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If we ask our grandparents or great-grandparents what they slept on as kids, the answers might surprise us. No fancy multi-layer support systems and breakthrough materials – if it wasn’t a simple coil mattress, then it was probably either a cotton-stuffed mattress or a hay sack. Read on as we dive into the history of mattresses and beds – from their invention thousands of years ago to modern mattresses.
History of The Mattress and Bed by Different Eras
Stone Age – Oldest Beds and Mattresses Known (older than 3,500 B.C.)
South Africa is home to the oldest preserved beds from ancient history. Layers of bedding, grass, and leaves kept sleepers off the cold ground. These plant materials were mixed with layers of ashes. It seems that these beds were occasionally burned, and scientists speculate that people from the past did so to keep the insects out of their beds.
The latest discovery is the bedding grass from Border Cave in South Africa and they say it might be 43,000 years old.
But the actual oldest bedding they found in the same cave is reportedly 200,000 years old and fossilized.
The scientists found camphor bush plant material as the top layer on the oldest bedding – and this plant is used as an insect repellant in rural African areas to this day.
Prior to this, the oldest reported mattress was from 77,000 years ago. It was also a grass bed that was occasionally burned and also from South Africa, found in the Sibudu rock shelter. It was big enough to host a large family.
But that’s all Africa; we have some hunter-gatherer beds at home, too – albeit much less old. Archeologists found many artifacts in Texas Hinds Cave, and they say that it was home to nomads about 8,000 years ago. These people slept in shallow rounded pits lined with leaves and other plant material.
Ancient Egypt – First Raised Beds and Wool Mattresses (3,000 – 1,000 B.C.)
The first raised beds were invented by the ancient Egyptians. Most people had one. Commoners used wood bed frames made of simple, plain wood whereas rich people had theirs made of ebony or covered with jewels, gold, and other high-status symbols.
They also had primitive types of mattresses – basically wool cushions. Ancient Egyptians had linen sheets and head support made of stone or wood.
Ancient Rome – Raised Metal Beds (1,000 B.C. – 476 A.D.)
Using metal in bed frame-making first appeared in Ancient Rome.
However, not all beds were made of the same materials. There were also beds made of wood and decorated with ivory and bronze.
Romans had quite comfortable mattresses and pillows – they used straw, wool, leaves, or even feathers as a filling. The bedding itself was made of wool or hemp.
The mattress was placed on straps made of leather or metal.
Poor citizens didn’t usually sleep on a raised bed – they had mats that were placed directly on the floor.
Ancient Roman beds were usually made for one person and it was a normal thing for each spouse to sleep in a separate bedroom. Seems like Romans were sleep divorcing before it was cool.
Medieval Period – Four-Posters (Circa 400 A.D. to 1,400 A.D.)
The Middle Ages in Europe brought big four-poster beds with curtains into the homes of the wealthy. These beds were sometimes raised so much that sleepers needed a step stool to get in. Mattresses were filled with down and feather and linen was used for the bedding.
Those who lived in a castle had much bigger beds with taller posts and intricately decorated curtains and bedding. The drapery kept insects and drafts away and it might have even served as a blackout curtain. These beds were also called canopy beds. Drapes also added privacy, because it was common for lords and mistresses to sleep in the same room as their servants and maids, who usually slept on floors or simple beds.
A four-poster bed was a big deal and it was usually passed on for generations.
Commoners had much simpler beds. Sometimes they had a simple platform bed, sometimes not. Peasants slept on sacks usually filled with hay and covered themselves with rough wool blankets.
Renaissance – Same For The Poor, a Lot Fancier For The Rich (Around 1,400 A.D. to the end of 1,600 A.D.)
During the Renaissance period, common people continued sleeping on sacks filled with hay, while four-poster beds spread out among the wealthy. Only in this period, they started having “bedchambers”. These rooms would be mainly used for sleeping and were usually on the second floor.
