3400 BC

Egyptian Pharaohs discover the benefits of raising a pallet off the earth. King Tutankhamun had a bed of ebony and gold. Common people slept on palm bows heaped in the corner of their home.

Roman Empire

First luxury beds, often decorated with gold, silver or bronze, these beds featured mattresses stuffed with reeds, hay, wool or feathers. Romans also discovered the waterbed. The sleeper would recline in a cradle of warm water until drowsy, then be lifted onto a adjacent cradle with a mattress, where they would be rocked to sleep.

16th Century

Mattresses were made of pea shucks or straw, sometimes feathers, stuffed into a coarse covers, then covered with sumptuous velvets, brocades and silks.

16th and 17th Centuries

Mattresses were generally stuffed with straw or down and placed on top of a latticework of rope.

Late 18th Century

Advent of the cast iron bed and cotton mattresses. Together, they provided a sleeping space that was less attractive to bugs. Until that time, assorted vermin were simply accepted as an everyday component of even the most royal beds. Then in the mid nineteenth century the first spring construction for bedding was patented.

20th Century

It's widely accepted that the first pocket spring mattress appeared in about 1905, with the first open spring mattress being developed in the 1920's followed by latex models in the early 1930's. The 60's saw the introduction of the modern day waterbed along with the 'adjustable' bed becoming more popular with consumers