A yawn is deep involuntary breath from drowsiness, lack of stimulation or boredom. The reflex consisting of the simultaneous inhalation of air and the stretching of the eardrums, followed by an exhalation of breath.
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HUMAN YAWNING
Yawning (oscitation) most often occurs in adults immediately before and after sleep, during tedious activities and as a result of its contagious quality.
Yawning doesn't always necessarily mean you're tired, it also means your body needs more oxygen.
When you yawn, you take in three times more oxygen than you do in a normal breath.
Two women ironing, one with a yawn, by Edgar Degas
Describing how he begins his day, Benito Mussolini said in 1927: "My sleep is like that of a babe. It is profound, undisturbed and therefore extremely reposeful. I instinctively stretch and yawn when I wake, and, as quick as a flash, I am out of bed. My day has begun. I never stay in bed a moment after the yawn."
Yawning and stretching at the same time is called "pandiculating." It's very important in waking up our nervous system.
If you touch your tongue while yawning, it can stop the yawn.
Psychopaths aren't affected by the contagiousness of yawning.
People with autism are less likely to catch yawns. The more severe their condition, the less common the behavior gets.
ANIMAL YAWNING
An animal’s yawn based on how large their brain is. The bigger the brain, the longer they will yawn. Dogs will yawn in order to express that there is a conflict of interest between their own ideas or desires and those of their owners.
The sofa, settee (Canadian English and British English), or couch (U.S. English, British English), is a kind of furniture that is designed to seat more than one person. Sofas are normally found in the living room or in front of the television.
The term couch is predominantly used in Ireland, North America, South Africa and Australia whereas the terms sofa and settee are generally used in the United Kingdom.
The word ‘sofa’ dates back to 2000BC Egypt. It derives from the Arabic word ‘suffah’ (which translates as ‘bench’).
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The word couch originated in Middle English from the Old French noun couche, which derived from the verb meaning "to lie down."
The word settee comes from the Old English word, setl, which was used to describe long benches with high backs and arms, but is now generally used to describe upholstered seating.
HISTORY
In ancient Greece the multipurpose couch was used for sleeping and for reclining at mealtime.
The Romans produced the same basic forms as the Greeks, and again the couch was popular. It eventually reached a characteristic form with a high back and high scrolled ends that terminated in carved animals' heads.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, a couch was thought as a long, upward seat for resting on. One end would slope up high enough to provide a place for the head to rest.
English Settee, c.1770 By TlyleSheph3rd
Some late 18th-century kinds of sofas had an arm running partly down one side, and this type continued to be made in England.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a furniture set consisting of a sofa with two matching chairs. is known as a "chesterfield suite" or "living room suite."
The first leather chesterfield sofa, with its distinctive deep buttoned, quilted leather upholstery and lower seat base, was commissioned by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773). Consequently, in the UK, the word chesterfield now describes a deep buttoned sofa, usually made from leather, with arms and back of the same height.
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PEOPLE AND SOFAS
Florence Nightingale returned home from the Crimean War, weakened by a fever she'd contracted there. Prostate and apparently helpless on a sofa in her south London home, she conducted a huge correspondence and received many dignities, ambassadors and politicians.
HG Wells became an author as a result of an injury he suffered. Before his teens, the son of the landlord of The Bell at Bromley threw him in the air and shouted, "Whose kid are you?" Wells landed awkwardly and broke his leg. As the young Wells lay on the sofa recovering, the landlord's wife sent in books for him to read, which prompted his interest in literature.
Barbara Cartland was a romantic novelist credited with the greatest number of books by any British author (some 723 in all). Her rate of production meant that a new book was finished every two or three weeks, dictated to her secretary from a sofa.
FUN SOFA FACTS
The Simpsons' couch gag is frequently used by the show's writers to make the show longer or shorter, depending on the length of the episode itself.
Lazy people who does not do a lot of physical activity but spend their time lounging on their sofa watching TV are called a "couch potato" because potatoes do not move at all. It also relates to the shape of a typically fat person slumped in front of their television.
Underground comic bookartist Robert Armstrong originated the term when he featured in the 1970s a group of couch potatoes in a series of comics featuring sedentary characters. Along with Jack Mingo and Allan Dodge he created a satirical organization that purported to watch television as a form of meditation.