However, there were still lots of wealthy people who used their bedchambers to host visitors. Since all sorts of people were able to see where one slept, the bedroom and the bed had to look luxurious.
The Great Bed of Ware is one of the most popular Renaissance beds. It’s in Victoria and Albert Museum in London and dates back to 1600. Even Shakespeare wrote about this bed – but we wouldn’t say it’s the most shocking example.
There’s another bed dating back to around 1608 that’s still in use! Berkeley Castle’s 400-year-old bed is the oldest known bed still in use to this day. It’s been in the family for 15 generations and the owners say that it is the most comfortable bed in the whole castle.
18th Century – Four-Posters and Large Headboards
Beds of the eighteenth century were quite comfortable and the style was getting simpler, but they didn’t lose the drapes right away. Drapes were still important because they provided a warmer atmosphere while in bed as opposed to the drafty chilliness of a bedchamber.
In America, there were big improvements in comfort. People had bedsteads usually made of poplar and pine. Hay mats were combined with feather mattresses, and both were lying on top of a sacking bottom.
Around this time, beds without four posts started emerging. They usually had a headboard and a footboard, but not drapery. Here’s what an Italian 18th-century bed looked like. To compensate for the lack of drapes, the two boards were quite large.
19th Century – First Coil Springs
Throughout the 19th century, four-posters were falling out of popularity and the sizes of headboards and footboards were shrinking. Homes had better walls and windows and there was no need for so much draft protection.
The 1800s brought a couple of completely new inventions – the innerspring mattress. James Marshall, a Canadian engineer born in Britain, invented a coil mattress. This is why the basic types of coils are called “Marshall Coils” to this day.
Unfortunately, his idea didn’t really catch on for at least 60 years (mainly because mattresses weren’t really mass-produced), but it did explode in the 20th century. Interestingly enough, Marshall’s concept was about encased coils – so pocketed coils aren’t a modern idea as many people think.
And if you thought that air mattresses are a new thing, you’re over 120 years late. Even if you thought of split beds with different firmness options for two sleepers as a modern invention, you’re wrong! The “Perfection” air mattresses by Mechanical Mfg. Co came out in 1896 and you could also buy inflatable pillows and cushions with them.
In this picture, you can see the inventor demonstrating how a split air mattress can be used with different firmness adjustments for each sleeper.
20th Century – Completely Revolutionized Mattresses
During the 20th century, mattresses were mass-produced for the first time ever. This gave rise to coil mattresses, which were in almost every mattress out there. James Marshall’s company was called the Vi-Spring. The mattress looks a lot like modern ones, right?
By the 1950s, box springs became a popular platform for mattresses, adding to the overall comfort.
Around the 1920s, after five years of experiments, a Dunlop engineer found a way to make foam out of rubber latex. E.A. Murphy got the idea of using his wife’s cake mixer – turns out, whipped and then baked latex foam was good enough to form a comfortable sleeping material. Of course, this process went through refinement, and in 1931, the world witnessed the first latex foam mattress.
Not long after, professor Otto Bayer created polyurethane foam. This 1937 invention later became an irreplaceable furniture stuffing material. Polyurethane foams are still widely used today and they make a basis on which memory foam was developed.
NASA invented the viscoelastic polyurethane foam (memory foam) in the 1970s because they needed it to support the astronauts in their seats.
The first memory foam mattress appeared on the market in 1991 because it took some time for NASA to release the technology to the general public and then it took some more time for companies to further develop this foam and make it useful for sleeping. Tempur Pedic started selling its first memory foam mattresses in 1992.
However, the most memorable mattresses of the late 20th century were waterbeds which marked the 1980s. Their sales even rose up to 20% of all mattresses.
The eighties also reintroduced airbeds and they became much more popular than before. After all, they were more durable and taller than the version from a hundred years prior.
