GB2312373A

GB2312373A - Bed with soundproofed sleeping compartment

Info

Publication number: GB2312373A
Application number: GB9608467A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Edgar Douglas Gardener
Original assignee: GARDENER BARBARA ANNA
Current assignee: GARDENER BARBARA ANNA
Priority date: 1996-04-25
Filing date: 1996-04-25
Publication date: 1997-10-29
Also published as: GB9608467D0

Abstract

A bed is disclosed in which the sleeping area is surrounded by soundproofing panels to form a noise-free sleeping compartment, accessible by means of a door. Ventilation or air-conditioning may be provided and the panels can be opaque or translucent or adjustable between these two states. The bed can also be adapted so that certain external noises, eg a door-bell, telephone or alarm, may be heard inside the sleeping compartment. Should the alarm sound or should some other event occur which affects the safety of the occupant it can be arranged that the door opens automatically. The bed finds use in noisy environments and is intended to be easily moved.

Description

BEDS This invention relates to beds for sleeping in and in particular to beds that may be moved.

Throughout history mankind has developed a large number of designs of bed within which, or upon which to sleep.

A common factor of a large number of these beds is that they may be moved either within the room within which they are situated, or between rooms or buildings.

A person wishing to sleep will often find the act of sleeping to be aided by a degree of sensory deprivation.

Generally speaking such a deprivation is the darkening of a room and choosing to sleep at night when there is a lower amount of ambient noise then there is throughout the rest of the day. However, an increasing number of people wish to, or are forced to, live within highly populated areas such as cities and, or multipally occupied buildings such as blocks of flats or terraced houses. Any of these locations can be possessed of the considerable disadvantage of there being a relatively high degree of ambient noise throughout the day and the night, thus rendering sleep difficult.

Some precautions against disturbance by the ambient noise are well known and easily put in place such as placing double glazing on the windows. Such precautions may be effective against certain types of ambient noise but have generally been found not to be effective against all types of ambient noise, especially noise emanating from within the same building as the bed.

Other precautions such as applying sound absorbent material to each internal surface of a room to insulate the room from external noise are more difficult to effect and cannot be done without a large degree of effort and possible expense.

According to the present invention there is provided a bed including a sleeping area in which completely surrounding the sleeping area is a noise insulating means forming a sleeping compartment the inside of which insulates the inside of the compartment from noise external to the sleeping compartment and in which the sleeping compartment is provided with at least one entry and exit means in the form of a door.

A benefit of the formation of a sleeping compartment in this fashion is that the noise insulating means forming the sleeping compartment will insulate a person inside the compartment not only from noise from outside the building within which the bed is located, but it will also prevent the sleeper being disturbed by noise from inside the building such as that generated by noisy neighbours.

A particular benefit achieved by the present design is that the sleeping compartment can be physically separated from the structure of the building within which it is located by non sound transmissive means such as blocks of elasticity deformable material or by other known means.

Use of the present invention to insulate a sleeper from noise both internal and external to the building within which the sleeper is sleeping has the benefit over the known ability to apply soundproofing to the walls, floor and ceiling of a room that the use of the present invention does not require substantial disruptive effort to soundproof the room and will allow the owner of a bed according to the present invention to move that bed either from one room to another within the same building, or between buildings with comparative ease.

The sleeping compartment of the present invention is provided with at least one door which a user of the bed uses to enter or exit the sleeping compartment. It is envisaged that the sleeping compartment could be provided with a single door on one side of the bed, a single door at the foot of the bed, or one door either side of the bed. The door or doors may be sliding doors or could be hinged. Appropriate known methods of sound insulation around the edges of each door should preferably be applied.

The noise insulating means is preferably in the form of a plurality of panels each panel being constructed of a sound proofing material in known fashion. Known methods of constructing such panels include multi-sheet glazing using an optically transparent material such as glass or of a transparent thermoplastic resin such as Perspex (Registered Trade Mark). Most typically such multi-sheet glazing is in the form of double or triple glazing.

Alternatively if one or more of the panels are not required to be optically transparent or translucent the panels may be constructed in known fashion out of two skins between which is located a thickness of sound absorbent material such as foam or a fibrous mass.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention at least one panel is comprised of a multisheet glazed optically transparent material. Optionally one of the sheets of the glazing may be coated with a material that may be reversibly transformed from an optically transparent or translucent material to an optically opaque material. In a particularly preferred embodiment such a coating is in the form of a liquid crystal and the transformation between translucence and opacity is achieved by the application of an electrical field or potential to the liquid crystal. The ability to render opaque a normally optically transparent or translucent panel has the advantage that if a user of the bed of the present invention wishes to use the bed during daylight hours then the user can make the panels opaque and thus not be disturbed by the daylight.

The sleeping compartment of the present invention needs for safety and comfort to be ventilated. The ventilation can either be in the form of an acoustically baffled air vent of which there are a number of known types available which allows natural ventilation, or the sleeping compartment can be provided with forced ventilation.

