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mattress

zshopper
18 years ago

Ok everyone, what is the best mattress. I have a king and now have to downsize to a queen (very sad) but we found out that the king sized mattress had to be bent to get it upstairs and that is why the mattress was defective. Soooo now I have to buy a queen. I dont want to do this again, have been married for 32 years and have had 5 mattress. I havent had a good night sleep for awhile due to back problems. Please help.

Comments (29)

  • pirula
    18 years ago

    We're very happy with our Sterns & Foster pillowtop. But neither of us has back problems, not sure if you require something special. We do have a very firm mattress though. When we got back from Cairo and finally slept in our own bed again, it was wonderful!!

    Good luck!
    Ivette

  • momj47
    18 years ago

    I love the Visco-Elastic memory foam (Temper-Pedic and others). What a comfortable bed to sleep in. I have gotten memory foam mattress toppers (3 or 4 inch) from Overstock. You may even be able to get the mattress sets from then now, it's one of their most popular items.

    The mattress toppers come rolled up in a box and when you open and unroll them, they slowly "grow", like those sponges that grow when you get them wet!

    I will never get an inner spring mattress again. At least give them a look.

    Good luck.

  • kaitland8
    18 years ago

    I have a Simmons Beauty Rest pillow top (one step down from top of the line) and it sleeps wonderfully, but after only one year it does show some body depressions. If I had to do it over again, I would choose the Scandinavian viscoelastic foam mattress with pillow top (either the Stockholm or Silkeborg). I found them to be much more comfortable, and less expensive than the Tempur-Pedic. Although, my sister has the Tempur-Pedic and she loves it. My previous mattress was a Sterns & Foster and I was really disappointed. You have to go with what your body says is comfortable to YOU!

  • bungalowbees
    18 years ago

    I'm shopping for 2 right now, a queen & a king, so I'm worried about making the right choice.

    I'm planning on a latex mattress because visco elastic can raise the temperature around your body 15 degrees, or so I am told. Companies selling them tell me this as it is the major reason they are returned and they don't want me to return a mattress -- or be unhappy with my big mouth! We have hot summers here so I don't want to spend my menopausal years sweating in soft visco hole. In a cool damp climate, perhaps this is an asset! I'm actually shopping for a small tempurapedic-type for my aging cat, I think she'd love it.

    My daughter and I have tried out latex and visco elastic mattresses in local stores but I'm considering the scary thought of ordering by mail. The following company is my top pick for 2 reasons. They seem to have happy customers on mattress forums and there is a lot of flexibility in the product. I figure if we have a quibble we can order a different layer and adjust the mattresses ourselves.

    Here is a link that might be useful: internet latex mattress resource

  • susanfnp
    18 years ago

    We have had a Tempur-Pedic for 6 years and love it. Before we got it, my husband and I both used to wake up with back pain every day. Within a couple of weeks of getting the Tempur-Pedic (it does take a little while to get used to), the back pain was gone. It does get a little warm, but not enough to bother us. One advantage is that if your partner is a restless sleeper, the tossing and turning motions do not get transmitted to your side of the bed. There are no springs to wear out, so I do not plan on ever having to replace this mattress.

  • garden_of_darwin
    18 years ago

    Costco carries a visco-elastic mattress...don't remember the brand name. They have kings and queens in stock in my store, and all sizes available online. Btw, you don't have to be a Costco member to shop online -- you just pay a 5% surcharge, except for Prescriptions and something else that I can't remember right now. We bought the king size last year and are very happy with it, but now I know why I'm always throwing off the covers!

    Susan

  • kaitland8
    18 years ago

    I meant to mention that the scandinavian foam mattresses have a damask quilted cover on them, and supposedly this stops the body heat issue. You can find them at www.scandinavianbed.com to get a list of local dealers, and I think they also ship directly to customers.

  • April101
    18 years ago

    We just TODAY went out and bought the Stearns and Foster at Mattress. As a chiropractor, I just tell my patients to go w/ what feels best to them. BTW in the state of Florida if you have a doctors prescription you do not have to pay sales tax. That save a lot of money.

  • vasheri
    18 years ago

    I've had Stearns and Foster top of the line and a very good Beauty Rest 'whatever'....neither cheap. Right now, I have one of the memory foam (like Tempur pedic) mattress pads on my Beauty Rest. I have a very good mattress cover on top of that. Once I have my ironed sheets on the bed, it's like slipping into a wonderful, cuddly hand. My husband and I have slept better on this mattress than just the regular mattress. I like a firm mattress with a soft top, but not too crazy about the pillow tops that we've had in the past. I also keep my house at 69 F degrees during the winter. My DH has basically only uses a sheet most of the time on his side of the bed because he sweats bullets and this has nothing to do with the mattress.

