Hasten Mattress Review
What’s Inside The Hastens Vividus: A $150,000 Mattress Owned By Royalty, Celebrities, And The Chosen Few: Is It Worth It?
Just like owning a high end sports car, celebrities and people with money to burn on the finest things in life can also own the world’s most expensive- and according to the company that makes it-the most comfortable mattress ever made.
That mattress is made by a company in Sweden called Hastens. They’re no newcomer, as they have been crafting mattresses, bench built one at a time, for 152 years.
Called the “Royal Purveyors” because their mattresses are slept on by the King and Queen of Sweden, as well as monarchs and celebrities all over the world, their factory, the design team, the craftspeople, and their mission is technologically advanced, though inspired by a centuries old history.
Before we get into what’s inside the planet’s most enviable and jaw dropping mattress, you may want to know a little about the company that created not only the Vividus, but a portfolio of completely over the top, super luxurious mattresses.
Hastens began making mattresses in Sweden in 1852, and they insist there is no better way to craft a mattress than by using their refined techniques. Primarily relying on using naturally derived materials, their mastery of just how to process, weave, interlace, and layer a host of exotic and unusual organic materials is astonishing.
While their mastery of natural materials has progressed over 152 years, it’s their handcraft that lies at the core of every detail of their beds. Vividus owners describe the mattress as something that you can feel and sense, even before you lay down on it.
After all, their unusual color scheme, that signature checkerboard pattern, is recognized all over the world, from Hollywood to Saudi Arabia, as the pinnacle of luxury and a sign that you’ve arrived. But with all of thehype, is the Vividus mattress more hype than otherworldly?
The Master Craftsman’s Journey
They say obsession is dangerous. And Hästens was, and still is, driven by a team of master craftsmen whose obsession with their art is like that of a painting or sculpting master.
Many of the Hastens team are part of a lineage, with hardwired genetics that passes from generation to generation, with one mission: better beds than anyone else on this earth.
Hastens arguably makes the best beds in the world—an ambitious goal-yet one that owners agree on. The company utilizes the the best natural materials in the finest, most capable hands. But, does that mean that there are not competitors out there that can make a modest priced mattress that has a similar feel, an inviting sensation, with support and durability?
How far apart are we when comparing a $1,000 mattress with the Hastens top end model that sells easily for $150,000?
It turns out that Sweden’s legacy of design and handcrafting is long, illustrious and fascinating. Rooted in what it is to be Swedish, how we think, act and live. And Hästens is very much a part of this legacy; boasting many landmark developments of our own that have actively contributed to how we sleep today.
Behind every Hästens bed that is hand carried and hand boxed after it is finished on the craftsman’s bench, are hundreds of man hours of refinement from the original engineered design, research by textile, sleep, and natural materials conservationists and experts, and an elite team involved in development and design considerations. They described themselves as being the purest and most experienced team that builds in design thinking in every aspect of Vividus Bed construction.
Sleep lies in the subtle details that surrounds the wonder of our state of suspended animation. The engineering of the bed. In the devotion of the master craftsman’s work and handling of the all-natural materials.
The careful selection of slow-growing pine from Sweden’s north, for example, which is used for use in the framework of the Vividus Bed. Swedish flax, durable and anti-static. And the world’s finest and softest linter cotton, careful teased, layered, and distributed by hand.
Sweden produces the most breathable, temperature-regulating wool, and they utilize nature’s springiest and most breathable material. An important component, horsetail hair has been used in mattress making for centuries, but refined and perfected over 152 years by Hastens. It is breathable and naturally springy, far more than metal coils.
Horsehair Offers A Built-In Ventilation System
Very few materials, synthetic or natural, can match horsehair when it comes to constructing a bed. Every single curled strand of horsehair works as a miniature spring, which both amplifies and motion damps the internal pocketed coil spring system used in the Vividus mattress, providing support, pliability, stretchiness, and a sumptuous yielding sensation. Horsehair also comes with its own extremely effective, built-in ventilation system.
Horsehair is the key ingredient in the Vividus mattress, and along with the Hastens pocketed coil system which lies in the middle of the bed, layers of quilted linter cotton and horsehair is woven into sequential and alternating layers to magnify and amplify the effect of this extraordinary material.
Each strand of horsehair acts like a miniature airway: horsehairs are a hollow tube, with microscopic capillary action that channels away moisture and lets fresh air in. It is so effective that if you soak horsehair with water and give it a shake, it dries almost immediately.
Millions of these comfortable natural micro-springs in the Hastens Vividus effectively transport any excess heat and moisture from your body during deep sleep. As a result, say the Hastens team, you’ll fall asleep quicker and enjoy deep, uninterrupted, rejuvenating sleep at the perfect temperature. Just imagine what this does for the quality of your sleep.
Horsehair Is Completely Free From Allergens
The horsehair we use in the Hastens Vivid mattress has been tested by a number of independent European research institutes. They have found it completely free from allergens, meaning that it does not cause allergies. Also worth noting is that horsehair is an organic material with natural antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-mite properties that contribute to a healthy, hygienic sleeping environment.
