Are Waterbeds About To Float Back Into Fashion?

Surrounded by mahogany and mirrored wood paneling, an eight track humming out the sultry sounds of Donna Summer, the undulating mattress of a waterbed always put Francis Melton right to sleep. He still remembers the first time he slept on one. He was only a teen and had just returned from a grueling week working on the rigs in northern Alberta.

“It had a stereo in it, and it could vibrate, and I was so beat,” said Melton. “I kid you not, I slept for 26 hours straight on that bed. Compared to a conventional bed, it was a trippy experience. It was groovy.”

Though the market appears to have sprung a permanent leak, waterbeds were ultra-trendy in the 1970s. When they crashed onto the shores of the conventional mattress industry in the late 1960s, choices for a spring mattresses were “firm” and “firmer” (hard and really hard), and waterbeds promised a revolution in the bedroom… read more >