Bliss Sleep Center Brings Organic Options to Water Mill Bedrooms

Beth Lee Schlendorf, the owner of Water Mill’s Bliss Sleep Center, has been bringing local residents the most extensive selection of organic mattresses and bedding on the East End for the past two months.

Located on Hayground Road just off Montauk Highway, Bliss Sleep Center is the convergence of two currents in Schlendorf’s life — her desire to open her own business and her quest to provide the best, healthiest home products for her family. 

“It all started when I bought a memory foam mattress,” Schlendorf said, “You could smell the chemicals on it. The instructions say to let it air out for 24 to 48 hours, so I decided to look into why.”

According to Schlendorf, memory foam, the material found in Tempur-Pedic mattresses, contains a large amount of polyurethane — as do most couches, chairs and other popular “plush” home products — the same chemical linked to cancer and reproductive health issues.

The more she looked, the more troubling health information she stumbled onto. Government mandated flame retardants, usually polybrominate diphenyl ethers, added to mattresses to prevent house fires have been linked to impaired fetal brain development and may cause neurodevelopmental delays in children. Even children already suffering from ADHD may find their symptoms worsened from continual chemical exposure. Taking into consideration that children, especially infants, can spend more than a third of their lives sleeping, the content and chemical composition of a child’s bedding may be a greater concern than many first realize.

“Originally the research was for myself,” Schlendorf, whose entire family sleeps on her products, said. “But it ended up being the perfect thing. I always wanted to open a store and I always wanted to help people.”

Schlendorf, an Eastport native who had previously worked in finance for the Citibank branch in Hampton Bays, offers organic alternatives to the normal chemical bedding solutions. She strays away from the term natural, stressing that there are no certification requirements on the use of the word in marketing, while the use of “Organic” is far more stringently enforced — referring to the non-use of pesticides and other rules.

Bliss Sleep Center sells mattresses and pillows made of 100 percent organic cotton, wool, buckwheat, kapok and natural latex depending on the brand. Schlendorf said all of her products are customizable for comfort and health, and she will work with customers to identify their specific issues such as allergies, chemical sensitivities or back pain to better suit their needs. She  will go so far as to work with their doctors, allergists and chiropractors. At present she is working on a pamphlet to assist health care professionals. 

Apart from health concerns, Schlendorf lauds the softness and springiness of her organic latex mattresses. And when it comes to her kapok pillows — made with a plant cotton from the seed pod of the Ceiba tree — she stresses, “You don’t have the right pillow if you’re sleeping with two pillows.”

To replace chemical flame retardant materials, all of Bliss Sleep Centers products use organic wool instead, the same material found in firefighters' jackets, which also acts for seasonal insulation — keeping the sleeper cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

In addition to her wide selection of mattresses — the low end for a fully organic queen is around $1,500 — and futons, Schlendorf also offers 10 different varieties of pillows ranging from $60 to $149. Schlendorf is also moving into the baby market, offering entirely organic cribs starting at $499.

Schlendorf, who quit her job to create the Bliss Sleep Center, emphasizes that this is not a pop-up store: “We’re here for the local community year round.” Future plans, should everything work out, include opening another store further west to enable further afield customers an easier shopping trip. Already she has seen customers come from as far as Manhattan and Rockville Centre. In her first month alone, Schlendorf was able to meet rent — no small achievement for her highway roadside location — and though she knows the winter will be slower, she is hopeful that her good fortune will continue. 

“I like it because I can really help people,” she said, “and also because it helps me bring out my creative side.”