A Filling Material Since The 1800’s
We use genuine horsetail hair in our beds to take advantage of its desirable properties and deliver a purely natural and extremely durable product. The horsehair is first washed in boiling water and then rinsed thoroughly before being spun and disinfected. It is heated to a temperature of 140°C at four times atmospheric pressure with high humidity.
The entire process is completed without the addition of foreign substances. The result is a completely clean and springy natural material. The processed horsehair is stored before being separated for use in a Hästens bed or mattress. When we untangle the long strands, the horsehair is beautifully crinkled and has increased in volume many times over. This process has more or less remained unchanged for two centuries.
Not One, But Several Different Kins Of Horsehair Are Used
The extra care taken when selecting and sorting horsehair is critical in maintaining high quality and consistency with all of Hastens bedding products. Hästens uses different types of horsehair with varying properties:
A-Lyx Horsehair – a specially selected pure horsetail hair using the very longest and strongest strands that provide extra springiness, creating a springier and firmer bed.
J-Horsehair – a soft, springy and flexible mix of high-quality horsehair and cattle tail that creates a softer and more flexible bed.
Cotton: Only the Finest Fibers Find Their Way Into A Hastens Vividus Mattress
Cotton is perhaps nature’s softest and most comfortable gift to mankind. Providing wonderful comfort and breathability, Hästens soft cotton allows air to circulate around your body, keeping you dry and comfortable in a healthy sleeping environment. These benefits will help you fall asleep more quickly and stay in deep sleep for longer.
We all know about the fresh and cool feeling that a cotton garment can deliver, its extreme durability, and its soft, smooth hand.
Human beings breathe not only through our lungs, but also through our skin. We each have more than 7 million pores that breathe and remove toxins from our bodies. To stay dry and comfortable, it is important to sleep in a bed that breathes and allows air to circulate around your body.
The Difference Between Cotton And Non-Porous Fibers
You have probably noticed how cool and dry you feel on a warm summer’s day when you wear a cotton shirt or blouse rather than one made from synthetic materials, such as rayon or polyester. This is due to cotton’s ability to ventilate and wick away perspiration and high humidity.
Your perspiration during the night is 98 percent water, so it evaporates very easily if you sleep on a bed that breathes and use bed linen that also passively ventilates.
Using non-porous synthetic materials like rubber, polyurethane, polyether or other synthetics offers barely any ventilation. Non-porous material retains moisture, which means that much of what the body expels through perspiration stays in the bed. And in a warm and damp environment, bed mites multiply rapidly.
In fact, one feature about the Hastens Vividus Mattress is that there is no foam material used in the bed, in fact, foam is not used in any Hastens product. Even the pocketed coil system uses recycled pure steel, reducing their carbon footprint even further. Bottom line, the Vividus mattress is a responsibly made mattress alternative.
Wool- Nature’s Finest Insulator- It’s Warm When You’re Cold, And Cool When You’re Roasting
Yet another amazing natural materials that is used in the design of the Hastens Vividus Mattress is the perfect partner for horsetail hair and cotton, a super performance material: wool. Pure wool helps to ensure the perfect bed climate, helping you to sleep deeper and more soundly. Wool helps create a micro-environment in a mattress that adjusts automatically, like a thermostat, keeping you body at optimal temperature points throughout the night.
Since ancient times, people have known about wool’s amazing ability to keep the human body warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot. It keeps you dry and asleep at just the right temperature.
How The Vividus Mattress Was Designed With The Perfect Recipe In Mind
Hästens mattresses contain a mix of wool and cotton precisely blended with historically proven amounts, to provide ultimate comfort while bringing naturally fire-retardant properties to our beds. Wool is actually one of the most flame-resistant fibers known to man. It also possesses antistatic properties as well as being strong, elastic, water-resistant and heat-insulating.
Optimized by Evolution And Craftsmanship
The wool fibre has a complex spring-like structure with a textured surface, optimized through evolution to provide thermal protection. This unique cellular structure is very different from smooth synthetic fibres.
The structure of wool fibre allows for a large volume of air between the fibres, giving amazing natural insulation properties along with flexibility, elasticity and resilience. Wool can also absorb up to 30 percent of its weight in water- without feeling wet.
Tiny pores allow water to pass through the wool fiber, making the material comfortable both on warm summer and cool winter nights. The natural ability for wool fiber to insulate and optimize our sleep keeps us well rested, fresh, and alert, year round.
Wool Reaches Into The Depth Of History As A Proven Bedding Component
The history of wool goes back thousands of years. The Babylonians and Egyptians wove expertly with wool. The oldest example of Swedish woven wool has been dated to the Bronze Age, which would make it around 3,000 years old. But wool was not only used to produce yarn for clothing; it was used in bedding as well.
Wool’s ability to warm and protect you while you are asleep and awake is the same today. By using both wool, cotton and horsetail hair as padding material, in carefully calculated combinations, we give our beds temperature-regulating properties and an unmatched natural elasticity.
