Everett Stunz offers a wide variety of products to provide customers with a restful night’s sleep

By Diane Y. Welch

Everett Stunz, San Diego’s “premier linen and bed store,” has been in La Jolla for 51 years. It’s a business that has been in three families since it started in 1963, and Phil and Nicki Coller are the proud current co-owners.

The couple know a thing or two about sleep and its importance to wellness. People should be paying close attention to their sleep patterns, according to Phil Coller, because their overall health is very dependent upon the quantity and the quality of sleep they get each night. “If you don’t get enough sleep, everything suffers. It creates conditions that are very bad for you,” he said.

While most of us know that we should be in bed for about eight hours a day, few people know that we move about 80 times during a night’s sleep.

“That means every six minutes, we are moving,” he said.

To help get a restful night’s sleep, the choice of mattress is paramount.

“The most important thing about the mattress you buy is that it must move with you, which is totally the opposite to what some mattress manufacturers advertise,” Coller said.

“It should have a soft top layer which allows blood flow in the muscles while you are stationary, even for six minutes,” he said.

With a hard top surface, blood flow is constricted to the muscles, causing cramps and other tension. The lower levels of the mattress should be firm, as they need to support the heavy areas in the body, with the main weight being in the hips and the shoulders.

“So the mattress you choose should contour to you and support you in all the positions of your body,” Coller said.

The store in La Jolla is acclaimed for its DUX bed from the Swedish manufacturer Duxiana. It has a soft upper surface and a dense spring system that requires nearly two miles of specially milled, high-tensile steel wire to construct. The bed employs up to 4,180 interconnected springs for combined support to help provide maximum pressure relief to every part of the body, according to the Duxiana website.

“We’ve been selling the DUX bed for about 25 years, but the store originally started off making adjustable beds and it’s still one of the main things that we are noted for,” Coller said.

A new addition to Everett Stunz’s bed line is an allergen-free organic mattress.

“Everything about the mattress is pure. It is crafted from untreated materials, no chemicals, no dyes, no bleach, which may be of benefit to customers with those particular sensitivities or allergies,” Coller explained. “We don’t sell mattresses that are toxic.”

The store also carries bed frames to support the mattresses, along with specialty high- end bed and bath linens. While the quality is top-rate, these items are not necessarily hugely expensive; but they cost a little more than linens in the average range, he said. Some of the bed linens are fabricated from bamboo and some from wood.

“Myself and my wife, Nicki, we only sleep on wood sheets,” joked Coller. The manufacturing process extracts the cellulose from the wood, which is then converted into a silken, allergen-free fabric.

The store also stocks a wide variety of down products and down alternatives for those allergic to down. Lines include duvets, pillows, and comforters which the store carries in a wide range of weights for varying seasons and climates.

“We don’t stock a low quality of down because it’s not worth owning,” said Coller. But they do carry mid- and high-range down products and a line of mattress, duvet and pillow covers that keep out dust or mites, creating a very clean, allergen-free environment.

The Collers recently opened a store in Westfield’s University Town Center shopping mall, in the Nordstrom wing on the upper level.

“It’s to make convenient access to our products for North County and East County customers,” said Coller. The store stocks the same merchandise as the La Jolla location with fine linens, pillows, duvets and accessories for the bedroom, plush towels, clothes, robes, and rugs, and luxurious soaps, lotions and potions for the bathroom.

And, of course, showcasing the Everett Stunz signature brands, such as the Sharper Image bed, the DUX bed and more.

Visit www.everettstunz.com for more about store hours, custom products and locations.