The invention relates to a reclining means which has a mattress with a multiplicity of air chambers arranged in lattice form. Also provided is a mattress-profile memory which stores, for each of the air chambers, valve-control data corresponding to a mattress profile. The reclining means also has a data-carrier holder, into which a data carrier can be inserted, and means for writing valve-control data into a data carrier inserted into the data-carrier holder, as well as means for reading valve-control data which are stored on a data carrier inserted into the data-carrier holder.