What Is the Width of a Sofa Bed Mattress?

Sofa Bed Measurements

• Similar to regular beds, sofa beds come in many sizes, including chairs in various daybed widths and love seats that convert into twin beds. Whether referred to as daybed- or cot-size, chair sofa beds range from about 24 to 34 inches wide. Similar to twin-, double- and queen-size sofa beds, their mattresses are about 72 inches long. The twin-bed mattresses of fold-out love seats are a few inches wider at about 37 inches. Full-size sofa bed mattresses are about 52 inches wide whereas roomier queen-size models may offer an extra 8 inches of width. A super-sized queen sofa mattress may be 66 inches wide and 80 inches long, similar to a king sofa bed mattress.

  Dimensions cited in "Consumer Reports" magazine for regular bed mattresses show that sofa bed mattresses may be 3 to 8 inches shorter but are similar in width.

Early Daybeds and Hideaway Beds

• Early Egyptians used cord and leather strips to lash together narrow, multipurpose mats of palm sticks or palm leaf blades woven like wicker. The mats rested on simple wooden structures. The Egyptians used these daybeds for lounging and sitting during the day and for sleeping at night, according to the Design Boom website. Distant relatives of sofa beds include trundle beds -- which are hideaways that tuck under taller beds -- and chaise lounges. Children slept on trundles in 16th century England. Chaise lounges, also called fainting couches, are napping sofas that were particularly popular in 17th century Europe.

Goode's Cabinet Bed

• Sarah Goode was a former slave who received a U.S. patent in 1885 for her hideaway "cabinet bed," which was a secretary-style desk with a hinged, folding bed tucked into the cabinet of its base. Goode moved to Chicago and opened a furniture store after being freed at the end of the U.S. Civil War. According to California State Polytechnic University, Goode designed the hideaway bed due to cramped city apartments with little space for beds.

Castro Convertibles

• In 1948, New York sofa maker Bernard Castro captured attention for his "convertible" sofa beds with a television ad featuring his 4-year-old daughter, Bernadette, quickly opening one of the beds as an announcer said, "So easy a child can do it." By the 1960s, the company's television ads featured a catchy jingle declaring that Castro Convertibles was the "first to conquer living space." Bernadette eventually became the head of the company and sold it in 1993. She regained the company name in 2010 and now manufactures a convertible ottoman that folds out into a bed 33 inches wide by 75 inches long.