Atlantis Beds

It all began with water beds

1982 was an eventful year. Italy won the Football world championship, NASA found four new moons around Saturn, and the CD was launched for the first time. And on Hamngatan in Stockholm Johan Lindblom sat in his banking office and looked out the window. Something he often did back then. The reason was Sweden’s first water bed store, located in the mall Gallerian across the street. The store and its products fascinated Johan, and he visited it as often as he could.

Eventually he decided to invest in a water bed himself, and discovered that it offered a sleeping comfort that traditionally-built beds couldn’t offer at the time. In addition, his shoulder problem disappeared after only two nights in the new bed.

Johan saw an enormous potential in the water bed and the sleeping comfort it could offer. And since he had studied both mechanical engineering and economy, and also had good knowledge in ergonomics (that has been continually improved over the years), it didn’t take long before he decided to join the industry. Together with his wife Eva, who just put her plans to open a health studio on the shelf, and his brother Nicklas he found a vacant premises in Arninge Centre outside of Stockholm where they opened the water bed store Atlantis. Even back then, the trio’s idea was to sell good sleep.

Since then the business has grown to five stores in Stockholm and one in Malmö. The strategy has been to grow slowly but surely to always make sure they could manage the production. The company has remained a family business and besides the three founders their children are now also in the business. They abandoned the water beds in 1990, since this trend more or less died and they wanted to diversify. But the connection to the water still lives in Atlantis’ name which comes from the mythical island/continent that according to Platon must have existed in the middle of one of the great oceans. You can probably guess which one …

Going their own way

Initially, Atlantis was a reseller and sold beds and other products from all the well-known brands. But something didn’t feel right. Johan and his colleagues had discovered shortcomings in the established manufacturers’ beds. They didn’t offer the sleeping comfort that one should require from a good bed. Atlantis pointed this out to the different manufacturers and presented their ideas on how the beds could be improved along with thoughts about doing sleep studies since no one had done that before. But they were met by opposition.

“None of the big brands listened to us”, says Johan.

This is where the story could have ended. But Atlantis couldn’t be stopped, instead, they took matters into their own hands. They decided to produce the beds they felt their customers deserved themselves. Beds that are built based on the customer’s body, that provide maximum relief, and the best possible conditions for good sleep.

Sleep is serious business

If there was a Nobel Prize in sleep science the Atlantis team would be a good candidate for the award. They’re almost obsessed with sleep and everything related to it. Over the years they’ve met thousands of people with different sleeping needs and done hundreds of experiments.

For two years they also got special training in sleep subjects at Karolinska Institutet, which included sleep science, back science, anatomy, pain, muscle physiology, hormone system, body temperature regulation, and work physiology. In addition, they’ve conducted extensive research on their own.

This has resulted in an expertise that’s unique in the industry. And everything they’ve done with one goal in mind: to create the perfect bed and give their customers the optimal sleep. Nothing is left to chance.

The world’s only fully personalized bed

In 1994 Atlantis took a big step towards this goal with the investment in the advanced data analysis program ErgoCheck®, developed by a German professor who also has taught Johan Lindblom and his team a lot about sleep. With this tool as the base, the company created the sleep labs which is now available in every store. In these labs, the customers can do a bed data test.

The result of ErgoCheck is your own personal bed ID that shows exactly how your perfect bed should be. Based on this ID your fully personalized Atlantis Ergobed is built for you, spring by spring. As icing on the cake it’s labeled with “Especially made for” followed by your name. It can’t get more personal than that.

Vila – a well-built quality bed at a good price

If you don’t feel ready to invest in an exclusive personalized Ergobed, Atlantis also offers their own brand Vila. The goal of Vila has been to create a quality bed with really good sleeping comfort and still have an affordable price.

Vila is not built for your unique body but has optimized spring systems to fit as many people as possible. And while most other manufactures have three different degrees of hardness for their beds at the most, Vila has six different degrees. This increases your chances to find the right bed even more.

Sleep stylish with Atlantis’ exclusive Carl Malmsten fabric

One of the Vila beds, Vila Superior, you can decorate with an extraordinary fabric. Atlantis has the sole right of the only patterned furnishing fabric created by the renowned Swedish designer Carl Malmsten, one of the top designers of the 20th century.

