Well as is so often the case, I have been neglecting my blog, to do other things, lately mostly sleeping, although that isn’t to say that I haven’t got a lot of other things done too, including the submission of our supporting evidence, the packing of most of my belongings and a rather lovely visit from JT. But it’s probably the sheer amount of stuff I have been doing that has left me so in need of sleep.
Sleep is hugely important to me a fibromyalgic, so one of my possessions that will definitely be making its way to the US is my IKEA super king bed plus the new habitat mattress I just bought for it, after having the best night’s sleep ever on a similar mattress at my sister’s house.
I don’t even want to speculate what is happening in Alaska, maybe it’s a keeping warm thing.
So this necessitates also bring my goose-down duvet, as duvets are pretty rare across the pond, where they still seem to favour a sheet and quilt (comforter) system. Given the rarity of duvets, I thought I would double check the availability of duvet covers and sheets in case I need to stock up before I move. So I did an Amazon.com search for “super king” only to be met with a blank look from the search engine.
Cue slight confusion (they must have king size beds, everything is bigger in America) and slight panic (I don’t want to be stuck with the same bedding set for the rest of my life) and then I did what I should have done at first and Googled “US bed sizes”.
It turns out that like many size related issues, things change as you cross the pond. (For example as soon as I set foot on American soil, I drop two dress sizes and my feet get two sizes bigger, though my boobs stay exactly the same size.) A super king in the UK is roughly equivalent to a king in the US (see, everything is larger in America), but my interest is piqued by the discovery that there are different kinds of king size, on a state by state basis.
Well yes, I am exaggerating here, there aren’t fifty different king sizes, but there are at least five that I have discovered and they are state related as follows:
A UK super king mattress is 71 in × 79 in, so basically equivalent to the smallest US king size the Eastern King. Apparently New Englanders are much the same size as old Englanders.
Then you move to California or the Western King, where people are apparently four inches taller, but also four inches slimmer.
In Wyoming they are as tall as they are wide.
According to Wikipedia, in Texas (not shown on this diagram) they are slimmer than in Wyoming, but much taller at 80 in × 98 in., and I don’t even want to speculate what is happening in Alaska, maybe it’s a keeping warm thing.
Armed with this new knowledge I revisit Amazon.com and immediately find a duvet cover I can live with in a size that will fit.
Things just get bedder and bedder as they would say in America.
Sleeping Beauty is a Disney classic animation from 1959 which should need no further introduction from me, but Wikipedia has some interesting facts, including that this was the last animated fairy tale for 30 years, the next one being The Little Mermaid, which wasn’t produced until after Walt Disney’s death.
Trumbley, Madly, Deeply 
I understand how you feel about finding a duvet, because we had the same struggle finding a blanket.
I remember my mother had a stock of them (so checking the charity shops of Shropshire might be worth while now, although a bit of a trek!), but at least “blanket” is a universal term. I think you would have thoroughly confused everyone looking for a comforter 🙂
Thanks for this information! As I plan to return to the UK with a US Queen-sized mattress, I guess I need to do some research too. Good luck with the move and keep us posted on all you discover along the way.