People sit on their couch for an average of four hours each day.
Over it’s lifespan the average couch will host around 782 visitors.
The average couch will be used 489 times as a bed.
We eat 13 meals a month on our sofas and the average sofa suffers 1,663 spillages over its lifetime. Tea or coffee three times a week, and dinner six times a month.
'Snore' once meant the same as 'snort' and was applied to animals. William Shakespeare was the first to use the verb for human snoring.
About 45% of adults snore at least occasionally and 25% snore habitually.
Men are twice as likely to snore as women.
The noise of a really rasping snore can register 69 decibels. A pneumatic drill is 70-90 decibels.
President Theodore Roosevelt was such a loud snorer that during some overnight stays at the Washington hospital, they provided him with his own floor so the other patients could sleep.
The loudest snore ever recorded was measured at 112 decibels — equivalent to live rock music and almost as loud as a jetengine. Grandmother Jenny Chapman, 60, from Deeping St James, Cambridgeshire, England was recorded during a trial of natural snoring remedies in 2009. Her husband Colin said: "It could be worse, she could be a sleepwalker."
A survey found that 23% of married or cohabiting couples slept separately on a regular basis, mostly due to snoring.
Bed partners of snorers visit their doctor more frequently than bed partners of non-snorers.
In a 1997 divorce case in Iran, a woman admitted drugging her husband early in the marriage so that he would not hear her snoring.
The European Patent Office lists more than 2,000 devices to alleviate, treat or prevent snoring.
In 2005, the British Medical Journal published a paper reporting that playing the didgeridoo can help people with sleep disorders including snoring.
One folk remedy for snoring advises pinching the big toe of anyone who snores.
In Massachusetts, snoring is banned unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked.
You cannot snore and dream at the same time. People normally snore when in deep sleep and at the same time we dream when sleeping soundly but still snoring and dreams do not go hand in hand.
Sleepwalking is called somnambulism (Latin somnus "sleep" + ambulare "to walk").
Sleepwalking occurs during slow-wave sleep of non-rapid eye movement sleep cycles. It typically occurs within the first third of the night when slow-wave sleep is most prominent.
According to research done, sleepwalking seems to be a problem related to the mechanism of waking up.
John Everett Millais, The Somnambulist, 1871
Sleepwalking seems to be more common in children, between ten and thirty percent of children are affected; in most cases, they stop sleepwalking during puberty.
Researchers reported in 2012 in the journal Neurology that about 3.6 percent of U.S. adults had walked in their sleep at least once in the previous 12 months One percent experienced at least two episodes of sleepwalking per month.
More than 8 million Americans sleepwalk.
In one of the most famous scenes in Shakespeare's MacBeth, a doctor and a gentlewoman discuss Lady Macbeth's strange habit of sleepwalking:
"Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep."
Lady Macbeth sleepwalking by Johann Heinrich Füssli
In 1987, Kenneth Parks killed his mother-in-law, assaulted his father-in-law, and drove to the police station to confess—in his sleep.
A 15-year-old sleepwalker once had to be rescued after she climbed a crane that was 130ft tall.
Two different well-known personalities of the eighteenth century had some interesting views on sleeping:
The statesman Benjamin Franklin once quipped "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." However the American did not practice what he preached and he habitually stayed up late reading scientific books. When bothered by insomnia he got out of bed and let the bed air out. Once the bed was cool, Franklin returned to it and fell asleep again.
Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Wilson, 1759
Franklin frequently switched beds sleeping on up to four beds every night. He had a theory that a warm bed saps a man's vitality so when one bed became too warm the statesman jumped into another.
Meanwhile John Wesley habitually rose every morning at 4am. In a sermonThe Duty And Advantage of Early Rising, he stated that lying in bed was physically unhealthy. The evangelist claimed that "by soaking so long between warm sheets, the flesh is as it were par-boiled, and becomes soft and flabby. The nerves, in the meantime, are quite unstrung."
