when awake.

Due to the adjustable positions controlled by the hand held control, this bed is very popular with those suffering from certain medical conditions. Raising the head will help with reflux problems amongst others, whilst raising the feet aids circulation and reduces dizziness. Those struggling to sit up from a lying position will benefit from the electric assistance.

A double or larger electric bed is especially beneficial if there is only one of two people sharing the bed who needs the raised bed motion. The individual designs allow one side to be raised whilst the other stays flat, allowing both partners to sleep well. Just touch the button and adjust your side of the bed to your preferred angles so you can relax in an electric bed.

Electric beds come in a choice of frames and bases and there is a large selection of mattresses to choose from such as visco-elastic memory foam, reflex foam, latex or specially designed pocket sprung mattresses. However, it is important that you buy your mattress with your bed, as they need to be specially designed for the movement they will sustain. You cannot just fit a normal mattress onto this type of bed.

Electric beds need to be plugged in and will use a small amount of energy when you raise or lower them, making a low level of noise as you do so. As an electric bed gets older, the chances of having a mechanical breakdown become more likely, although modern designs are thoroughly tested and very robust. Normal mattresses and beds do not require electricity, do not create noise and are not susceptible to mechanical breakdowns.

You may need storage space under your bed, which is easy to achieve with a normal bed. Depending on your bed frame you can have large drawers that slide under the ends or sides of the bed. With an electric bed however, the internal motor is housed under the bed. This means that storage drawers can only be fitted at the foot end of the bed, limiting your storage space.

Normal bedding sets can be used on electric beds as long as they are size appropriate. However, you may want to invest in specially designed fitted sheets as the elasticised properties keep the sheets snug even when the bed is raised at both the foot and head ends.
Normal sheets become baggy at this point.