| History has shown, time and time again that | | | | be more interested in dry weeds, hay, wool, |
| the way we choose to sleep, will, affect our | | | | feathers and reads until the beginning of the |
| quality of life. We do not sleep on | | | | age of rebirth around 1432 AD, with the death |
| mattresses by mere coincidence, but rather | | | | of Joan of Arc. Her sacrifice in La Place |
| because of a basic human need to sleep well. | | | | Rouge in the city of Rouen, not only echoed |
| Thousands of years ago, in the Neolithic | | | | through the royal courts of France, but |
| period, people had beds made of stone, but | | | | carried with it the cry for an age of reason |
| still slept on animal skin. Mattresses | | | | throughout the entire known world. The |
| appeared around 5,000 years ago, but luxury | | | | Renaissance revived the passion for comfort |
| mattresses began to appear as early as the | | | | and the value of a good nights sleep. |
| decline of the Roman Empire. Velvet and | | | | |
| silks were heavily used in the Renaissance, | | | | The passion for dreaming and enlightenment |
| as well as lattice worked rope beds. Iron | | | | that fueled the Renaissance, survived all the |
| cast beds appeared in the early 19th century, | | | | way up to the 19th century with such works of |
| springs only being introduced after the year | | | | art as the hand carved beds in the fantasy |
| 1865. Modern mattresses with inner spring | | | | castle Neueschwanstein in Bavaria. But |
| workings were first commercialized before WW | | | | insect and mite free mattresses as we know |
| II. In the late 60s memory oam was | | | | them today began to appear as early as the |
| discovered, and by the 80s cotton, foam and | | | | late 1700s with the first cast iron beds, |
| inner spring mattresses were all readily | | | | with cotton mattresses. The need for hygiene |
| available around the world. | | | | and comfort led to the invention of springs. |
| | | | NASA brought about the invention of memory |
| 12,000 years ago before mattresses, people | | | | foam mattresses, which have shown time and |
| slept in caves, on the ground, on stone beds | | | | time again to be far more efficient than the |
| covered with animal skins while dreaming of | | | | conventional spring-cotton design inherited |
| touching the stars. In Scotland, primitive | | | | from the Industrial Revolution. |
| stone beds can be found in the Neolithic | | | | |
| village of Skara Brae, with its advanced | | | | In a quickly globalizing world, much can be |
| stone astronomical calendar. The development | | | | learned by getting a good nights rest. In |
| of the first cotton mattresses in | | | | the dawn of civilization, humankind first |
| Mesopotamia, Egypt and Babylonia, around | | | | learned to value their sleep and look to the |
| 3,000 BC, brought with it a turning point in | | | | stars. During the Middle Ages, western |
| mattress evolution until the end of Antiquity | | | | civilization slowly began the rebirth of its |
| around the year 529 AD, with the plunge into | | | | dreams, until 1969 when the first man landed |
| the Dark Ages. | | | | on the moon, and they became reality. Now, |
| | | | in a rational world, made of glass and |
| In the eastern civilizations of China and | | | | plastic towers, the race for comfort and a |
| Japan, the futon continued to evolve, as well | | | | good nights sleep, depends on the mattress we |
| as the tatami, but western culture seemed to | | | | use to face, this basic human need. |