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Almost all animals require sleep and, on average, spend about one third of their life asleep. Animals such as cows and horses generally sleep standing up although for REM (rapid eye movement) sleep they need to recline. Some aquatic animals such as sharks continue swimming while sleeping in order to keep water flowing through their gills to provide them with oxygen. Puzzled biologists question how sleep evolved due to the danger it poses to the animal being unconscious and thus vulnerable to attack for several hours a day. Ways in which animals reduced this risk involved light sleeping, sleeping only while in hiding, staying in groups and posting one member of the group as a lookout. A few animals even evolved unihemispheric sleep, where only one hemisphere of the brain sleeps at a time. Humans, in danger of night stalking predators and other warring humans, slept in groups guarded by a designated lookout; they chose hard to reach areas that could be easily defended. Their first beds were indentations on the ground padded with leaves and grasses. The first blankets were animal skins. It would be a long time before the cave men were able to evolve into humans who were in a position to upgrade to better sleeping arrangements. While the best the peasants could manage was a pile of leaves or straw the wealthy during the 1600s could at least enjoy a bed with a rope or leather woven to support the mattress above the floor. The best mattress were filled with soft filling such as cotton, wool or feathers while some had to contend with straw filled mattresses. By the mid-1700s, tufting or buttoned mattresses, to keep the mattress filling from bunching up, became common. Bed frames, formally made of wood, became increasingly made from cast iron. A lattice of metal wiring replaced the rope or leather supports for the mattress. Mattress fillings expanded to include coconut fibers and horsehair. The 1800s brought about the invention of bedsprings, later enclosed in a wooden frame and referred to as box springs. In the 1900s, springs were added to the mattresses; called innerspring mattresses they offered greater support to the back. The inner springs were well cushioned and were a big step forward in sleeping comfort. Similarly, removable material referred to as bedding sheets were a step forward in hygiene and generally made of linen until the invention of the cotton gin when cotton became more popular. Eventually, sheets came to be made of silk and polyester as well. While originally the bed sheet was only what we today would refer to as a bottom sheet, today sheets come in pairs. The original purpose of bed sheets, keeping the mattress clean and provide a cleanable surface upon which to lie, has changed. Mattresses have covers to keep them clean and the sheets, top and bottom are now chosen for the level of comfort they provide to the skin. In some ways, the cycle of sleep and bedding has come full circle. Whereas once ancient man hid in bamboo groves to sleep, and then later cut bamboo to fashion a crude bed, today bamboo provides the ultimate in luxurious sleep. Bamboo bed sheets are softer and more breathable than cotton and may soon overtake the formally preferred Egyptian cotton as the sheets of choice. Luxury Bamboo Bedding provides sleep in comfort and luxury in duvet covers and sheet sets. Our silky soft, high quality bamboo sheets, pillowcases have added quality, comfort and luxury to the sleep experience of our customers.
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