#US mattress firm spins ‘mind-control’ suit against Hästens CEO as good news

This bizarre, New Age saga of a Swedish mattress maker just got weirder.

Staffers at a swanky retail chain that sells Hästens luxury beds and mattresses put a positive spin on an explosive lawsuit that accused the mattress maker’s kooky CEO of subjecting underlings to “mind control” and grading them based on their “vibrations and frequencies,” The Post has learned.

Honchos at The Sleep Spa — the US franchise that sells Hästens’ pricey beds, which can run into the six figures and which boast clientele like Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Vladimir Putin — all but celebrated a report of a scathing federal lawsuit against the Swedish company and its chief executive, according to internal messages obtained by The Post.

In the suit, former executive recruiter Lizandra Vega accused CEO Jan Ryde of ruling over Hästens’ corporate office with an iron fist, pelting the rank and file with F-bombs and subjecting staffers to an obscene training video — even as he imposed touchy-feely job metrics on employees such as “enlightenment levels” and “intentional mapping.” Hästens disputes the claims.

Despite the disturbing allegations, Sleep Spa founder Linus Adolfsson cast the complaint as a PR opportunity as he sent his staff a link to The Post’s story about the case late last month.

“We are famous,” Adolfsson rejoiced in an internal Slack channel on the night of March 31, adding a half-dozen emojis with hearts for eyes.

The next morning on April 1, two lower-level staffers in New York — where The Sleep Spa runs four Hästens boutiques — piggybacked on his message, with one writing, “all news is good news,” and another calling The Post’s story “Amazing!!!”

It’s not clear whether the enthusiasm was a case of an April Fool’s joke, but a few hours later Carl Larsson, the franchise’s managing partner in Los Angeles, was also merrily chiming in.

“That article is epic pr,” he wrote in the “#dream-team” Slack channel, adding a crown emoji and two others with hearts and stars for eyes.

Adolfsson — who is the public face of The Sleep Spa, which also runs three Hästens stores in Los Angeles and one in Connecticut — even tried to rally his troops after his underlings hailed The Post’s report about the complaint, the Slack messages show.

“We are on a mission that will echo for generations to come,” he wrote on the morning of April 1. “We are updating popular culture and we are on a mission that is the bigest [sic] healthy initiative of modern time.”

In a December Instagram photo, Adolfsson is seen wearing a mask with Hästens’ signature blue-and-white checkerboard print while standing in front of a car with a Hästens paint job.

“In Sweden, it is not uncommon for the bed to be the most expensive piece of furniture in the house,” Adolfsson told Cultured magazine last year. “Sleep is understood to be a sacred, magical time.”

Neither Adolfsson nor Larsson responded to calls seeking comment. One lower-level staffer on the Slack channel declined to comment when reached by phone, while the other said, “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

Hästens managing director Timothy Dillon declined to comment on “the statements made on the private Slack channel of our licensed independent distributor.”

“Regarding the related litigation, Hästens strongly disputes the allegations in the complaint, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims,” Dillon told The Post in an email. “Our CEO and company oppose any workplace discrimination of any type.”