I slept on one for awhile, when I was staying at my dad's for a summer in high school. My old room was given to a stepsister, so I was given a quickly-repurposed attic space for a bedroom. The decision to buy the waterbed, and the silver satin sheets—that was my dad's. I'm not sure what makes a father buy something like this for his son, but I think it was a combination of:
1) An ultra cheap clearance sale,
2) A cute salesgirl that he wanted an excuse to go back and stare at and make suggestive remarks to, which was a huge factor in which businesses he chose to frequent, and
3) Maybe after I was gone, the bedroom would become his and my stepmom's romper room (JUST THOUGHT OF THIS RIGHT NOW ARGH).

There was no hope of me ever using it because I was scared of girls, and anyway to get to my attic space cum bedroom (har) you had to go through the master bedroom closet, which meant that even going to the bathroom at night was a major stealth operation.

Anyway the thing didn't last the summer because the 3 cats all loved the warm smooshiness, and even though you could patch the (frequent) punctures, it still wasn't fun to wake up in a puddle.

What I remember most about it, besides the beach ball smell, was how when you got close to the edge your body weight would push the water out from under you, so instead of providing support, the mattress wanted to let you fall down *into* the containing box, and then press you up against the side of it. This lack of support at the edges also made it difficult to get in and out of the thing, which isn't a great quality in a bed.

A college buddy of mine had previously had a roommate with a waterbed. The two had been waging a prank war and one of my buddy's pranks was to pour some water on a different part of his roommate's bed every couple of days.

He kept it up for months, I'm told, which really makes it a masterful prank. The roommate was constantly searching for and patching non-existent leaks.

I had a waterbed in high school and loved it. My parents had one and my sister did, too. We were bandwagon hoppers! (Also had satin sheets. What's with that combination, anyway?)

I liked how the sheets were all-in-one. It was kind of fun to make the bed. And in the summer with no air conditioning it really kept you cool if you turned off the heater.

Ok, so, maybe I'm unadventurous here, but how is sex on a waterbed better? How do you, y'know, hold yourself up or anything? Or is it just like a big floppy pile? And how is flopping all over your partner better than like, being in an actual position? Anything that involves being on your knees clearly isn't going to work as your knees are just going to slide right out from under you.

I trust that Hugh Heffner knows more than I do about this and I wish he would clue me in as to the sheer physics of the thing.

My sister got one as an adolescent. At first I was jealous — until I tried sleeping on it myself and found I much preferred sleeping on a real bed. And my sister got my mother to replace hers with a real bed about seven years later. That's the way it was with everyone I know who had them — sooner or later they got sick of them and got rid of them.

I longed for one as a kid, and one of my favorite things to do with my best friend on a Saturday in Boston was visit Newbury Street and try out the waterbeds. (This was when they were considered the most utterly cool thing ever.) Much later, I was in a serious relationship with a man who owned one. It was pleasant . . . for one thing, the bed was always warm . . . and rather restful to roll over in because the water would move a little in response. But after he and the bed left, I never missed it or wanted to replace it.

I did encounter a simply incredible bed more recently in my life on a hotel stay, but that was all about the (non water based) mattress.