I haven’t found anything scientific about this, but box springs are wooden slats sideways for even distribution of weight, but wouldn’t the floor be better? Does it damage the bed or affect sleep?
Or are box springs a solution to the manufactured problem of raising beds on bed frames?
In: 1254
My wife and I have been sleeping on Japanese style futon (shikibuton) for the last year, it was difficult at first getting used to the new mattress but our backs feel much better now. Also like some of the other comments, mattresses hold a lot of dead skin and moisture so it is important to take the futon outside on sunny days and beat it to get rid of all the dust.
Also when not using it it folds up nicely and gives you more area in your bedroom.
Certainly asked by someone under 40yo.
The older you get, the farther away the floor is…
It’s about the hight of the mattress as well as ventilation. It’s easier to get in and out of bed if the mattress is higher up, instead of on the floor.
Having your bed off the floor kept insects from calling into bed. Often people would coat their bed legs in substances to prevent bugs from calling up the legs. Canopy’s over beds were used to prevent critters and bugs from falling on top of you if you lived in a thatch roofed house.
It’s also easier on your body when your bed is higher to get in and out of.
Me before this thread:
I have my mattress on the floor, it’s great I just fold it up against the wall and I have the whole room to play vr.
Me now: checking for damp
Two reasons that I know of. One functional, mattresses need to be ventilated on the underside to prevent moisture/mold. The other is maybe just a preference but it’s easier on the knees and back to sit/lay down on a raised bed
Where else am I gonna keep the bodies?
Besides the reasons given here (most of which I’d never heard before), in places with cold drafts, the cold drafts go along the floor, and being elevated a little really helps.
At one point I had my mattress and box spring on the floor very pregnant and unable to climb into our bed easily. I figured out when we put it back into the bed frame how much more comfortable it was. On the floor it had no give if that makes sense.
None of the above.
There are too many false assumptions here. It is not a manufactured problem, it is not a weight distribution issue the answer is heat.
The science here is why we need a separation from the ground the answer is thermal conduction. You’re looking at the wrong issues hence why you’re having trouble finding anything.
Direct contact with a cool surface will bleed heat out of us so we separate from it. The ground is cold we are warm warm moves to cold to put it as simply as I can. The entire purpose is to keep us comfortable and that means warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Why we use a box spring and frame? The air gap. It keeps us warm and keeps us cool. How does it do both? air temperature isn’t constant it changes both artificially and naturally.
The form the bed takes? that’s the history of technology and culture not science.
Remember sleeping mats, hammocks and futons exist so the idea of it must be this way isn’t true it’s just how we do things because it’s comfortable. Look to the past and you’ll get your answer as to how the modern bed got its form.
Long story short as our materials got better and more easily made we changed up the bed to make it more comfortable and cheaper to produce that’s it.
Things that happened:
Springs replaced stuffing.
Cotton and Foam replaced horse hair, scrap wool or plated straw.
Reliable artificial heat caused us to drop things bed curtains and cupboard beds and dictated the shape.
Steel replaced wood in structure.
sawmill cut wood, as opposed to hand cut, allowed for cheaper production which allowed for slats.
The box spring replaced rope or wire which was lumpy as fuck. Rope needs to be tightened occasionally.
Flat pack brought back slats.
The purpose has been always to keep us off the ground.
Modern beds are adapted to modern lives.
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