Besides Ergobed and Vila, Atlantis also offers products from well-known brands such as Tempur, Englesson, Mille Notti, Newport, Zucchi, Bassetti, Linum, Laura Ashley, Technogel, Rory Madison, and Designers Guild.

Breathe clean and fresh air during the night

In 24 hours you breathe 30,000 liters of air; 11,000 of those liters you breathe during the night. This air contains both dust, pollen, mites, bacteria, viruses, and dangerous microscopic air pollution that harms our vascular system.

To protect you from viruses, unhealthy substances and particles, Atlantis recently produced a headboard in collaboration with Pure Air Zone. It’s a new technological world-patented innovation that creates a zone of completely clean and fresh air in and around your bed exactly where you breathe and spend a third of your life.

Clean air reduces allergies and asthma, for example, and today no other air freshener delivers a sleeping environment as clean as the Atlantis Pure Air Zone headboard. And everything is done both silent, draughtproof, and energy-efficient.

Swedish craftsmanship in every detail

Unlike many competitors, Atlantis has invested in production facilities in Sweden, and the Swedish craftsmanship is close to their hearts. The beds are built in the company’s own top modern bed factory in Vallentuna outside of Stockholm. The fabrics are sewn in Atlantis’ factory in Lagan outside of Ljungby in Småland, a small town with a long tradition in bed sewing and unique craft skills that you can’t get elsewhere. Some of the bed fabrics are woven by Markspelle, a historic weaving mill from the 19th century located outside of Kinna in Västergötland.

“We have the largest proportion of Swedish components in the industry”, Johan explains with pride.

Beds that are kind to nature

Another important thing for Atlantis is that both the products and manufacturing should be as environmentally friendly as possible. The bed factory in Stockholm is built entirely of concrete and uses geothermal heating, the beds have organic wool fabric, and the components are recyclable to name a few examples. As a result of their environmental awareness, the company has been Cradle to Cradle certified for several of the components.

It’s the most difficult certification to achieve, and means that the products can be returned to the earth cycle without having a negative impact on our environment. This means that you could actually throw your mattress in nature since it’s worn down.

Don’t leave your sleep to chance

Many people spend more hours choosing a TV than their bed. But considering how many hours you actually spend in bed, and how important sleep is to your well-being, it’s not a choice you should leave to chance. At Atlantis you can be sure of getting the right bed for you. A bed of the highest quality that will give you the best possible conditions for a really good sleep.

Johan Lindblom concludes:
“We’re building the world’s best beds.”

Your sleep quality is primarily affected by three factors:

Below you get Atlantis’ best tips on how to achieve good sleep. The tips are based on over 30 years of industry experience and their own sleep research.

1. Make your bedtime into a pleasant ritual and tell the body to relax. Dim the lights and don’t go to bed until you feel really sleepy.
2. Leave work at work.
3. Don’t use your bedroom for anything else than sleep. (Sex is an exception.)
4. Take a nice bath of at least 15 minutes before going to bed. Add a few drops of essential oil if you want.
5. Feel free to take a nap during the day, but not after 3 pm and no longer than 15-20 minutes.
6. If you can’t sleep, it’s better to get up and wait for the sleepiness. But make sure you don’t do anything that stimulates alertness, like reading an exciting book.
7. Don’t bring your problems to bed.
8. Exercise regularly.
9. Don’t go to bed either hungry or full, and avoid stimulating beverages like coffee, tea, and cola 4-6 hours before bedtime.
10. Avoid sleeping late in the mornings and try to get up at the same time whether it’s a weekday or weekend.

1. Avoid having electrical devices close to your head when you sleep. Electric fields disturb deep sleep.
2. Keep the bedroom cool (16-19 degrees is appropriate), but avoid draft.
3. Keep the bedroom interior simple.
4. Place the alarm clock far from your head.
5. Leave the TV, computer, mobile phone, and other items outside the bedroom.

1. Lie on smooth sheets, wrinkled sheets disrupt sleep.
2. Have a bed that’s stable, steady and has good quality. It shall also have the right firmness and be flexible so it doesn’t put too much pressure on joints, shoulders and hips.
3. Use separate comforters if you sleep in a double bed.
4. Have a bed that adapts to your body and provides pressure relief.

Photos: © Atlantis

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