to think standard double beds are too small?

[VegetablEsoup]

away with work.
standard double room.
bed is too short and too narrow. and that's for me alone.

how can 2 people comfortably sleep in one? every night? at the same time?

and don't get me started on the manky decorative bed throw and cushions

Queen hello! its nice to meet someone that can share my pain!

Larger (king and super king) beds are traditional and normal on the continent where obesity is not as big a problem as in the UK, so absolutely not related to that.DH and I are within normal BMIs.

Whoever asked, we have single duvets. They get spread fairly neatly next to each other on the bed for the day with sometimes a super king throw over the whole bed for neatness when we have visitors.

Maybe that is why I never like beds abroad - they always seem to be two singles stitched together, which I hate.

The spare bed at my PILs is a small double, so only 4ft wide, so our 5 year old has 3ft to himself in a single bed, whereas we have 2ft each, the same as our 1 year old in her cot.

When we go there when I am pregnant with a big bump and requiring lots of pillows, DH sleeps on the floor.

Hmm we've got a double and never had a problem. We're both quite tall. Obviously I wouldn't mind a king size but we've got a beautiful antique bed frame thats been in DH's family for generations so I can't see me trading that in.

hitsandmrs, I spotted this one on the John Lewis website. Only £16,500...

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-the-ultimate-collection-no-4-pocket-spring-zip-link-mattress-emperor/p2145218

More seriously, we have this one and love it:

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-ortho-1600-pocket-spring-mattress-king-size/p2251210

I'm going to measure my bed when I get home as I am starting to think maybe our double is not as small as everyone else's experience would suggest. Maybe we have some weird in between size

Because I am 31 weeks pregnant and not that tiny even when not pregnant, and DH is 6ft 2 and we genuinely have no space issues whatsoever - we can sleep without touching.

Also, I don't like being touched ansmd don't have a problem.

When I was pregnant though and we were in a rented furnished flat, it was one of those tiny doubles (queen size?) That was awful.

But the rule of thumb is if your elbows touch. How is that to do with obesity?

Don't understand how a double is too narrow for one person. Ok it's not super luxurious, but unless you sleep starfished that seems ridiculous.

I wish beds were longer as standard though. I'm only 5'10 and my toes always poke over the edge if I lie straight. Don't know how taller men cope!

I love my superking and really wish we had separate duvets

We often have me, DP, toddler and 9mo in our standard double. Bit squashed, bit nothing major. 2 in a double have loadsnof room and I'm 5ft 9 and a size 16....

we have an Ikea double so midway between a double and king.

There's only 15 cm between double and king, I find it hard to believe it makes such a difference to prevent sleep.

I think it really depends how much you are disturbed by touching each other and how peacefully you sleep. Both me and DH are light sleepers, easily disturbed, get up in the night, read in bed, and we both toss and turn, so we need the space. Ideally, I'd like my own double bed in my own room, but that's not going to happen..

The first year DH and I were together, we shared a single. He's 6'7" and rowed for Oxford so not exactly a compact unit.

Then about ten years in a standard double. Luxurious at first; then normal. When the DC arrived, it started to feel small. When it became evident that DC2 needed to cosleep, DH found a superking on special offer.

Never looked back although it's a squash if two of them come in during the night and when they all pile in to watch telly at cough o'clock at the weekend.

When we stay in hotels they typically have two or three doubles. Perfect size for two DC, me and DC3, or DH on his own.

Weirdly we cope perfectly well on single campbeds on holiday.

Superking is the way forward. I forget DH is there.

I find it amazing that people are willing to go from having a standard single at 3 ft wide all to themselves, say that having to share with another person in a double which is 4 and a half ft wide is normal? In fact in reality if you were to double up on the singles that would give you 6ft each of bed to share.

A king is 5ft and we still only therefore get 2ft6" each to sleep in, still less than a standard single! Alright, if you get on with a double bed then fine, but I seriously doubt its got anything to do with the obesity problems, and more to do with the fact that for the first 23 years of my life I had 3ft or more room to sleep in (and I'm a starfisher) to being reduced down to 2ft3" because I got married. Utterly bizarre.

Also the duvet thing, we have a kingsize duvet each on our kingsize bed. Means we're both warm and snuggled up and we still are as intimate as ever, I am just less likely to hurt my husband for keeping me awake by stealing the duvet and my bed space.

it was one of those tiny doubles (queen size?)

We don't have queens as a UK bed size. I doub't a furnihsed flat would put in anything less than a standard double (whihc you just think is small!) It is comon in shared house type situations to put in 3/4 doubles (or 'small doubles') in the smaller rooms that can't fit a standard double in because a single bed is a massive turn off.

www.hypnosbeds.com/design_your_bed/bed-sizes.aspx

A superking is the only standard UK bed size that gives you as much space as you had in your childhood singlt bed!

US bed sizes are much better:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_size

Not sure why its so hard to by the 'cali king' size with a bit of extra length. Plenty of people have to sleep with their feet of the end of the bed.

Humph.
I have discovered through reading this thread that the bed DH assured me was a superkingsize is actually only kingsize in width, though it's admittedly 7 feet long.

DH still lies diagonally in that.

I want my extra space back!

I so should have got a big bed earlier... My baby stopped cosleeping at 4 (and we've had a year of tring to work out if we can manage a super king and what I'd do for a bedside table as I couldn't fit a standard width one...)

So tell me about the superking mattress. If its 2 singles zipped together can you feel the zip? Or a ridge? or does it dip into the middle? I dont want a bad mattress or a ridge/dip/zip/roll...

Our superking divan is two pieces but the head end and the foot end iyswim. The mattress is all one piece and the delivery men had a job getting it up the stairs.

We don't have queens as a UK bed size.

I thought we did. When we were first married we had what we thought was a Queen.
Now we have a standard double and were talking recentlt about buying a new Queen size as we are always too far away from each other in the double.
Although we're both tall so it's short for us.

DH and I fit perfectly well in the double and I wouldn't go for a bigger one.

Would LOVE to get a king size but bedroom is too small, the double is just big enough for me and DP but when our two kids pile in in the morning ( 2.5 and 4) it's all a bit of a squish! Means enforced cuddling though. Not sure what we'll do when they get bigger!

"We don't have queens as a UK bed size."

We sort of do, but we call them 'small doubles'. They are the 4ft wide doubles, really just for 1 person (hence DH sleeping on the floor when we visit the PILs).

www.dreams.co.uk/mattress-guide/size