1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:09,000 Speaker 1: brain Stuff. I'm Lauren vocal Bomb, and today's episode is 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,040 Speaker 1: a classic from our archives. This one is about the 4 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:16,479 Speaker 1: strange cultural phenomenon that is the water bed. My parents 5 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:19,319 Speaker 1: had one, our Labrador retriever, figured out how to pop 6 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:21,680 Speaker 1: holes in it and liked watching the water scored out, 7 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:25,320 Speaker 1: which was pretty much the end of that. But outside 8 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: of my childhood home, water beds evolved, so could they 9 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: ever make a large scale comeback? Hey brain Stuff, Lauren 10 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: vocal bomb. Here. The water bed was born around half 11 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: a century ago as the counterculture solution to something pretty basic. 12 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: We're talking a lack of sleep, of course, although the 13 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,280 Speaker 1: promise of sloshy love making was definitely a selling point 14 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 1: back in the day too, it was an almost immediate 15 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: groovylicious success. By the late nineteen eighties, water beds accounted 16 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: for somewhere around fift of the bedding market, or a 17 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 1: d two billion dollars a year, according to a contemporary 18 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: New York Times article, if you were cool back then, 19 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:09,479 Speaker 1: or thought you were or wanted to be, or if 20 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,400 Speaker 1: you valued a good night's sleep on gently rolling waves, 21 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: or dreamed of nights filled with wild surfing passion, You 22 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: owned a waterbed or you wanted one, almost as quickly 23 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: as the waterbed revolution began, though it crashed, the novelty 24 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: wore off, the revolution died, the era faded away. These days, 25 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: statistics for waterbed sales are hard to come by, but 26 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: it's clear that things aren't like they were back in 27 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: the swinging seventies and eighties, and even into the nineties. 28 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:42,039 Speaker 1: The competition, mainly things like air mattresses and memory foam, 29 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: has grown. The number of waterbed manufacturers and sellers has shrunk. 30 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: Do you even know anyone who still owns a water bed? 31 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: Lynn Hardman does. He still sleeps on one every night. 32 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: He's also sold thousands of them over the past few decades. 33 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: Hardman owns Southern Waterbeds and Phutons in at in Georgia 34 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: and admits that business isn't like it was in the 35 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:06,280 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, a time when mattress stores didn't dot every 36 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: strip mall in every suburb, and mom and pop shops 37 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: didn't have to compete with the Internet. But there's still 38 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 1: business out there. Hardman has operated his store for forty 39 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: three years, almost as long as water beds have been around, 40 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: and the water bed is still hanging on. He said, 41 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: it's like night and day. The water bed has really 42 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: followed that Baby Boom generation from the counterculture of the 43 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,080 Speaker 1: late nineteen fifties to where we are today. The early 44 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: customers back then were younger, and today it's almost entirely 45 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,320 Speaker 1: the opposite. The baby boomers are older, much wiser, and 46 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: in some cases buying that final bed. Waterbed manufacturers and 47 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: showrooms like Hardman's are easy enough to find if you're looking. 48 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: Most brands offer hard sided beds that, like the first ones, 49 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: rely on a major piece of wood furniture to hold 50 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 1: the mattress in place. Newer soft sided water mattresses can 51 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:57,640 Speaker 1: stand on their own, though they all need some kind 52 00:02:57,680 --> 00:02:59,680 Speaker 1: of a solid base because of the weight of the 53 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: match riss. Depending on size, a water mattress can hold 54 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: up to two hundred gallons that's about seven hundred and 55 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: sixty liters of water, which is more than one thousand, 56 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:12,359 Speaker 1: six hundred pounds or about seven hundred and twenty five ms. 57 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: And the lure of water beds has of course always 58 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: been that water aficionados swear by it's all around supportive properties. 59 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,600 Speaker 1: Hardman talks about being enveloped in a water mattress, rather 60 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: than lying on top of a standard one. Most water 61 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: mattresses now come with baffles too that control how waveless 62 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: they are for those turned off by that too sloshy feeling. 63 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: Most have heaters that can regulate the temperature of the 64 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: water anywhere from seventy to a hundred degrees fahrenheit about 65 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: one to thirty eight degrees celsius. The newest mattresses are 66 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: split into dual zones too, so one person can enjoy 67 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: a different firmness, temperature, and wave control than his or 68 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: her sleeping partner. The waterbed of the twenty one century 69 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: clearly is not the fur covered playground that you have 70 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: never put on his private jet and flew around on 71 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: in the nine It was round and had a Tasmanian 72 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: possum bedspread. The man credited with inventing and patenting the 73 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: water bed is septagenarian Charlie Hall. He's come up with 74 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: a new one that he's marketing through a string of 75 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: furniture stores in Florida. Here's a quote from the kitsapp 76 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: Son in Bainbridge, Washington. Gone is the wooden frame that 77 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: made the older beds so hard to get out of, 78 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,479 Speaker 1: exchanged for a foam caller that surrounds the water bladder 79 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: expandex covers the top of the mattress to give a 80 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 1: floating said station. A fiber insert quells waves and keeps 81 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: the water bladder still. An updated temperature system keeps the 82 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,920 Speaker 1: water feeling just right. The innovations Hall is hoping will 83 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:41,960 Speaker 1: spur nostalgia in some and interest a new generation of 84 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,600 Speaker 1: buyers in a piece of bedroom furniture that they may 85 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: know little about. Hooking that new generation of kids maybe 86 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: the biggest challenge in the water beds potential comeback. Hardman 87 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: occasionally sees some young people in his store now, but 88 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: they're accompanied by parents or grandparents who dragged the kids 89 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: along to show them a relic from the path, a 90 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: novelty item. This would all seem rather quaint if sleep 91 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:07,800 Speaker 1: wasn't such a deadly serious topic. Research over the past 92 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: few years has shown just how critical a good night's 93 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: sleep is. A continued lack of sufficient sleep has been 94 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 1: strongly associated with, among other health problems, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, 95 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,800 Speaker 1: and a decreased life expectancy, and the National Sleep Foundation's 96 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: annual poll shows that only ten percent of Americans prioritize 97 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:31,920 Speaker 1: sleep over other things in their lives, like work, working out, hobbies, 98 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: or their social life. Most people sixty, the poll found 99 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: say they don't even consider ahead of time how much 100 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:42,359 Speaker 1: sleep they may need in planning out their days. Hardman 101 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: has a potential answer to that problem. Sitting in his store, 102 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: just as it has been for the past forty three years, 103 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: he said, there's just something about that semi witless state 104 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 1: that you can only get laying on a waterbed. There's 105 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,719 Speaker 1: something about it that's so soothing and relaxing. We had 106 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,479 Speaker 1: pause it that some rigorous scientific research is in order, 107 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,239 Speaker 1: though it sounds like plenty of people are still running 108 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:11,719 Speaker 1: their own small time experiments. Today's episode is based on 109 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: the article could waterbeds ever make a comeback? On how 110 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com? Written by John Donovan. Bring Stuff 111 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how 112 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:21,160 Speaker 1: stuff Work dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Clay. 113 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio visit the heart 114 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:26,840 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 115 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: favorite shows.