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