A bed is a bed is a bed. Um, not so much. There are more types of beds and mattresses than Carter has liver pills. I didn't realize more than when my last bed collapsed on me and I had to go out and get a new one. If you think shopping for a new auto is tough, try shopping for a new bed with all the options you have. So, how many types of beds are there? Well, let's see. Let's start with your typical twin bed. A twin bed is basically a small bed for one person. Trust me on this. You don't want to try to squeeze two people into a twin bed and if you're really obese you may have trouble fitting into one of these as well.

Then there are your beds for more than one person, which are basically queen and king. Honestly, there is very little difference between the two except that king beds are a little bigger. These are your typical beds that your typical married couple buy. I'll cover variations of these later.

Then you've got your bunk beds. You know, the kind you and your little brother had when you were growing up. I actually had 2 friends who had bunk beds. The older one got the bottom and the younger one got stuck on top. That's usually how it works unfortunately. First come, first served.

If you want to know the percentage of each of those general types sold it goes something like this. Queen beds, 50%, king beds 20%, twin beds 25% and bunk beds 5%. These numbers actually vary from country to country but in the US that's pretty much the breakdown.

But it doesn't end there. Then you've got your traditional flat beds, your wall beds, your water beds, your paediatric beds and so on.

Then you have the different styles of all these different kinds of beds. For twin you have long and extra long. Same for queen and king of course. You have traditional beds with straight head and foot boards. Then there are beds with neither of these. Then you have your twin beds made for inner spring mattresses. Then you have your canopy beds. They're the ones that literally have a canopy over your head. You see a lot of these in movies. They do look kind of fancy. Then you have your drawer bed, which pretty much looks like a dresser drawer. Then you've got your slat beds. Those are beds where the footboards actually have slats in them. Oh and of course you can also get these in wide styles.

Then of course there are your types of mattresses. You have your feather mattress, your latex foam mattress, your water bed mattress, your tempur-pedic mattresses, your pillow top mattresses, and on and on.

You can literally write a book on all the different types of beds and mattresses that are available but I won't attempt to do that here. As to which is the best type of bed and mattress for YOU, well, that all depends on your age, health, marital status, sleep habits and a lot of other factors.

Like I said. More beds than you can imagine.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Beds and Bedding