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David Perry

Ben’s bedding wisdom: Two beds better than one

Benjamin Franklin, the man who tamed the power of lightning, also sought to tame bad dreams. His advice, if heeded today, would provide a nice boost for the U.S. mattress industry: Buy two beds so you’ll have a cool bed ready if your first bed gets too hot.

I stumbled across Ben’s bedding wisdom the other day as I read “Ben Franklin: An American Life,” Walter Isaacson’s superb biography of this remarkable Founding Father. It shouldn’t have surprised me to find Ben speaking to the mattress industry.

This great man, an accomplished writer, inventor, scientist, media baron, diplomat and business strategist, as the book jacket notes, was fascinated by problems large and small.

Could it be that the man who edited the Declaration of Independence and helped shape our Constitution might have made his greatest contribution to mankind with his theories on how to get a good night’s sleep?
Alas, probably not.

Franklin was a big proponent of the value of fresh air, and that probably is a good aid to a sound night’s sleep. But, Isaacson notes, Franklin also proposed a non-scientific theory that air in a closed room becomes saturated and prevents people’s pores from expelling “putrid particles.” (Yuck!)

Franklin focused on bed clothes. In a letter to a friend, he recommended the use of “thinner and more porous bed-clothes, which will suffer the perishable matter more easily to pass through them,” thus leaving the sleeper more comfortable.

If you can’t sleep, Franklin advised, “get out of bed, beat up and turn your pillow, shake the bed-clothes well, with at least 20 shakes, then throw the bed open and leave it to cool.” If you are “too indolent” to get out of bed, lift up your bed-clothes with one arm and leg so as to draw in fresh air. Repeat this 20 times.

He added: “Those who do not love trouble, and can afford to have two beds, will find great luxury in rising, when they wake in a hot bed, and going into the cool one.”

I couldn’t help but think how much more comfortable Ben would have been if he’d been sleeping on some of today’s bedding technology: wool fibers to wick away moisture, temperature-regulating fibers to stay cool, channeled foam to let air circulate. He surely would enjoy those comfort-producing materials.

This year we celebrate the 300th anniversary of Franklin’s birth; he was born in Boston on Jan. 17, 1706, but spent his formative years in Philadelphia. Let’s honor his memory by selling plenty of cool, comfortable mattresses. And let’s remind consumers, even as we close the sale on a single mattress, that Ben recommended two beds for those who could afford them.

Yes, two beds are better than one. (to add public comments click on "Add your Comment" below, or to email Dave directly click here.)