In 18th century Britain, attending church wasn’t just a matter of faith—it was a test of stamina. Parishioners who dared to nod off during lengthy sermons risked the wrath of a peculiar figure known as the “sluggard waker.” Armed with a long pole, often tipped with a brass knob or a feather, these watchful guardians were tasked with keeping the congregation awake and attentive. A gentle nudge with the feather for the ladies, perhaps, but for drowsy gentlemen, a sharp whack on the head was the prescribed remedy. It was a strange mix of piety and percussion, ensuring that no one slept through the word of God—at least not without a bump to show for it.
The word “sleep” derives from the Proto-European base *sleb, “to be weak,” and is related to “slack.”
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HISTORY
Ancient peoples actually slept in two periods, sometimes termed “first sleep” and “second sleep,” each lasting four hours with a two hour reprieve in between. Additionally, most people would take a mid-afternoon rest ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours.
July 27th is the feast day of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a group of youths who were said to have hidden in a cave to escape religious persecution around 250 AD. According to the legend, they fell asleep and woke up 300 years later. The legend has led to July 27 being celebrated as National Sleepy Head Day in Finland.
In the city of Naantali, National Sleepy Head Day is marked by throwing a local dignitary into the sea at 7am. Often it is the mayor.
Illuminated manuscript from Menologion of Basil II. (985 AD),
The phrase "sleep tight" originated in Shakespeare's time when mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence ......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.
A single seven-to-eight hour sleep pattern like our didn't happen until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of artificial light, like kerosene lamps and the eventual electric light bulb, the days became much longer and it became customary to continue working into the dark so as to maximize productivity and consequently consolidate rest into one long chunk.
Before the invention of electricity, human beings slept for 90 minutes longer than they do now.
In 1963, Andy Warhol made the filmSleep. The movie consisted of long take footage of John Giorno, his lover at the time, sleeping for five hours and 20 minutes.
FAMOUS PEOPLE'S SLEEPING HABITS
Confucius compared his disciple Zai Yu to rotten wood because he slept during the day.
Joseph Merrick (August 5, 1862 – April 11, 1890) whose very severe face and body deformities were exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man", had to sleep sitting up because of the extra weight his deformities put on his head. According to his autopsy, he died of a dislocated neck by trying to sleep lying down, in order to "be like other people."
On May 24, 1920 President Paul Deschanel of France was traveling by train from Paris to Montbrison when he fell out of the train window after taking some sleeping pills. He was found uninjured wandering in his nightshirt by a platelayer, who took him to the nearest level-crossing keeper's cottage. The incident had significant repercussions for Deschanel's presidency. He was widely criticized for his recklessness and resigned from his position just a few months later in September 1920.
A Hungarian soldier named Paul Kern stayed awake for 40 years after being shot in the head during World War I. Doctors encountering his condition were always skeptical, but Kern traveled far and wide, allowing anyone who wanted to examine him to do so. He died in 1955.
The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov famously slept three hours a night for 40 years.
Eugene Aserinsky was a pioneer in sleep research who, along with his colleague Nathaniel Kleitman, discovered rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in 1953. He died on July 22, 1998 in a car crash after falling asleep at the wheel. It is a tragic irony that the man who helped to unlock the secrets of sleep would himself die from a sleep-related accident.
HUMAN SLEEPING
Human beings spend less time sleeping than any other primate. However, humans also sleep deeper than other primates. Because we kip on the ground (no risk of falling from trees) and are well-defended from predators, we can afford to get deeper, higher-quality sleep—so we don't need to snooze as long.
The average 70-year-old takes over 25 minutes to fall asleep, whereas a typical young adult takes only 10 minutes.
According to NASA researchers, an optimal nap will last between 20-30 minutes and a perfect nap will last exactly 26 minutes. They found that a sleep of that length improves performance by 34 per cent and alertness by 54 per cent.
The United States Navy Pre-Flight School created a routine to help pilots fall asleep in two minutes or less. It took pilots about six weeks of practice, but it worked - even after drinking coffee and with gunfire noises in the background.
More than two million Britons are insomniacs, Londoners get the least rest, with just 54 per cent managing the UK average of seven hours.
Children need many hours of sleep per day in order to develop and function properly: 14-17 hours for newborn babies, with a declining rate as a child ages.
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Western people are getting over an hour less sleep than people did in the 1940s. Back then, the average was slightly more than 8 hours of sleep a night, while today we are down to around 6 hours, 45 minutes of sleep nightly.
