Story of the mattress

The mattress was invented with sleep in mind. Ever since its origination the mattress has served to increase our life experience by helping give a good night’s sleep to every user. The original mattress differs greatly from what we sleep on today, but the purpose remains static. The progression of the mattress is a story of the search for a better night’s sleep.

The desire for a mattress is instinctual. Nobody wants to sleep on the hard floor or ground. It isn’t good for you back. Even primitive man saw the need for sleeping on something besides the dirty floor. Early man used leaves and grasses covered in animal skins to make a mattress surface. Our new mattresses are not far removed from these prehistoric ones; mattresses still have the same basic design.

"Mattress" actually comes from Arabic meaning "throw." Mattresses did start out as something thrown on the floor, but quickly became placed on a frame. Egyptians actually began making a frame for their mattresses, raising them even further off of the floor. Although it seems modern, the Persians made water beds out of goatskins. What began as a pad to avoid a draft and pests, quickly grew into a must for sleeping.

Today the best mattresses are stuffed with the best materials. That hasn’t changed since the Roman times. Romans with money slept on mattresses filled with feathers. The Romans with less stature slept on mattresses full of hay and wool. Today every mattress is available to people of all incomes, but there are expensive mattresses made with better materials.

During the 15th century the outside of the mattress began to develop. People placed comfortable materials like silk and velvet over their mattresses. Now the outside and the inside were made for comfort. Later on between the 16th and 18th centuries mattresses were being put on top of bed frames. The mattress now looked similar to what we use today in the 21st century.

The mattress radically changed in 1871 with the inner spring. Waterbeds similar to those that are used today came into being in 1873. The inner spring changed the design of the mattress forever. The mattress now sought to support the body in different areas, giving the best night sleep possible.

Production of the box spring started in the 19th century adding even more comfort to beds. It took until the 1930’s for box springs to have wide usage. Rubber mattresses came into stores in the 50’s while modern water beds came along in the 60’s. Mattress variety continued in the 80’s and 90’s with wide use of vinyl air mattresses and futuristic memory foam. Memory foam is a product of NASA scientists.

Throughout history mankind creates new ways to live in more comfort and health. Technology continues to improve the mattress. Even today the variety seems endless. It’s been a long time since the simple mattress made from grass and animal skins, but the basic premise of the mattress has not changed.