  • pebbles396
    18 years ago

    We have 2 simmons and I hate them both.

    We have decided that we are either getting one of the ones from the 4 seasons or one of the Westin heavenly beds. Probably the former.

    We've had a very difficult time with the simmons rep - the badding started clumping up (like a 4" ramp) and the rep basically no showed a few times then we were out of warrantee and we got scr*wed.

    I know someone that has the foam mattress from Room and Board and is quite happy.

  • bunglogrl
    18 years ago

    We love our slat suspension mattress system! The individual mattress coils are wrapped in latex foam and covered by wool & cotton padding. You could probably stick with the king size since the product is pliable.

    The slats are adjusted to fit your body and the way you sleep. DH's side accomodates his wide shoulders so he can sleep comfortably on his side, while my *wideness* is much lower ;-)

    I'm a day sleeper and this is the first mattress that's given me a full 8 hours with no tossing & turning and no back pain. I sleep through the doorbell, phone, neighbors' remodels ... love it.

    We purchased ours at a local shop but there must be a company on the east coast with something similar. I'll email you a link, they may deliver cross-country.

  • partst
    18 years ago

    I agree with pebbles.......

    Hate our top of the line Simmons. I had the rep out with in 2 monthe of purchase and was told up to 2 inch body depressions were normal. Warrenty is useless.

    As soon as the kitchen is done and we can actually walk across the living room again we will buy a new mattress. The lady at the mattress shop said not to get a pillow top because they will all get body depressions over time.

    I think I will check out Costco. I never thought to look in that area of the store. Thanks garden of darwin

  • meskauskas
    18 years ago

    I forget which mattreses we have (DH is sleeping right now or I'd look), but I wanted to pass along some interesting info that I got when we shopped for a mattress about 10 years ago. Both DH and I have bad backs - his is worse than mine, and we've always had a firm mattress.

    We have stayed in an Inn by the ocean several times, and I had always loved their mattresses, so when it was time to buy a new one I called them to see what they used.

    To my surprise - the manager told me that they were nothing special, just standard mattresses, but what made them different was that they were on a platform, and there was no bottom mattress at all. He said the firm support of the platform was what people liked, and that he got calls like mine all the time.

    We didn't end up doing that, but I've always been tempted...

  • 3katz4me
    18 years ago

    We have a Select Comfort - the air filled mattress. It's nice and it is expensive but we expect it to have a longer life expectancy than the traditional mattress. DH and I can each set our own side to desired firmness or softness; i.e. our "sleep number".

    It comes in boxes and is setup in the room - so maybe you could get a king. The "box spring" part of it doesn't have air in it but even that didn't come in a large piece.

  • judeNY_gw
    18 years ago

    mom47, are you putting the mattress toppers on a conventional mattress and boxspring ?

    I looked at the costco site at the visco-elastic mattresses and they have no boxspring. What are you all doing for a boxspring ?

  • momj47
    18 years ago

    My mattress doesn't have a body depression, but it's uneven, my dad weighed 250lb, so one side is firmer than the other. It is noticable, but not uncomfortable. The nice thing is that once you replace the mattress, you can still use the mattress topper on the new one. I like the 3" topper, I don't bottom out on it.

  • catslikemice
    18 years ago

    We have a 15 year old TOL Sealy (or is it a Serta, have to check) double pillow top and it's 'just' beginning to ever so very slightly pitch both us sleepers to the center. We LOVE this mattress and hate the thought to having to buy new. Our pillow top does not have body depressions but my parents just bought a new bed from Capitol Bedding (a Michigan company, Lansing, I believe) and in less than 6 months it has two body depressions that show when the bed is made. Ugly!

  • judeNY_gw
    18 years ago

    On the Costco site (and others) I see that the toppers come with a down filled cover, a microfiber filled cover, and no fill - just the foam pad. Which do you all have or have had in the past ? Any comments on durability ?

  • jerzeegirl
    18 years ago

    What a timely topic! My Dh and I have just started mattress shopping. The really expensive mattress we bought about 7 years ago has been failing for several years now. (It's the brand that Vanna White advertises - can't think of name). I have not been happy with the mattress at all - it's a pillow top and both my DH and I have actually fallen out of bed because the mattress slopes along the edges!

    All I ask for is a mattress that will stay flat (no divots) and keep its sharp edges. My favorite mattress in recent years has been the one in my guest room which is an Ikea foam mattress (the cheapest one). I always get a good night sleep in the guest room!

    Last week we tried Dormia matresses (memory foam) and I like the way the mattress felt in terms of firmness but there was a distinct slope on the edge and I did not feel like I was totally level.(I do sleep extremely close to the edge of the bed.) Weird.