Modern Mattresses
- Hybrids. The start of the 21st century was marked by a new invention – the hybrid mattress. Hybrid mattresses were first made as 50% innerspring and 50% memory foam mattresses. However, today you can also find different hybrid types, such as water and foam, innerspring and latex, and many more combinations. Standard hybrids are seen as extremely durable and highly supportive.
- Smart beds. Our century also brought us types of beds the likes of which were never seen before. Equipped with sensors, active heating and cooling systems, phone connection, lots of adjustments, and sleep tracking, smart beds are still in their infancy. Like all new things, it will take some time for this technology to become advanced and possibly more useful than it is at the moment.
- Organic and natural mattresses. At the same time, we’re seeing a rise in the interest of the public in organic and natural materials. After learning about the dangers of gasses that come out of memory and polyurethane foams, as well as the harmfulness of flame retardants like fiberglass, new generations are looking for healthy alternatives. This is why there’s been a resurgence of cotton, wool, and natural fiber mattresses. Also, this is why latex is coming back after being almost completely replaced by toxic polyurethane foam for a long time.
The latest mattress statistics and trends show that most of today’s consumers prioritize back support and innerspring mattresses are still the most popular mattress type.
The Future of Mattresses and Beds
Companies that work on smart mattress development will likely continue working on those products and improving them. However, when it comes to mattress material, innerspring mattress owners have reported relatively low levels of satisfaction and it is likely that hybrid mattresses or memory foam mattresses will take over.
If we bear in mind that people shop for whatever is most advertised directly or indirectly (through exposure to certain information, for example), we can also expect a surge in organic mattress sales because more and more people are aware of the environment and health.
Humans have always had the same sleeping needs – the mattress shouldn’t be ice cold or too hot and it should make a supportive bed. Modern mattress shoppers are looking for those same qualities (with us being a bit more spoiled than our ancestors) – for this reason, it is likely that the mattress of the future won’t be radically different than what we have today.
There might be some radical fads such as the waterbed in the ’80s, but things like that usually die off or remain but only as a rarity.
FAQs
The history says – a long time ago. About 7,000 BC people had stone pillows. For some reason, stone pillows were used for thousands of years after that, even when people already slept on some primitive forms of mattresses. Read our guide to the history of pillows for more information.
The oldest found mattresses were large enough for entire families to sleep in. One of the oldest mattresses found in KwaZulu-Natal in Africa was 22 square feet long. This way all sleepers were together, safe, close, and warm. This was in the oldest periods when people were mainly hunter-gatherers. In ancient civilizations, beds got smaller, but large beds were still widely used until the 19th or 20th century.
They were probably made of animal skin, grass, and woven reeds. However, the blanket which is the most similar to modern blankets was made in the 14th century, by a Flemish weaver Thomas Blanquette. Blankets probably got their name from his last name.
Conclusion
When you go to sleep this evening, take a moment to think about how your bed is a product of thousands and thousands of years of mattress evolution and gradual improvement. From piles of leaves and grass on the ground to first raised beds and hay-filled sacks (or if you’re lucky, cotton-stuffed mattresses). If you’re sleeping on a latex or innerspring mattress, you’re enjoying the luxury that’s been around for only about a hundred years, and if you sleep on a hybrid or a smart mattress, you’re embracing the result of the absolute latest ideas and technology. Considering how our ancestors slept, maybe we shouldn’t be too picky about our own beds.
Next step: Now that you know everything there is to know about the history of the mattress, it’s time to take a look at some of the best options available today. Since mattresses are so expensive, we created a list of the best mattress brands with Klarna financing so you can spread out the payments. Any brand on this list is going to make your sleep 100x more comfortable.
With over 5 years experience writing about sleep and mattresses, she's considered one of the go-to experts on the topic.
She likes cycling, nature, art, and languages. She pays special attention to providing you with accurate and useful information when it comes to your sleep quality.
After solving her personal sleep and tiredness problems, she is on to help others by sharing this invaluable information.
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