Beauty Sleep

We all know sleep is important.  It lets the body recharge and rejuvenate and just plain rest from the day’s activities.  We also all know what it’s like to not get a good night’s sleep.  We’re cranky, we’re slow, we can’t focus, we get bags under our eyes and start to look haggard.  Sleep is important – if we don’t have it, we go insane.  So when it comes to sleep, just how far would you go to get the best night’s rest?  Forget nighttime rituals, pajamas, temperature and warm milk for a moment and consider the most important factor: the bed.  What makes a good bed great, and how much would you be willing to pay for a night of blissful sleep?

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal pondered the exact same question and told of a store in Chicago that sells a mattress set for the whooping price of $49,500.  I’ll pause for a moment to let you reflect on that number.  For that amount of money, you could afford to do a number of things.  Buy a new car, pay college tuition/loans, pay off debt, put a down payment on a home, buy a powerboat, own a franchise, travel around the world, feed starving children, start a business, build a pool in your backyard. The possibilities are endless.  I’ve often daydreamed about the things I would get if I came into a small fortune and never has any of those fantasies included getting a mattress set that costs five figures.  So, what makes it so expensive?  It’s made entirely by hand and uses layers of wool, cotton, flax and horsehair (really? would you even notice if it didn’t?), and since it takes so long to assemble, there are very few that are available.  It’s the principle of supply and demand, folks.

It’s still ridiculous.