The waterbed was bear around a half - hundred ago as the counterculture ’s solution to something pretty basic . We ’re talking a want ofsleep , of course , though the hope of sloshy lovemaking was a definite selling stage back in the day , too . It was an almost immediate , groovy - licious success .
By the late ' 80s , waterbeds account for somewhere around 15 percent of the bedding market , or a goodly $ 2 billion a twelvemonth , according to a New York Timesarticle at the time . If you were coolheaded back then — or thought you were or want to be — or if you respect a good night ’s sleep on gently rolling wave or dreamed of nights fill with wild surfing passion , you own a waterbed . Or you desire one .
Almost as quickly as the waterbed revolution start , though , it crash . The freshness wear off . The rotation died . The summers of love ended . The geological era faded aside .
These days , sales statistic for waterbeds are hard to come by . But it ’s vindicated that things are n’t like they were back in the swinging ' 70 and ' 80s and even into the ' 90s . The challenger ( primarily matter like air mattresses and retention foam ) has grown . The number of waterbed manufacturers and sellers has quail .
Do you even know anyone who still owns a waterbed ?
Lynn Hardman does . He still sleep on one every nighttime . He ’s also sold thousands of them over the retiring few decades to unnumerable satisfied customers .
Hardman ownsSouthern Waterbeds & Futonsin Athens , Georgia , and say that stage business is n’t like what it was in the ' 70s , a fourth dimension when mattress storage did n’t scatter every strip shopping mall in every suburbia , and mom - and - pop shops did n’t have to compete with the internet . But there ’s still business sector out there . The waterbed is still hanging on .
" It ’s like night and day , " allege Hardman , who has operated his store for 43 long time , almost as long as waterbeds have been around . " The waterbed has really followed thatbaby bonanza generationfrom the counterculture of the late ' 50s to where we are today . The other client [ back then ] were young and , today , it ’s almost the entire contrary . The baby boomer are older — much wiser — and in some cases buying that final seam . "
The New Waterbeds
Waterbed maker and showrooms like Hardman ’s are still easy enough to find , if you ’re looking . Beds and mattresses by InnoMax , Boyd Specialty Sleep , Strobel , United States Watermattress , American National and others vie for pecking decree in the market .
Most offer hard - sided bed that , like the first ones , rely on a major piece of wood article of furniture to restrain the mattress in place . new , diffuse - sided water mattresses can stand on their own , though they all need some kind of a substantial stand because of the weight of the mattress . count onsize , a water mattress can control up to 200 gallons ( 757 liters ) , or more than 1,600 pounds ( 725 kilo ) of H2O.
The decoy of waterbeds always has been the H2O . Aficionados aver by its all - around supportive properties . Hardman talks about being " wrap " in a piddle mattress rather than laying on top of a stock one .
Most water mattresses now come with baffles , too , that curb how " waveless " they are , for those twist off by that too - sloshy feeling . Most have heaters that can regularise the temperature of the water anywhere from 70 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit ( 21 to 38 arcdegree Anders Celsius ) .
The newest mattresses are separate into dual zones , too , so one person can enjoy a different resoluteness , temperature and wave - control than his or her sleeping cooperator . The waterbed of the 21st hundred , clearly , is not the fur - covered vacation spot that Hugh Hefner put on his private fountain and fly around on in the ' 70s . ( It was round and had a Tasmanian possum bedspread ! )
The modern adaptation , Hardman contend , is way better .
" I still think the waterbed is the best layer that ’s ever been invented . Period . And there are a lot of people out there that feel that way , " he says .
The Future of Waterbeds
The man credit with inventing andpatentingthe waterbed is septuagenarian Charlie Hall . He ’s come up with a new one that he ’s commercialize through a drawing string of article of furniture stores in Florida . From theKitsap Sunin Bainbridge , Washington :
The innovations , Hall is hoping , will spur nostalgia in some and interest a new generation of buyers in a piece of bedroom furniture that they may live little about .
" I conceive that some people will have a remembering of it and want to revisit it just because they remember waterbeds and desire to see how dissimilar they are , " Hall enjoin the Sun . " And then there ’ll be a generation , it ’ll be a total gaud for them . "
Hooking that new coevals of Thomas Kid may be the biggest challenge in the waterbed ’s counter . Hardman occasionally sees some young masses in his store now . But they ’re play along by parents or grandparents who draw the kids along to show them a relic from the past tense .
" It ’s like a novelty detail . They ’ve never visit one before , " he says . " It blows my nous that they have n’t seen a waterbed . "
This would all seem rather olde worlde if rest were n’t such a baneful serious topic . Research over the retiring few years has picture just how decisive a good night ’s sleep is . A continuedlack of sufficient sleephas been strongly associated with , among other wellness problems , obesity , diabetes , heart disease , hypertension and a decreased life expectancy .
Hardman has a possible answer to that problem sitting in his store , just as it has been for the past 43 years .
" There ’s just something about that semi - weightless state that you could only get laying on a waterbed , " he says . " There ’s something about it that ’s so soothing and restful . "