Around a third of us get five hours sleep or less, a night.
There is rare genetic variation (SNP rs121912617) that allows people to sleep two hours less a night with no ill effects.
Kleine-Levin Syndrome is an extremely rare illness, which causes episodes of being mostly asleep for weeks at a time. If awake during an episode, sufferers are confused about what is real and what is a dream. The condition appears in adolescence and resolves itself 10-15 years later.
In South Korea, where great emphasis is placed on academic success, children average 4.9 hours of sleep a night.
The average person in France sleeps 8.83 hours per day, the most in the developed world.
People getting only 6 to 7 hours of sleep every night have a longer life expectancy than those who sleep 8 hours.
1-3% of people are equipped with a mutated gene called hDEC2 which allows their body to get the rest it requires from just six or less hours of sleep a night, rather than the general recommendation of eight hours.
If removed from the stress of the modern world, the average human would sleep about 10 hours a day.
Noon – Rest from Work (1890) by Vincent van Gogh (after Millet)
In July 1962, the French speleologist Michel Siffre took off his watch and descended into the abyss of Scarasson in the French Alps. He spent two months living in total isolation in the subterranean cave, without time cues to study how his body clock adapted. Siffre repeated the experiment for even longer on himself and more subjects, and discovered that their bodies tended to switch to a 48-hour clock. In one case, one even slept 34 hours.
Whenever we sleeping in a new environment for the first time, the left side of the brain stays awake and the right ear, which is connected to the left side of the brain, remains more alert to unusual sounds.
Scandinavians are adamant about letting their children nap outside, even in cold weather. Parents report that babies take longer and deeper naps when they sleep comfortably bundled up outside.
3:44AM is the most common time to wake up at night.
Your brain is more active when you sleep than when you watch TV.
A study by the British Cheese Board in 2005 to determine the effect of cheese upon sleep and dreaming discovered that, contrary to the idea that it commonly causes nightmares, cheese's effect upon sleep was positive.
In the course of an average lifetime you'll, while sleeping, eat 70 insects and 10 spiders.
Sleeping through winter is hibernation, while sleeping through summer is estivation.
Staying awake for more than 18 hours impairs your physical performance as much as being drunk.
A good night's sleep protects the brain, heart and lungs as well as boosting your mood. It also reduces the pain from many injuries and boosts your immune system giving you a great protection from diseases.
Sleep literally cleans your brain. During slumber, cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain to wash away harmful proteins and toxins that build up during the day.
Watery sounds help us sleep because non-threatening noises can drown out sounds that might activate the brain's vigilance system.
Sleep is directly proportional to weight gain. People who sleep less, eat more. Due to decreased levels of Leptin in the body, an individual feels hungry, making him/her eat more than necessary.
Just as some people talk in their sleep, sign language speakers have been known to sign in their sleep.
World Sleep Day is held the Friday before Spring Vernal Equinox of each year. It is organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of World Sleep Society (founded by WASM and WSF) and aims to lessen the burden of sleep problems on society through better prevention and management of sleep disorders.
SLEEPING RECORDS
The longest period anyone has stayed awake is 11 days, or 264 hours. The record was set by Randy Gardner (born August 7, 1949), when he was a high school student in San Diego, California. He was raising money for charity.
On the eleventh day, when Gardner was asked to subtract seven repeatedly, starting with 100, he stopped at 65. When asked why he had stopped, he replied that he had forgotten what he was doing.
Humans are the only mammal who willingly delay sleep.
Out of every primate that has been studied, humans get the least amount of sleep.
The term "cat nap" for a short rest refers to the cat's tendency to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period.
The sleepiest animal in the world is the koala, who averages between 20 and 22 hours shuteye a day. Little brown bats have also been clocked sleeping for 20 hours.
In 2008 it was found that sloths in the wild sleep no more than human teenagers. Sloths in captivity, however, sleep about 16 hours a day. Elephants and giraffes only sleep around 3-4 hours a day—the shortest known sleep time of any land mammal. Giraffes can go for weeks without napping, needing 30 minutes to fully recharge.