Such forced ventilation can either be simply the mechanical circulation of air in to and out of the sleeping compartment, or it can be part of an air conditioning system. Obviously if the latter, the climatic conditions within the sleeping compartment can be controlled by a user with considerably greater ease and efficiency than could the climatic conditions in an entire bedroom. This is particularly the case in a building in which no air condition is present.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention the means for ventilation of the sleeping compartment are provided with one or more means for treating the air that enters the sleeping chamber. Such treatments may include reduction of the levels of pollen and other particulate matter such as house dust and/or chemical pollutants. Appropriate filter technology is known and will not be discussed any further. Treatment of the air in this way will prove particularly beneficial to users suffering from asthma or hay fever as it will provide a better atmosphere for the user to breath when he/she sleeps. An alternative method of treatment of the air is the addition of one or more desired substances to the air entering the sleeping chamber. Possible substances to be introduced could be water vapour to increase the humidity inside the sleeping compartment, oxygen to aid the rest of the sleeper, or one or more chemical compounds to scent or perfume the air.

It is clearly the case that though a user of a bed of the present invention does so because he/she wishes to deprive him/herself of external noise, there are certain noises that the user would wish to hear. These noises are generally either ones that enable the user to keep in contact with the outside world, for instance the sound of telephone, or a front door bell; or the noises that are associated with safety issues such as smoke alarms or an intruder alarms. To enable such specified noises to be heard by the user of the bed the sleeping compartment of the present invention is preferably provided with a means for communication with one or more pieces of specified apparatus or noise generation means outside of the sleeping compartment and one or more sound generating means within the sleeping compartment. Such a connection means can be in the form of electrical wiring, electromagnetic radiation or a combination thereof.

It is particularly desired that the doors to the sleeping compartment are automatically opened upon the occurrence of one or more predetermined events at least some of which are concerned with the safety of the user of the bed. Such predetermined events may include failure of a power supply to a forced ventilation unit when the sleeping compartment of the present invention is provided with forced ventilation, or air conditioning; or the event could be activation of a smoke alarm or intruder alarm.

In one possible embodiment of the present invention the communication panel may be provided with a clock with an alarm clock facility. When the alarm clock goes off at the appointed time the door would be opened.

The bed of the present invention may be specifically constructed by attaching the noise insulation panels to a frame which also supports the sleeping area, or, alternatively, a bed of the present invention can be constructed by provision of a number of panels dimensioned appropriately so that a sleeping compartment can be constructed around but structurally independent of a bed. It will be appreciated that the method for constructing the sleeping compartment of the present invention should be a reversible method such as the use of nuts and bolts so that if it is desired to move the bed of the present invention the sleeping compartment can be deconstructed for ease of movement.

Claims

1. A bed including a sleeping area characterised in that completely surrounding the sleeping area is a noise insulating means forming a sleeping compartment which insulates the inside of a sleeping compartment from noise external to the sleeping compartment and in which the sleeping compartment is provided with at least one entry and exit means in the form of a door.

2. A bed according to Claim 1 characterised in that the door is a sliding door.

3. A bed according to Claim 1 or 2 characterised in that at least part of the noise insulating means is of optically transparent or translucent material and is double or triple glazed.

4. A bed according to Claim 3 characterised in that at least one sheet of the transparent material is coated with a material that may be reversibly transformed from being optically transparent or translucent to opaque.

5. A bed according to Claim 4 characterised in that the coating material is a liquid crystal that may be made opaque by the application of an electrical field or potential to the liquid crystal.

6. A bed according to any one of Claims 1 to 5 characterised in that the sleeping compartment is provided with forced ventilation.

7. A bed according to any one of Claims 1 to 6 characterised in that the sleeping compartment is air conditioned.

8. A bed according to any one of Claims 1 to 5 characterised in that the sleeping compartment is provided with acoustically baffled air vents.

9. A bed according to any one of Claims 6 to 8 characterised in that the means for ventilation is provided with one or more means to treat the air entering the sleeping compartment.

10. A bed according to Claim 9 characterised in that the treatment means includes means for reducing the amount of particulate matter, or chemical pollutants in the air entering the sleeping compartment.

11. A bed according to Claim 9 or 10 characterised in that the treatment means includes means for the addition of one or more substances to the air entering the sleeping compartment.

12. A bed according to any one of Claims 1 to 11 characterised in that the inside of the sleeping compartment is provided with means for communication with specified apparatus outside of the sleeping compartment.

13. A bed according to Claim 12 characterised in that the specified apparatus includes a telephone, a front door bell, a smoke alarm, or an intruder alarm.

14. A bed according to Claim 12 or 13 characterised in that the communication means is electrical wiring.

15. A bed according to Claim 12 or 13 characterised in that the communication means is by way of electromagnetic radiation.

16. A bed according to any one of Claims 1 to 15 characterised in that the door is automatically opened at the occurrence of one or more predetermined events.

17. A bed according to Claim 16 when dependent upon Claims 6 or 7 characterised in that one predetermined event is the failure of the power supply that is powering ventilation of the sleeping compartment.

18. A bed according to Claim 16 characterised in that the sleeping compartment is provided with a clock with an alarm facility and that a predetermined event is that the clock's alarm goes off.

19. A bed according to any one of Claims 1 to 18 characterised in that the sleeping compartment is constructed of two or more parts which may be releasably attached together to form a sleeping compartment.

20. A bed according to Claim 19 characterised in that the sleeping compartment parts are of sufficient dimensions that the sleeping compartment can be constructed around a bed comprising a mattress and mattress support frame.