Young Brunette Girl On The Floor Posing On The Mattresses

A mattress is a manufactured product to sleep or lie on, consisting of resilient materials and covered with an outer fabric or ticking. In the developed world it is typically part of a bed set and is placed upon a foundation.
The derivation of the English word mattress is from the Arabic word "matrah" meaning "to throw down" or "place where something is thrown" or "mat, cushion." During the Crusades, Europeans adopted the Arabic method of sleeping on cushions thrown on the floor, and the word materas eventually descended into Middle English through the Romance languages.
Though a mattress may be placed directly on the floor, it is usually placed on top of a bed base to be farther from the ground. The bed base may be solid, as in the case of a platform bed, or elastic, e.g. with an upholstered wood and wire box spring or a slatted foundation. Flexible bed bases can prolong the life of the mattress. Popular in Europe, a divan incorporates both mattress and foundation in a single upholstered, footed unit. Divans have at least one innerspring layer as well as cushioning materials. They may be sold with a secondary mattress and/or a removable "topper."