1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: Lauren focal bomb here. The water bed was born around 3 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: half a century ago as the counterculture solution to something 4 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: pretty basic. We're talking a lack of sleep, of course. 5 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: Although the promise of sloshy love making was definitely a 6 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: selling point back in the day too, it was an 7 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: almost immediate, groovy, delicious success. By the late nineteen eighties, 8 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: waterbeds accounted for somewhere around fifteen percent of the bedding market, 9 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,199 Speaker 1: or a tidy two billion dollars a year, according to 10 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: a contemporary New York Times article, if you were cool 11 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,239 Speaker 1: back then, or thought you were or wanted to be, 12 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: or if you valued a good night's sleep on gently 13 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:48,559 Speaker 1: rolling waves, or dreamed of nights filled with wild surfing passion, 14 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:52,879 Speaker 1: you owned a water bed or you wanted one. Almost 15 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: as quickly as the waterbed revolution began, though it crashed, 16 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:01,320 Speaker 1: the novelty wore off, the revolution died, the era faded away. 17 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: These days, statistics for waterbed sales are hard to come by, 18 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: but it's clear that things aren't like they were back 19 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: in the swinging seventies and eighties, and even into the nineties. 20 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: The competition mainly things like air mattresses and memory foam 21 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,120 Speaker 1: has grown. The number of waterbed manufacturers and sellers has shrunk. 22 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: Do you even know anyone who still owns a water bed? 23 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: Lynn Hardman does. He still sleeps on one every night. 24 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,600 Speaker 1: He's also sold thousands of them over the past few decades. 25 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: Hardman owns Southern water Beds and Phutons in Athens, Georgia, 26 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: and admits that business isn't like it was in the 27 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,039 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, a time when mattress stores didn't dot every 28 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: strip mall in every suburb and mom and pop shops 29 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: didn't have to compete with the Internet. But there's still 30 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: business out there. Hardman has operated his store for forty 31 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: three years, almost as long as water beds have been around, 32 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: and the water bed is still hanging on. He said, 33 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: it's like night and day. The waterbed has really followed 34 00:01:57,280 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: that Baby Boom generation from the counterculture of the late 35 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: seen fifties to where we are today. The early customers 36 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: back then were younger, and today it's almost entirely the opposite. 37 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 1: The baby boomers are older, much wiser, and in some 38 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: cases buying that final bed. Waterbed manufacturers and showrooms like 39 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: Hardman's are easy enough to find if you're looking. Most 40 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: brands offer hard sided beds that, like the first ones, 41 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:23,959 Speaker 1: rely on a major piece of wood furniture to hold 42 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: the mattress in place. Newer soft sided water mattresses can 43 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,359 Speaker 1: stand on their own, though they all need some kind 44 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: of a solid base because of the weight of the mattress. 45 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: Depending on size, a water mattress can hold up to 46 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: two hundred gallons that's about seven hundred and sixty liters 47 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: of water, which is more than one thousand, six hundred 48 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 1: pounds or about seven hundred and twenty fives and the 49 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: lure of water beds has of course always been that 50 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 1: water aficionados swear by its all around supportive properties. Hardman 51 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: talks about being enveloped in a water mattress rather than 52 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: lying on top of a standard one. Most water matt 53 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: says now come with baffles too that control how waveless 54 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,040 Speaker 1: they are for those turned off by that too slashy feeling. 55 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: Most have heaters that can regulate the temperature of the 56 00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:12,120 Speaker 1: water anywhere from seventy to a hundred degrees fahrenheit about 57 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,639 Speaker 1: thirty eight degrees celsius. The newest mattresses are split into 58 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: dual zones too, so one person can enjoy a different firmness, temperature, 59 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: and wave control than his or her sleeping partner. The 60 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,640 Speaker 1: waterbed of the twenty one century clearly is not the 61 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: fur covered playground that Hugh Hefner put on his private 62 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: jet and flew around on in the nineteen seventies. It 63 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: was round and had a Tasmanian possum bedspread. The man 64 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: credited with inventing and patenting the water bed is septagenarian 65 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: Charlie Hall. He's come up with a new one that 66 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: he's marketing through a string of furniture stores in Florida. 67 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 1: Here's a quote from the kitsap Son in Bainbridge, Washington. 68 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: Gone is the wooden frame that made the older beds 69 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,320 Speaker 1: so hard to get out of, exchanged for a foam 70 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,839 Speaker 1: caller that surrounds the water bladder expandex covers the top 71 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,680 Speaker 1: of the mattress to give a floating said sation. Fiber 72 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: insert quells waves and keeps the water bladder still. An 73 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 1: updated temperature system keeps the water feeling just right. The 74 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:13,160 Speaker 1: innovations Hall is hoping will spur nostalgia in some and 75 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: interest a new generation of buyers in a piece of 76 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 1: bedroom furniture that they may know little about. Hooking that 77 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: new generation of kids maybe the biggest challenge in the 78 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: waterbeds potential comeback. Hardman occasionally sees some young people in 79 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: his store now, but they're accompanied by parents or grandparents 80 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: who dragged the kids along to show them a relic 81 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 1: from the past, a novelty item. This would all seem 82 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: rather quaint if sleep wasn't such a deadly serious topic. 83 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:42,039 Speaker 1: Research over the past few years has shown just how 84 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,279 Speaker 1: critical a good night's sleep is. A continued lack of 85 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: sufficient sleep has been strongly associated with, among other health problems, obesity, diabetes, 86 00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: heart disease, hypertension, and a decreased life expectancy, and the 87 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: National Sleep Foundation's annual poll shows that only ten percent 88 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: of Americans prior ties sleep over other things in their lives, 89 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: like work, working out, hobbies, or their social life. Most people, 90 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: six the poll found say they don't even consider ahead 91 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:12,799 Speaker 1: of time how much sleep they may need in planning 92 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: out their days. Hardman has a potential answer to that problem. 93 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,159 Speaker 1: Sitting in his store, just as it has been for 94 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: the past forty three years. He said, There's just something 95 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: about that semi waitless state that you can only get 96 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,039 Speaker 1: laying on a waterbed. There's something about it that's so 97 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: soothing and relaxing. We'd pause it that some rigorous scientific 98 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: research is in order, though it sounds like plenty of 99 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:43,280 Speaker 1: people are still running their own small time experiments. Today's 100 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: episode was written by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Clang. 101 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:48,880 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other soothing topics, 102 00:05:48,960 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how Stuff works dot com.