Coming from a humid country (…england…), I never understood the need to have a glass of water near the bed. Doesn’t that just guarantee that you need to get up and pee in the middle of the night?
Then I spent one week in Beijing. One glass would not cut it.
The difference in words is that the Americans needed a hat rack next to the bed to hang up their guns, whilst the Brits needed a table to lay down their knives.