The Sleep Room It is an interesting fact that a number of European languages which are to a greater or lesser extent related to English call the room where we sleep the ‘sleep room’ rather than the ‘bedroom’ or ‘bedchamber’. Danish soveværelse Dutch slaapkamer German schlafzimmer Icelandic svefnherbergi Norwegian soverom Swedish sovrum When you think about it this is perhaps not that surprising a room designed for the specific purpose of sleeping in would be called the ‘sleep room’. However this concept does not appear to have to have translated into English where from approx. 1600 we have used the word bedroom (or bedchamber) i.e. denoting the room in which we had our bed. This may be due to the practice of the nobility for they had big elaborate beds that would travel with them when the toured the country, this bed was then erected in a suitable room in the particular stately home that they were visiting therefore the ‘bed room’, the room with the bed it. When ordinary people were able to construct additional rooms in their homes they then had the space to keep what is a large piece of furniture, such as the bed, permanently erected that would equally be termed the ‘bedroom’. However given the sleep advice that the bedroom should be reserved for sleep, (and sex) perhaps it would make it easier to get the message across if we started calling the bedroom the sleep room i.e. it is not your office, games room , cinema, gym but the place you sleep.