No one will have to tell you to grab your favorite book, a laptop, or the remote when you are forced to stay in bed. What you do need to know about are the various pieces of equipment that will make your time in bed easier. These tools are an essential part of your bed rest inventory.

1 – An adjustable hospital table

Keeps the things you need at your fingertips while adjusting the height to adapt to your needs, then slide it easily away when you need to get up. Better models will have drawers to put smaller items in a convenient storage spot, and you can even customize the holders and drawers. They can serve as dinner trays, a place to set your laptop, a table to play a game with a friend or a kid, and endless other uses.

2 – Moist toilettes (or baby wipes)

Getting up may be too difficult or painful for small messes, or you might be making too many of them to justify the trips to clean up yourself and your surroundings. Keeping a container of sanitary wipes next to you will let you do nearly everything but bathe without leaving the bed. You can easily tuck a small back into one of an adjustable hospital table’s drawers.

3 – A supportive bed rest pillow

For bed rest that is going to be limited in time, replacing your bed with an adjustable model is usually not efficient or affordable, but you can obtain inexpensive bed rest pillows that will allow you to sit up, provide armrest support and back support, and potentially be adjusted to allow for different resting positions.

4 – A spill-proof beverage container

Hydration is essential to health, but bed rest can sometimes leave you so exhausted that an open container is a spill hazard. Find a drink holder that is easy to grip and that you can drink from if you are horizontal – either with a bendable straw that has a leakage seal or a sealed lid that works well for you in every resting configuration. If you’re a fiend for various drinks, then you might want to get more than one.

5 – A medical record journal or application

Your doctor can do their job the best when they have as much information as possible. Set aside a place to record medically relevant information such as when you take your medication, your sleeping schedule, exercise, bathroom activity, symptoms that you experience, and so forth. The next time you go to your doctor, you can just pull out the record and go through your notes without relying on your memory which may be influenced by your condition or its treatment