History of the Mattress
A Mattress is an important part of our bedding providing comfort and it adds to our quality of life. In fact, the mattress has given mankind with a good night's rest since it was invented. Though the construction and materials used for today's mattress is worlds apart from what was used in early history, the same clear objective has always been sought after - a comfortable way to sleep at night.
If we really take a farther look back into the history of the mattress we can that in the earliest period of mankind's existence the desire for a comfortable place to sleep has always been there. In the Neolithic period, primitive man got off the ground to avoid dirt and pests and made the first mattress out of leaves, grass, and other considerably soft materials, and covered the whole pile with animal skins. And voila! Our ancient mattress is born.
The word mattress literally means "to throw" (taken from Arabic). Considering that name in our history of the mattress, around 3400 BC, Egyptians slept on boughs in a corner of the house and eventually ended up constructing something like a bed frame with a mattress on top. The Persians used the first waterbeds made from goatskins around this period.
Moving on in our history of the mattress, mattresses were used in the Roman Empire in 200 BC. A distinction can be seen between the upper class and those who were less affluent in the empire. The ones who were better off slept on feather filled mattresses while those who weren't had mattresses stuffed with wool or hay.
The next part of the history of the mattress shows some promising improvements. Mattresses were covered with brocades, silks, or velvets during the Renaissance (15th century). Mattresses were then placed on a bed during the 16th to the 18th century. This part of the history of the mattress shows the early beginnings of what we commonly use today.
The last part of our concise history of the mattress shows how technology further adds comfort and style to the mattress. The inner spring mattress was invented in 1871 and modern-day waterbed was introduced in 1873.
The mattress then had fewer lumps on it with the invention of the box-spring in the 19th century. These mattresses became widely used in the 1930's. In the 1950's rubber mattresses were sold and the modern-day waterbed is introduced in the 1960's.
Vinyl air mattresses were introduced in the 1980s and in the 1990s mattresses made of memory foam (material invented by NASA in the 70's) were first sold.
The history of the mattress is proof of mankind's desire for comfortable sleep. With the help of today's technology, we have attained a better quality of life and a better way to have a good night.
