A fainting room was a private room, common in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

, which typically contained

fainting couch A fainting couch is a modern term describing a couch with a back that is traditionally raised at one end. The back may be situated completely at one side of the couch or may wrap around and extend the entire length of the piece much like a trad ...

es. Such couches or sofas typically had an arm on one side only to permit easy access to a reclining position, similar to its cousin the

Chaise longue A chaise longue (; , "long chair") is an upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs of the sitter. In modern French the term ''chaise longue'' can refer to any long reclining chair such as a deckchair. ...

, although the sofa style most typically featured a back at one end (usually the side with the arm) so that the resulting position was not purely

supine In grammar, a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages. The term is most often used for Latin, where it is one of the four principal parts of a verb. The word refers to a position of lying on one's back (as opposed to ' prone', l ...

. There are also accounts that mention fainting rooms in eighteenth-century America. These rooms, which were also referred to as bedrooms (bedrooms were called chambers), were located in the ground floor and contained a day bed that allowed occupants to rest for brief periods during the day.

Theories for prevalence

One theory for the predominance of fainting couches is that women were actually fainting because their

corsets A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effe ...

were laced too tightly, thus restricting blood flow. By preventing movement of the ribs, corsets restricted airflow to the lungs and, as a result, if the wearer exerted themselves to the point of needing large quantities of oxygen and was unable to fully inflate the lungs, this could lead to fainting.

Hyperventilation Hyperventilation is irregular breathing that occurs when the rate or tidal volume of breathing eliminates more carbon dioxide than the body can produce. This leads to hypocapnia, a reduced concentration of carbon dioxide dissolved in the bloo ...

for any reason could also potentially result in brief loss of consciousness. Victorian fainting rooms are associated with a doubtful claim that they are part of the legacy of female containment where such rooms served as a deeply female space meant to force women to remain indoors and inactive under the guise of ensuring privacy, class, and

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