Whatever happened to waterbeds?

I remember that, at any given sleepover between the years of 1987 and 1994, I would find myself slumbering on a waterbed. Usually I would share it--a twin!--with my bee-fry of the moment. When you sleep with another person on a waterbed, two things happen: 1. You roll towards the person and you both end up in the middle of the bed 2. You wake up sweaty due to the plastic mattress cover.

Although I never owned a waterbed (I was a daybed gal), I know that there are other downsides: You can't just plop down on your bed; if you plop you drop. And if you plop too hard, you might make it pop. You can't really set anything on your bed for fear it will tip over in a tidal wave. And then there's the big one: the threat of motion sickness!

But for some reason back in the era I mentioned, WBs were all the rage. I actually can think of more than one reason:

1. If you aren't prone to motion sickness, it can feel really cool to sleep on a waterbed. I bet it's even therapeutic.
2. Shelves. Instead of a boring old headboard, a lot of waterbeds had shelves. You could display all your night reading, tissues and knick knacks up there. Some even had a mirror.
3. The storage! Most waterbeds have drawers underneath them. That makes a ton of sense. Why have an extra dresser or chest-a-drawers when you could just pack it all into one unit? And while I'm asking questions, I'd like to know why regular (land?) beds DON'T have drawers underneath them? Why are they exclusively for WBs?

Like me, you have probably been wondering what happened to waterbeds.  I'm going to do a little research (perhaps Wikipedia) and find out.

I'm back. And I learned A LOT about waterbeds. They really were originally designed to be therapeutic. Apparently they're good for your back. Oh, and I was just guessing on the years 1987 thru 1994; I was sort of right. Their popularity peaked in 1987 with 22% of the market! Can you imagine if 22% of your friends had waterbeds right now? Like, let's say you have 16 friends. (Facebook friends don't count.) Well, that would be like...doing math...don't have a calculator so bear with me...like between three and four. Weird, right? Or are you not that stunned?

But the take away from my research was that WB's were a pain in the ass. They're heavy to move and you had to drain them first. They could spring leaks. You have to heat them and that gets expensive.

I'm sure their demise had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they're just plain Tacky. (Yes, that capital "T" is intentional.)