A New Rabbit Hole: The Better Sleep Blanket Support

A fun vintage sign for an unlikely-seeming product leads to some interesting revelations.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, I would sleep so much better if I could just have those annoying sheets and blankets suspended up above my feet”?

Right, me neither. If anything, I want to make sure my feet are snugly covered up while I sleep, especially during the cold-weather months. That’s why I was so amused when I recently came across the vintage ad sign shown above, produced by Better Sleep, Inc., of New Providence, N.J. (probably in the late 1950s or early ’60s, judging by the look of it).

Aside from the advertised product’s entertainingly odd function, I love so many things about this sign, including:

• The trapezoidal shape.

• The handsome “Better Sleep” script with the dramatic swash coming off of the p. You can almost hear, almost feel, a pen rapidly executing that script on a sheet of paper.

• The very nice illustration featuring the fashionable woman in her PJs.

• I have one word for you: “Relaxapedic”! (Reminds me of “chiropedic,” which we recently discussed.)

That was enough for me — I purchased the sign for 10 bucks. But I was curious: What exactly was this product? How did it work? Had there really been a market for it?

I went on eBay and Etsy and found some additional signs promoting the same product (it’s tempting to collect all of them). Unlike the sign that I bought, the other signs provide a good sense of how the Better Sleep Blanket Support worked: