The first time a student felt dissatisfaction with his bedroom furniture was when he discovered, on getting lucky, that he was sleeping with another person on a single bed narrower than one single person and that a wet patch needed to be avoided. That situation remained the norm right up to the 1980s when one undergraduate suddenly decided that they wanted a lot more out of their bed. One of the conditions was that it should be a cheap bed by night, a sofa you can keep slipping off while you're sitting on it during the day. The idea took off and the UK found itself the biggest importer of futons outside the Orient... (Continued at http://www.tinybangtheories.com/2012/02/futon-phenomenon.html)
Best wishes,
Paul Angliss (Ed.)