The bullfrog is the only animal that can survive without sleeping for months at a time. While they shut their eyes and go on to rest, they remain alert during these periods. The only time they do go into ‘deep sleep’ it is to hibernate to survive freezing winters.
Many aquatic animals, including ducks, whales and dolphins, sleep with one eye open.
Hippos can sleep underwater using a reflex that allows them to bob up, take a breath, and sink back down without waking up.
Worker ants take up to 250 naps everyday, with each one lasting just over a minute. This equates to 4 hours and 48 minutes of sleep per day.
Lakeside dwellers in Switzerland who lived around 9000 BC used linen woven from flax to cover themselves and keep themselves warm as they slept.
In medieval Europe, people usually slept naked or in their regular clothes. Specific nightclothes were first worn in the 1500s.
The English word "Pyjamas" is a combination of the Persian words "pa" (leg) and "jamah" (garment). The original pyjāmā were loose, lightweight trousers fitted with drawstring waistbands worn by Muslims in India and adopted by British colonists during their 18th and 19th century rule there.
Muslim men in paijamas (various styles), Bombay, 1867. By Chintamon, Hurrichund -
Never a fan of formal affairs, Thomas Jefferson was often reported to have worn his pajamas while meeting with foreign dignitaries.
The original pyjāmā day-apparel became a night garb and a shirt was added to the trousers. They became a fashion in Britain and the Western world as sleeping attire for men during the Victorian period, from about 1870.
Pyjamas became fashionable for British women because of World War I zeppelin air raids Pyjamas were more practical and fashionable than night dresses when people had to evacuate their homes at a moment’s notice and coincided with the "new novelty" of women wearing trousers.
The frontman of Nirvana Kurt Cobain got married to Courtney Love wearing green pajamas.
Children's sleepwear in the United States is required to be flame resistant and self-extinguishing
The first people to use pillows were those who lived in early civilizations of Mesopotamia around 7,000 BC. During this time, the number of pillows symbolized status so the more pillows one owned the more affluence he or she held.
The Greeks and Romans got the idea of filling pillows with straw.
After a feast many Romans would sleep on costly saffron-filled pillows in the belief that they would avoid a hangover.
In China porcelain pillows first appeared in the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and their mass production began in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
The Chinese decorated their pillows by making them different shapes and by painting pictures of animals, humans, and plants on them during the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties between the 10th and 14th century.
pottery pillow from the Jīn dynasty (1115–1234
In the Middle Ages sprigs of rosemary were kept on pillows to prevent nightmares.
In Elizabethan England the middle classes had a mattress and a sack of chaff to rest their head on. Pillows were only for women in childbirth.
Hours before being assassinated on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. took part in a motel pillow fight with other civil rights leaders.
In 2010, a Korean man fell in love and married a life-sized pillow adorned with a cartoon character named Fate Testarossa on it.
West Point banned an annual pillow fight held by first year cadets after it devolved into a “bloody clash” in 2015. 30 people were injured, including 24 diagnosed with concussions. A report said upper-class cadets did not take proper control of the fight to ensure the safety of first years.
War Horse author Michael Morpurgo writes all his books lying in bed propped up on pillows "because that’s what Robert Louis Stevenson did".
10% of the weight of a 2-year-old pillow can be composed of dead dust mites and their droppings.
Sleep wrinkles, formed when your face is pressed against a pillow at night, can become permanent with age and can't be erased with Botox.
Polar bears sometimes make pillows out of snow before they fall asleep.
Giraffes sleep using their own backsides as pillows
The Upper Class Romans owned beds decorated with gold, silver or bronze with mattresses stuffed with feathers, hay, reeds or wool.
At the siege of Acre during the Third Crusade, England's Richard I was stricken with fever. He was carried to the scene of the battle on a mattress. It is claimed that as he lay there the king discharged his arrows killing many Turks.
The word “mattress” is Arabic in origin and was most likely brought to Europe by Crusaders.
The root word of mattress means "place where something is thrown down", referring to the Arabic practice adopted by Europeans during the Crusades of sleeping on cushions on the floor.
In the 14th century the poorest people slept on a straw mattress on the floor with whatever warm covering they could get.
Mattresses in Queen Elizabeth I's time were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope. Mattresses were then placed on top of ropes that needed tightening- hence the phrase sleep tight.
