How Twin XL Beds Took Over College Campuses
The slightly longer mattress is a compromise between schools’ economic needs and students’ physical ones.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several outbreaks of infectious disease in the U.S., including the flu, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, prompted public-health officials and homemaking experts to as a safety measure: Couples (and children) sleep in separate beds. As a result, twin beds quickly in American homes and remained popular long after the plague outbreak was over. In the mid-20th century it was still relatively rare to see depictions of married couples sleeping in the same bed (see: , ).
