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What Makes a Perfect Mattress, According to Swedish Sleep Experts
I’ve taken COVID in New York very seriously, which means limiting non-essential errands or interactions. Yet here I am, sitting on a setee in a cavernous room, ethereal music playing in the ether, while Oliver Ankar, director of Hästens Sleep Spa in New York City, kneels in front of me and slips cloud-like booties onto my bare feet. Across from me is Linus Adolfsson, founder of the Sleep Spa, which houses all the Swedish mattress company’s blue-and-white checkered offerings. The soothing atmosphere where it’s perpetually twilight splits the difference between showroom and laboratory—Adolfsson serving as head scientist, and me the test subject. I gave myself a pandemic pass on coming here because I want to find the perfect mattress, if such a thing even exists.
For most of the past year, my sleep has been terrible. I know all the things that could be standing in my way: blue light emitting from my smartphone and TV before bed, drinking caffeine in the afternoon, dehydration, tippling too late at night, and, of course, stress. Those are more or less under control, though you’ll understand if my stress-o-meter is all over the place.
Ankar hands me a sanitized pillow that I carry with me as I test drive bed after bed. With each new mattress, I’m encouraged to shimmy my hips and shoulders to settle in. The idea is to find a bed where my spine is straight with enough support in the hips so they don’t sit too high nor sink in, which would create a slight V shape. I try six mattresses, including one that costs—brace yourself—around $390,000 (the starting price at Hästens is $7,000).
The handmade mattresses are made with natural materials, including wool and horsehair, balanced against a precise array of springs. They're some of the nicest things these old bones have ever laid on. (Before you say that the price tag influenced my fondness, yes, you're probably right, but I’ll also say my preferred mattress at the end of the day was at the lower end of the price scale.) I joke with Adolfsson that if I had a Hästens, I'd never get out of bed. He tells me it has the opposite effect. These mattresses give you such an amazing night's rest that you bounce out in the morning.
Being here reminds me of shopping for a new fancy blender or getting a tour of a great gym: You get hopped up on the idea of getting healthier. We know that sleep is restorative, and yet people who would sooner miss their anniversary dinner than skip leg day will still skimp on sleep. For me, pandemic in the winter when there’s scant daylight means nights and days bleed together. And some of what Adolfsson says hits hard. Mornings are a crapshoot. Am I well-rested? Did I sleep on my shoulder funny? I like my mattress at home well enough, but I realize that, in retrospect, the three minutes I spent lying on it in the mattress store in the strip mall was probably not enough to know if it was the one. For context, I'm contemplating all this while lounging in a bed that costs more than some houses.