When you think of a mattress, you probably get images of a firm, white rectangle, filled with metal springs and topped with foam and cotton. Or, you might think of space age memory foam, latex mattresses, or other brand new sleep technology. But the mattress hasn't been like this forever. In fact, these modern mattresses haven't been around all that long at all. Before that, we slept on a wide variety of different surfaces and mattresses. Here's a look at some of the mattresses of the past, and how we got where we are today.
The first mattresses were pads or bags of some kind of supportive material. Over the centuries, what went in the mattress has varied, as have the number of mattresses used. For instance, many people - even wealthy ones - have slept on a base of clean straw, reeds, or grain husks, stuffed tightly into a closely woven bag. Poor people might only have this "straw tick," but wealthier ones in Europe would cover their base mattresses with wool or featherbeds - thin mattresses that softened the bottom one. These might be layered to produce a really soft bed. By the eighteenth century, American and European people began to use mattresses stuffed mostly with wool or cotton. Poor people might still have used straw, though.
Support for these mattresses tended to come in two kinds. You could either sleep on a flat platform style bed, with slats to support the mattress, or a rope, cloth, or leather support that worked more like a hammock. It wasn't until the 19th century that the box spring was invented, and mattresses became a little less lumpy. This was the start of the modern bed as we know it, but the mattress that went on top was still much the same. Some of them now had special cover stitching and were closer to the same shape as modern mattresses, but they were still full of the same materials.
It wasn't until the 1930s that the innerspring became common. These mattresses included metal springs inside of a rectangular case full of filler material and covered with cotton or other padding. Encased springs made sleeping easier. During World War II, families were actually encouraged to make their own mattresses at home - something most of us wouldn't dream of today. We're still using innerspring mattresses, but they've become a lot more complex - featuring artificial foams, special zoned construction and all kinds of other innovations.
In the 1950s, the first foam rubber mattresses and pillows became widely available, and in the 1960s, the waterbed came into existence. Memory foam was developed by NASA in the 1970s, but didn't make it into consumer use until the mid-1990s. Other foam mattresses, such as soy and latex, have also become popular. Now, there are more options for sleep surfaces than there's ever been, so everyone can get a great night's sleep!
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