Cotton mattresses were introduced in the middle of the 18th century.
German Heinrich Westphal invented the innerspring mattress is 1871 but it wasn't until the 1930’s that innerspring, upholstered mattresses gained prominence in the North American market.
In 1987, 25% of all mattress sales were waterbeds.
The reason there are tags on mattresses that say "Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law" is the result of laws that require that the contents of the mattress be listed on the label. These laws were passed in a time when many mattresses were filled with a variety of undesirable contents.
The average mattress contains two million house dust mites.
During the Roman Era, interesting dreams were submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation.
In a study of 640 dream journals conducted by Harvard, psychologists determined the dreams of prisoners in World War II POW camps were less aggressive than the standard male population. Rather than visions of extreme violence, the majority of soldiers dreamed of escape, family, loneliness, and home.
A 2005 survey by the British Cheese Board reported that Stilton cheese seemed to cause unusual dreams, with 75 per cent of men and 85 per cent of women experiencing "odd and vivid" dreams after eating a serving of the cheese half an hour before sleeping.
Infants spend more time dreaming than adults do.
A study found that the dreams of two-year-olds tend to involve little more than a place, without action or characters to speak of.
Over the age of ten we have four to six dreams per night. They can last from five minutes to half an hour. You generally end up remembering only the last dream.
The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.
In an average lifetime, a person spends about five years dreaming but we forget most of them.
While approximately 80 percent of all dreams are in color, 12 per cent people claim to only dream in black and white. Before color TV arrived, the figure was 85 per cent.
Dreaming occurs mainly during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, distinguishable by random fluttering of the eyes.
We only remember dreams if we wake up within five minutes of having them. We therefore forget an estimated 90 per cent of our dreams.
If you wake up during REM sleep, your chance to remember your dream is 80-90%, while it is much less if you wake up during other sleep stages.
According to an old superstition, dreaming of teeth falling out foretells the death of a friend.
The word 'dream' comes from an Old English word meaning 'mirth', 'joy', 'noise' or 'music'.
According to the Oxford English Corpus, the adjective that most often precedes 'dream' or 'dreams' is 'bad'. Next most common is 'wildest'.
Dreamt' and 'undreamt' are the only common words in the English language ending in -mt.
The phrase 'pipe-dream' originally referred to visions experienced when smoking an opium pipe.
Euneirophrenia is that peaceful state of mind you sometimes experience after you've had a pleasant dream.
The word "nightmare" is derived from "Mare", a Germanic folklore goblin who rode on people's chests as they slept.
The original meaning of 'nightmare' was 'a spirit of a hag on a horse that stifled the sleeping'.
Déjà rêvé is a feeling similar to déjà vu, except instead of feeling like you’ve previously experienced an event in real life, you feel like you previously experienced it in a dream.
The three most commonly reported emotions experienced in dreams are anger, sadness and fear.
It's nearly impossible to read in your dreams due to the inactivity of those parts of the brain while asleep.
One is not able to dream while snoring. People normally snore when in deep sleep and at the same time we dream when sleeping soundly but still snoring and dreams do not go hand in hand.
Birds and mammals also have REM sleep, so it is assumed by many that they also dream.
A blanket is a large piece of fabric or material that is typically used for warmth, comfort, or protection. It is commonly rectangular or square in shape and is designed to be placed over a person or used as a covering for a bed or couch. Blankets are often made from materials such as wool, cotton, fleece, or synthetic fibers.
Blankets serve various purposes, including providing insulation and retaining body heat to keep individuals warm. They can also be used for decorative purposes, adding color or texture to a room. Additionally, blankets can offer a sense of security and comfort, making them popular choices for snuggling up, relaxing, or sleeping.
The term arose from the generalization of a specific fabric called Blanket fabric, a heavily napped woolen weave pioneered by Thomas Blanket (Blanquette), a Flemish weaver who lived in Bristol, England in the 14th century.
Blankets were traditionally made of wool because of wool's warmth, breathability and natural fire-retardant properties. Nowadays, synthetic fibers are frequently used.
The oldest known blanket dates back approximately 10,000 years and was found in a cave in Russia. It was made from reindeerfur.