Flax: A Humble Material With Amazing Properties Is A Key Ingredient In Hastens Mattress Systems
Flax has made life more comfortable since time immemorial. As well as being incredibly durable and flexible, it also diverts static electricity. According to studies, static electricity can cause headaches, dry mucus membranes and itchy skin. An overcharged human body can also attract undesired particles from its surroundings, which may cause or aggravate allergies.
By using flax in carefully calculated layers in our beds, we remove static electricity from your body and help you create an altogether more positive energy while you sleep.
Furthermore, flax is a fantastic noise and vibration absorber, contributing to a night’s sleep that allows your body to regenerate in peace and comfort.
Pine: Framing And Supporting The World’s Finest Mattress
The foundation and supportive superstructure for all Hastens mattresses is built with slow-grown Swedish pine. It provides the strength and stability of Hästens, a “bearer of quality and reassurance”.
The Hästens wooden frame gives the Vividus mattress remarkable strength and stability. Using solid, carefully selected pine trees from Sweden’s northern forests, where they grow at a slower pace because of the colder climate, it’s the one characteristic that gives their line of mattresses the strength, durability and lifespan only a Hastens product can deliver. Quality and environmental responsibility are close to the company’s heart.
Hastens passion for nature extends all the way to how each pine grows and the forest regenerates. All wooden frames in Hästens beds and headboards are FSC-certified, which means they are traceable and come from pine harvested in a way that maintains the chosen forest’s biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes. Hastens provide a 25-year warranty on all our bed frames, pretty impressive.
Steel Springs: The Supportive Apparatus Around Which The Vividus Mattress Is Designed
Pressure relief and support. After test driving several Hastens models myself, the silent running coil system aligns your body harmoniously, and works in concert with all of the other components above end below the superstructure.
The springs are a science in themselves and important components of any coil mattress. Hastens designs and builds their own coil systems in Sweden. All Hästens beds contain two or more cooperating spring systems, including soft and flexible springs to provide surface softness, and firmer springs below for deep support, and at the edge of the mattress, where transfer and sitting are required.
With these spring systems working harmoniously, the bed conforms to your body to give you support and relaxation.
Coil Support Systems Designed And Improved Over A Century Of Refinement
What makes the Hästens spring system great is not the number of springs but the different types, how they are placed and the way they combine with the layers of natural materials. A combination of spring dimension, height and number of coils determines the quality and properties of the spring system.
This technology is precise and quite amazing. For example, the higher the number of coils, the higher the bed’s quality and the longer its life. But too many coils will affect a spring’s compression. The balance of variables is crucial when designing spring systems to achieve the optimal result.
Each and every one of our spring systems is carefully calculated to provide the desired pressure relief and support needed to ensure a better sleep experience.
Pocketed Coil System
Though pocketed coil springs are used in many of the hybrid mattresses we recommend, Hastens has designed their coil system so that the individual coils operate independently of each other in a unique way. When weight is placed on a single spring, the adjacent springs are barely affected.
Each spring moves individually according to every slight movement of a persons body, which means that when your partner turns over in bed you will barely notice it. Special heat treatment of the steel rearranges the springs’ metal structure, ensuring they retain their exact form and elasticity; always returning to their original position after compression. Each spring is placed in breathable pockets that allow air to pass through the entire bed to provide a healthy sleeping climate.
The Bonnell Spiral Coil System: Reinvented
The lower spiral system, underneath the pocketed oil array above in a Hastens Vividus mattress serves to absorb more intense stress levels to the bed and contributes to spring depth and bottom spring action, giving your body support and in-depth relief.
Do You Need To Pay $150,000 To Get A Super Luxurious Feel?
Of course, the question is, how do the rest of us get a great nights sleep? Are we doomed to toss and turn on our $1,000 or even $500 bed in a box mattresses?
I have designed, engineered, and sold dozens of my own designs in retail stores and on my own web sites and I can reassure you that this is not correct. In fact, since I have test driven several Hastens mattresses, I can make this comparison.
You can drive a Lamborghini and experience an amazing ride, all while sitting on high end Italian leather seats, and because you can drive it at 175 mph, you might get there faster than you would in a Volkswagen Jetta, but the difference in overall sensation-is barely detectable.
Would you miss your Hastens mattress is you had to sell it and opt for, say, a Puffy Royal mattress that sells for $1300? Probably not.
The reason for this is that for years, the mattress industry has become fiercely competitive and companies that are incapable of producing a really comfortable bed, using mostly compressible materials that can be reduced, packaged, shipped, and then reconstituted back to their original size, are usually out of business in six months.
The companies that remain, many of which we recommend on our Trusted Dealer page, produce a high quality mattress that I guarantee will closely mimic the sumptuous elegance of even the most expensive mattresses. There really is no need to think that, even if you are capable of buying a mattress like the Hastens Vividus, you can spend a fraction of the cost and buy something remarkably similar.