    Even though I hate the beds that transmit movement (beds with springs), I may have to stick with them because when DH snores a little bit of up and down movement on my part makes him stop!

  • mindstorm
    18 years ago

    We purchased the memory foam mattresses from Design Within Reach - we tried out all three densities and went with the stiffest of those. Its still compliant, but it supports my back (my weakest point) very well and doesn't give me the crick in the neck the old ones give me. I've been happy because I've finally started to wake up refreshed this past year since we got the mattress.

    Also, these memory foam things come rolled up and you have to give them something like 72 hours to open up to their nominal thickness. So, you can keep your king bed and still get a mattress up to your room safely.

  • jerzeegirl
    18 years ago

    mindstorm: are the edges rounded or square on your mattress? if someone put a level on your tummy (when you are lying on your back), would you be exactly level? or would you pitch slightly to the edge?

  • mindstorm
    18 years ago

    Jerzeegirl, I'll play with the level on the tummy tonight ;-)

    However, I can tell you from memory (hah! get it?!) that the mattress is exceedingly flat. Its not like our previous matress that sloped gently down. If you take a look at the picture I've linked to that, as far as I recall (I'm at work just now) is just what our mattress looks like. Basically there is no force pulling us off the bed (unless you consider the perturbation effects due to our 2 cats who occupy the middle of the bed).

  • jerzeegirl
    18 years ago

    mindstorm: Next time I visit my mom, I will go to the DWR store in WPB to check out the mattresses. They look good to me. I will bring my level. :-)

  • mindstorm
    18 years ago

    jerzeegirl, So *this* is where this post was all this time. I went home and checked on the incredible flatness of the mattress but then I couldn't recall where this thread was. Bottom line, I didn't pull out the level afterall because when I went home, I pulled back the comforter and did not need any measure to tell me that the highest point of the bed is that taping on the seam thing that the mattress has at each of its - well seams! The mattress part is perfectly perfectly flat.

    Do make sure to talk to someone to find out what the 3 mattresses are. The one I got is the firmest (and thinnest) one. Both sides are the same. The intermediate firmness and the softest are two sides of the same mattress. All three feel quite different so its important to be sure to try all three coz you may reject 'em if you don't know that 1 mattress can give you two different firmness supports. I had completely eliminated the Prima (I think) because of the incredible softness of the softest which was too much for me. The sales lady told me then to try the different side of the same bed for the firmer one and compare *that* to the Versa (the firmest, I think). That was a more equitable comparison even though we still eventually chose the Versa.

    Happy mattress testing.

  • jerzeegirl
    18 years ago

    Mindstorm, thanks for checking. I assume you use it on a platform bed? I would either need to use the old boxspring or buy a newer taller one. (My current mattress is 12") To fit perfectly on my bed my mattress combo (mattress and box spring) needs to be minimum 16"! I *love* flat beds (at one time it my life I actually slept on the floor by preference!)

  • zshopper
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    I am so glad everyone answered so many of my questions. Maybe I should purchase just a topper, how much money do they cost? I saw a few in Fortunoff's and BB*B. Any suggestions of what particular one is better than the other?

  • ashleysf
    18 years ago

    This thread has made me consider buying a memory foam mattress topper for my Sealy mattress. They seem to come in different thicknesses - so it is hard to decide which one to pick. And they don't seem to have straps to attach them to the mattress - are they just placed on top of the mattress, and if so do they slip? Thanks for the helpful information posted on this thread.

  • mtnester
    18 years ago

    We have a visco memory foam mattress, and I like it very much. I bought it when I was having back problems, but there wasn't any improvement after I bought the mattress. When I later underwent physical therapy, I asked the therapist whether I should get a different type of mattress, and he urged me to give the current one another chance and reevaluate after completing the therapy. Well, he was right! Now that my back is a lot better, the mattress feels great again! I love the way the foam "fills in" the hollow of my lower back--like a horizontal lumbar support.

    BTW, there's a thread on the Home Decoration Forum about memory foam mattress toppers (see link).

    Sue

    Here is a link that might be useful: Mattress toppers thread

  • mindstorm
    18 years ago

    mtnester, Me too! I like the support in the hollow of my back as well. That was the part of my back that used to feel very tired and stiff and sore in the morning and I'd have a backache the rest of the day. That and my neck were the two sore spots on me. The memory foam gives it a nice firm support so my back is held straight all the way, and supported.

    jerzeegirl, I was at DWR this evening and I saw that they have a sale going for their mattresses. Now I see that their website is announcing it as well so its everywhere. You may want to hasten that trip to your mom and see if you can snag a bit of a deal! if the mattress "fits" that is.