In Native American cultures, blankets have been traditionally used as important ceremonial gifts and symbols of honor and respect.
The famous Hudson's Bay Company, a Canadian retail business established in 1670, is known for its iconic striped wool blankets, often referred to as Hudson's Bay blankets or "point" blankets.
The first electric blanket was invented in 1912 by American physician Sidney I. Russell. This earliest form of an electric blanket was an ‘underblanket’ under the bed that covered and heated from below.
The phrase "security blanket" originated from the Peanutscomic strip, where the character Linus was often seen carrying his blanket for comfort.
Linus' security blanket made its debut in the Peanuts comic strip on June 1, 1954. In the strip, Linus is shown holding the blanket over his shoulder while sucking his thumb. Ridicule of the habit is not a major concern for him. The blanket has been a part of Linus's character ever since, and it has become one of the most iconic symbols in Peanuts. It is a symbol of Linus's comfort, security, and innocence. It is also a symbol of his vulnerability.
A fire blanket is made of fire-resistant material such as fiberglass and is used in smothering a fire. Firefighters often wear specialized variants of the fire blanket to protect themselves as well.
In Pennsylvania there is a law that says: "Any motorist who sights a team of horses coming toward him must pull well off the road, cover his car with a blanket or canvas that blends with the countryside, and let the horses pass. If the horses appear skittish, the motorist must take his car apart piece by piece, and hide it under the nearest bushes."
The world's largest polar fleece blanket is 98.80 m2 (1063.474 ft2) in size. It was created by Dreamtex in 2015 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the CBeebies television series In the Night Garden. The blanket is made of red fleece material, blue stitching and clear thread, and weighs a hefty 70 kg. It can easily cover a total of 56 standard children's beds. The blanket was unveiled at Alton Towers theme park in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2015, by Igglepiggle, one of the characters from In the Night Garden.
Igglepiggle, from hit CBeebies' series In the Night Garden, unveiled the world’s largest polar fleece blanket
Quilts, which are blankets made by stitching together layers of fabric, have a rich history and cultural significance in many regions worldwide. They have been used for warmth, storytelling, and artistic expression.
In space exploration, specially designed space blankets or "Mylar" blankets are used to protect astronauts and equipment from extreme temperature variations.
The Snuggie, a type of blanket with sleeves, became popular in the United States in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The company that produced the Snuggie argued that it should be classified as a blanket in order to avoid paying the higher import taxes on garments. On February 10, 2017, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the Snuggie should be classified as a blanket, rather than a garment, based on its characteristics and intended use.
Linen woven from flax were used by lakeside dwellers in Switzerland in 9000 BC. They used it to cover themselves and keep themselves warm as they sleep.
The first beds were used around 3400 BC after Egyptian pharaohs discovered the benefits of raising a pallet off the earth.
Ancient Egyptians did not use pillows on their beds, but had a carved headboard shaped to allow their neck and head to rest on it to sleep.
Several beds were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen including one that folded up for travelling and another of ebony and gold with a base of woven string to lie on.
Tutankhamun's gilded bed By Hans Ollermann - Wikipedia Commons
The Upper Class Romans owned beds decorated with gold, silver or bronze with mattresses stuffed with feathers, hay, reeds or wool. They also had waterbeds.
In the East in Bible times the bed was not a piece of furniture but a mat. Whole families slept on a single mat together. In the morning the mat was rolled up so that it did not take up so much space. People could, and did, quite easily take their "beds" around with them. Hence Jesus said to a man he had just healed: "Get up, take your mat and go home"
In 1495 The English Parliament passed a statute regulating the content of bed stuffing, requiring that it be good, clean feathers, not dirty old horsehair.
In the 1500s there was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
Britain’s largest bed, the Great Bed of Ware was built in 1596. It can accommodate 12 people.
The Great Bed of Ware, By The original uploader was VAwebteam at English Wikipedia
Mattresses in Shakespeare’s time were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence the phrase, "sleep tight."
‘Bed’ is an Old English word but ‘bedroom’ arrived only in 1600.
William Shakespeare's will, still in existence, bequeathed most of his property to Susanna and her daughter. He left small mementos to friends. He mentioned his wife only once, leaving her his "second best bed" with its furnishings.
