Life Matters – Double Your Discomfort

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Of all the decisions we face during the course of our lives, purchasing a mattress seems relatively simple.  Memory foam and sleep numbers aside, the determining factor in buying a mattress usually boils down to the size of the room and the number of sleeping occupants. It isn’t any wonder then that many couples just starting out fall into the same slumber trap; the dreaded double bed.  A double, or full mattress as it is known in the United States, is the smallest size mattress (supposedly) designed to sleep two people although it is rare to find a couple who chooses to use a double bed for any length of time.  In fact, double beds are most commonly used by tall, single sleepers who need a little more room to stretch out or relegated to guest rooms where floor space is scarce.

The oddest thing about a double bed is its name; it is a misnomer. The word double carries the implication that it services two persons when, in fact, sleeping two adults on a bed this size leaves much to be desired.  Here are the facts:  an American double bed is NOT equal to two single-sized beds laid side by side.  A single bed is 39 inches across and sleeps one person while a double bed is 54 inches across and supposedly sleeps two.  But if you were to divide a double bed in half, you’d end up with 27 inches per person, giving each occupant a full foot LESS room than if they were each sleeping in twin beds. Now that’s what I call full service discomfort.

The term full/double is as elusive as the fog that shrouds its etymology which is just a fancy way of saying that there isn’t much of anything to be found on how or why the terms were created. While the term full was coined in the United States, the term double (to refer to the same size mattress) is used in countries ruled by Great Britain. Over time these names became interchangeable and downright confusing.

If a double isn’t really double in size then why is it called a double? And if a full is already full, why do we need to add another person under the sheets?

Consider the definition of the word full:

Would you like more to eat? No thank you. I’m full.

Are we staying in that hotel tonight? No, they’re full up.

How many gallons of gas would you like? Fill ‘er up.

Full means complete; packed to capacity; occupied. In other words, I love my spouse but this full guest bed isn’t big enough for the both of us.

I did stumble across a table of mattress dimensions which revealed the following:  The United Kingdom has a mattress called a mini-single which is 30 inches in width.  Their double mattress is 54 inches wide. That’s nearly double the width of a mini-single which is possibly why they refer to their mattress as a double. However I’d rather suffer through a night on a full mattress than stake my reputation on that explanation.

Speaking as a married person who has, in my travels, slept on more full beds than I can shake a mattress springs at, I can honestly say that I hate sharing a full bed.  In fact, I think we should gather up all the full beds in the world and have a bonfire. We can roast hot dogs and marshmallows and sing campfire songs. Truth be told, when I travel for the holidays, I often pack my own inflatable mattress and pump if I know the sleep horror that awaits me on the other end. I can pull the plug in the morning and shove the portable mattress under the full bed that my husband is sleeping on so our hosts are none the wiser (until they read this article). There is no need to offend them after they’ve been slumbering sweetly on their queen or king mattress – because their full mattress was demoted from their bedroom to the guest room eons ago. But I’m not bitter about it.

I realize that space conservation is the main advantage that full beds have over both a queen and a king mattress. Heck, my husband and I slept on a full mattress for the first five years of our married life before it went by the wayside – and by that I mean it went out to the curb. Full beds are also easier to move because the box springs and mattress will fit more easily through doorways and around corners in a small apartment or home. And they are cheaper because the both the mattress and the subsequent bedding is less expensive than comparable items for a larger bed. But simple math says that if we spend eight hours of our 24-hour day at rest, then we spend 1/3 of our day in bed. That translates into one third of our lives spent in an aggravatingly uncomfortable environment all for the sake of saving a few dollars and a few feet of floor space. It also makes for grumpy guests who don’t bring their own inflatable mattresses.