Take a moment to think about what you slept on last night. More than likely, you slept on a mattress.


Mattresses are little more than glorified sleeping mats, with their roots in ancient times. The actual name mattress is a form of an Arabic word meaning to throw, reflecting many changes mattresses have gone through in reaching their present form.

When looking at mattress history, one must go back to nearly the dawn of man. In the Neolithic period, mattresses were piles of leaves or animal skins on raised sleeping platforms, to keep sleepers from dirt and drafts.

As history progressed, so did the mattress. In ancient Persia goat skins filled with water were used to make a bed and the Romans used fabric bags with various materials stuffed inside. Those materials depended upon the station of the owner, with the wealthy using feathers, and the poor using wool. I

n the Renaissance, 15th century mattress users had ticks stuffed with straw, or other plants. These ticks were covered with fabric. In the 16th and 17th centuries these same ticks were stuffed with straw or wool, and placed on a timber frame, echoing todays modern box spring.

By the mid 1880s, mattress technology was advancing at a startling rate, echoing the changes in modern industry at the time. In 1865, the first coil spring construction for bedding is patented. By the end of that century, the box spring is invented, causing the mattress to take the shape it is today. As the 20th century marches on, new innovations occur every decade. During the great depression, mattresses were said to be repositories for cash.

In the 1930s the pocket spring mattress is created, and in the 1940s, the futon is introduced in the States, following its discovery in Japan in WWII.

In 1953, the legendary aviator, Howard Hughes invented the first adjustable bed. The 60s brought free love and the water bed, the 70s brought the air mattress. Currently, new innovation is being made in the realm of organics, something the Detroit Free Press mentioned November 3rd 2008. When interviewing a childrens boutique owner, they wrote: The biggest demand is probably for organic mattresses, either crib mattresses or for toddler beds.By: Dave Saltonstall-16825Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.comThroughout history, mankind has sought for the perfect night's sleep. What new advances will modern innovation create next? We’ll just have to sleep on it... The experts at bedstar.co.uk have the greatest inventory of beds, double beds, bedroom furniture and so on... Click on Bedstar.co.uk today