King Louis XIV of France’s rising in the morning and going to bed at night were attended by elaborate ceremonies called the "levee and couchee." Each noblemen had his own duty and part to play in these rituals. Louis collected beds, he owned 414 in total. All were elaborately carved, gilded and hung with costly embroideries. His great joy was the magnificent bed in the Palace of Versailles, on which were woven in gold the words "The Triumph of Venus". But when Louis married his religious second wife she had the pagan subject replaced by "The Sacrifice of Abraham."
Cast-iron beds and cotton mattresses were introduced in the middle of the 18th century.
Thomas Jefferson had 13 bedrooms at his Monticello home. All the beds were simply mattress supports hung on wall hooks.
The waterbed was invented in 1833 by the Scottish physician Neil Arnott. He intentionally did not patent it so that anyone could design their own variation of the waterbed and it could help as many people as it could who were suffering from bed sores.
In order to overcome insomnia Charles Dickens pointed the head of his bed north because of his belief in the powers of magnetic flow.
Mattresses with coiled springs inside were invented in 1865.
Victoria Woodhall, the radical feminist who was the first woman to run for the U.S. presidency in 1872, feared that she would die if she went to bed in her old age. She spent the last four years of her life sitting in a chair. (She died at the age of 89 in 1927.)
After near-fatal aircraft crash on July 7, 1946 Howard Hughes decided he did not like the design of the hospital bed he was laying in. He called in his engineers and had them design a new bed that would allow someone with severe burns to move freely. It became the prototype for the modern hospital bed.
In 1964 the first Habitat store opened in the United Kingdom. They were one of the first British stores to sell duvets and shoppers were so intrigued they would climb into the beds in the store to try them.
Almost one of every four beds sold in the late 1980s was a waterbed. Then the industry dried up in the 1990s.
FUN BED FACTS
The world's largest bed was created by Commissie Zomerfeesten St Gregorius Hertme in Hertme, the Netherlands, on May 28, 2011. It measures 26.5 m (86 ft 11 in) long and 16.44 m (53 ft 11 in) wide and can sleep 24 people. The bed was made by a team of volunteers and took over a week to build. It is made of wood and metal and covered with a mattress and bedding.
The world's most expensive bed is the Baldacchino Supreme at $6.3 million. The bed is hand-carved by Stuart Hughes from a combination of Ash, Cherry and Classy Canopy wood, with over 200 lbs of 24k gold and fine Italian silk fabric. Being hand carved, there are only two beds that have been made.
Kevin Wheatcroft, a British businessman and motor sport entrepreneur, is the owner of the world's largest collection of Nazi memorabilia. He sleeps in a bed once owned by Hitler, but has "changed the mattress."
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Studies suggest that unmade beds are healthier for us than neat and made beds - Bed bugs have a harder time surviving in messy beds.
In a year, the average person walks four miles making his or her bed.
One out of every two million people will die by falling out of bed.
Clinophobia is the fear of beds.
Clinomania is the excessive desire to stay in bed.
Dysania is the technical term for finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning.
A Barbiturate is a Hypnosedative drug, commonly known as a ‘sleeping pill’, consisting of any salt or ester of barbituric acid C4H4O3N2. It works by depressing brain activity.
Below is barbituric acid, the parent structure of all barbiturates.
By Manuel Almagro Rivas - Wikipedia
In 1864 the German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer succeeded in synthesising a new organic compound. The date, December 4th coincided with the feast of Saint Barbara, and so the German name given to the substance was called “Barbitursäure” or barbituric acid.
In 1887 a powerful hypnotic (to produce sleep) called sulphonal came into medical use. Sulphonal was the first really popular drug of the Bayer Company's laboratories in Germany, and helped finance research on further hypnotics.
In 1903 the German chemist Emil Fischer and pathologist Joseph Freiherr Von Mering introduced new hypnotics and sedatives (to produce a calming effect), that became known as barbiturates. These are derived from barbituric acid with the addition of several small hydrocarbon sidechains and they took the place of the earlier drugs such as Sulphonal.
Tolerance develops quickly in the user so that increasingly large doses are required to induce sleep. A barbiturate's action persists for hours or days, and can cause confused, aggressive behaviour or disorientation.
