Oh, Wow, Water Beds Are Back

By Anastasia Toufexis

Quiz time. Besides Jane Fonda, what sex symbol of the '60s has become a health emblem of the '80s? Stumped? Try the water bed. Yes, that infamous fixture of hippie pads has been transformed in just two decades into an increasingly popular middle-class therapeutic aid. Kathleen Hetland and her husband Darwin of Osakis, Minn., both 56 and arthritis sufferers, sleep blissfully on a water mattress that their children sent them as a gift. Says she: "I absolutely love it, and I wouldn't know what to do without it."

Today the water-bed industry is not only a $2 billion business (compared with about $13 million in 1971), but it is also the fastest-growing segment of the bedding market, accounting for 21% of all mattress sales. Last year 4 million water beds were sold (price: $100 to $600), nearly three-quarters of them to buyers over age 30. About one-fourth of purchasers now cite health reasons for choosing a water bed. The most common complaints are back pain, arthritis and insomnia.

The most popular water bed is still the original water-filled vinyl bag set within a plastic or wooden frame. Fast gaining in appeal, however, is the soft-sided bed made of vinyl with foam baffles, cells or cylinders inside that reduce wave motion. Water temperature can be varied by a thermostat-controlled heater mat that plugs into a wall socket.

The liquid system provides more even support than conventional bedding, say enthusiasts, contouring to body shape and thus easing stress on the buttocks, shoulders, elbows, hips, calves and heels. "It's just more support in the right places without exerting pressure on the wrong places," explains Stacy James, head of advertising for Land and Sky, a Lincoln, Neb., water-bed manufacturer. Sloshy cushions, say advocates, keep the spine in proper alignment and, along with the heat, help blood circulation. Ads now tout water beds as good for the whole family, from children to the elderly.

As yet, though, scientific proof for such claims is scanty. Water beds are helpful in the prevention of bedsores, a problem that afflicts up to 30% of patients in chronic-care facilities; some hospitals also endorse the use of flotation mattresses to help premature infants breathe more normally. Opinion is mixed, however, on whether water beds are good for back pain. Orthopedist Steven Garfin of the University of California at San Diego gives cautious approval. "Patients tend to do a little better in terms of range of motion and comfort on the water bed than conventional bedding," he says. But Dr. Rene Caillet, a rehabilitation specialist at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center, is unconvinced. "If you lie on your stomach, the water bed allows you to increase the sway or the sag of the back," he notes.

Nonetheless, satisfied users abound. Nancy Wallrich, 56, a homemaker in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., who has had rheumatoid arthritis for 30 years, says her water bed has brought her uninterrupted sleep. It has also improved her sex life. "For me, many positions and movements had become difficult," she observes. "Now I am able to move around more." That sounds a lot like what water beds were famous for way back when.

With reporting by Beth Austin/Chicago and Bill Johnson/Los Angeles