Pluses? Minuses? Look fors? Avoids?


I've got my eye on a great platform bed and figure that a memory foam mattress would be an acceptable substitute for the normal mattress / box-spring combination.


Thoughts?

4/25/2010 10:47:19 PM

i have a tempurpedic mattress.
had it for about 3-4 years and i LOVE it.

it took a little getting used to b/c it's firmer than what i used to sleep on...but now i sleep like a baby

(i think tempurpedic is memory foam?)

[Edited on April 25, 2010 at 10:51 PM. Reason : i don't know how helpfulthat was >.<]

4/25/2010 10:51:31 PM

Just try out different beds and buy whatever is most comfortable to you, regardless of its construction.

Memory foam can be super-comfy, but just be sure to test out a mattress before spending money on it.

4/25/2010 10:53:19 PM

the one or two times i've slept on one it was way too hot. i sweat at night really bad to start with, this is not the mattress for me.

4/25/2010 10:55:06 PM

I have some memory foam pillows. they're kind of firm, but you get used to them. I don't think I'd want an entire bed made out of the material though.

4/25/2010 10:58:56 PM

make sure you get a good brand or you may be dealing with some pretty harmful fumes for a little while. also some people have problems with mold and mildew, so if you are in a humid location that may be something to consider.

have you tried the mattress pads? i have a 2 inch memory foam mattress topper over my regular sealy mattress and its heaven.

[Edited on April 25, 2010 at 11:27 PM. Reason : .]

4/25/2010 11:24:52 PM

^ this.

I have a memory foam pad on top of the mattress as well and its mad comfy, if you dont feel like spending more

4/25/2010 11:44:09 PM

they're hot. the memory part comes from the mattress's reaction to your body heat, which the foam holds. if you're really hot natured (i am), do no get one.

that said, i have a polyurethane/polyethylene/polysomethinganother foam mattress. it's not memory foam and it's not latex. just regular foam. it fits the platform bed bill just the same and isn't as hot as a memory foam one. it does not conform to your body. we bought a firm one and put a couple of egg crates or a primaloft mattress topper on it.

[Edited on April 25, 2010 at 11:56 PM. Reason : ]

4/25/2010 11:53:46 PM

I too want to look into this after my disc injury.

4/26/2010 12:00:54 AM

I have a memory foam mattress that I bought straight from the factory, Royale Komfort, and I haven't had any of the heat problems that everybody talks about. I am really hot natured, and it has never been a problem for me. The biggest problem I've had is that when it is REALLY cold in my room (less than 50) the mattress is way too firm for the first 10 minutes or so. Another problem I have is sharing it, when two people are trying to sleep on their own in the same bed typically the little nests that form to conform to their bodies combine, and you both end up rolling into the same hole in the middle. Mine is a double though, so with a queen or a king that might not be a problem. Other than that, I love it. Doesn't transfer motion at all (if its on a solid frame) really comfortable (after a day or two of getting used to it). If you live near the Piedmont of NC I highly suggest checking out some of the factories, I can't remember for sure but I'm pretty sure mine was only $300 for the frame, foundation and mattress ~4 years ago, and Royale Komfort is a well respected name.

4/26/2010 12:08:22 AM

Quote :

"have you tried the mattress pads? i have a 2 inch memory foam mattress topper over my regular sealy mattress and its heaven. "

Not yet, but I'm getting a new bed regardless, so I'll need a new mattress.

- Those of you with memory foam, are you running with or without a box spring?

- Those of you with platform beds, how is sleeping w/o a box spring?

4/26/2010 7:41:37 AM

No motion in the ocean...

4/26/2010 8:02:15 AM

I have a tempurpedic mattress

i havent had any of the heat problems either.. not sure if the knockoffs are affected by this?

You are supposed to place them on a solid base (mine is on plywood, no box spring).

4/26/2010 8:17:01 AM

the people I know who have them, love them, but I have slept on one before, and I didn't like it

4/26/2010 8:23:42 AM

memory foam mattresses are, by chemical nature, hotter. that's just how they work. it's a heat-based reaction. my foam mattress, which i'm assuming is what you're referring to as a knockoff, is not a knockoff. it's not memory foam and does not claim to be. that's why i bought it. read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_foam

i'm very hot-natured. very. if you're not hot-natured, then you'll be fine.

i used my mattress w/o a box spring for a couple of years with no problems. i eventually bought one hoping it would make air circulate better and be cooler, and it is.

like i said, i'm hot-natured.

4/26/2010 8:51:56 AM

I had one of my worst nights sleep on a Tempurpedic.

After trying literally every type of mattress, latex foam, tempur, tranditional, and not having a ton of luck, I am left to try the sleep number bed. I have read plenty of good things and bad things about sleep number, but I do like the fact that I can adjust the firmness of the bed to hopefully find a setting that allows me to sleep well.

4/26/2010 10:10:41 AM

^ that's what we have. your experience sounds a lot like my wife. We(she) tried everything and the sleepnumber was the only thing that she really felt comfortable on, and after a few weeks of sleeping on it, she no longer has constant tension headaches, which were previously addressed by trips to a chiro.

I can sleep on a plank, so I'm not very particular about mattresses, but you might like the sleepnumber if you are.

4/26/2010 10:40:31 AM

how do you afford so many mattresses? serious question. have you found somewhere to buy them that lets you return/exchange?

4/26/2010 10:59:48 AM

a lot of places allow exchange within a short time period. We only bought from stores that allowed a return if we weren't satisfied.

The sleepnumber had the longest 'trial' at 90 days for full refund, but we ended up keeping that one.

4/26/2010 11:05:08 AM

i've had a queen size tempurpedic cloud on a platform bed for about 4 months now (bought them at the same time). I love it. I have it on a platform bed w/o the tempurpedic base. FYI, tempurpedic makes their own "box springs"/bases. The warranty only covers it on their bases, or a platform bed. I don't think it's covered if you use a regular box spring.

The box spring, even on a regular bed, is mainly to support the mattress. Since a platform bed is solid (or slatted/almost solid), it takes care of that part for you. The only difference I think you'd notice between a platform bed w/o a boxspring and a bed with a box spring is the added height of the box spring.

How high is the platform bed you're looking at? That may be different for you. Personally, I like being lower to the ground. It's not so much a comfort thing, but some people like it and some don't.


Sleeping on the memory foam:
First few nights took some adjusting, which I expected - it's the same with the pillows and I had read as much. But each night got better and within a few days it was great. I've had it about 6 months now and couldn't be happier with it.

Heat is not an issue for me. I've heard people talk about this, but i haven't had a problem at all. I think that was really the older models and maybe some of the lesser brands. Or maybe I just don't get that hot. After a night of sleep, the spot where I slept isn't any warmer than with a regular mattress... and 6 inches away is as cool as can be.

FYI, there are no springs... not much bounce back... think about it.


As someone suggested, you may want to go with a memory foam mattress pad. It will be a hell of a lot cheaper, and will give you a good idea of what it feels like to sleep on a memory foam bed.

I got my mattress at Mattress Firm. 3 month return policy. You have to keep it for at least a month, and then can exchange it at any point after that up through 3 months. There's a sanitation fee if you return it (likes $75 or something).

[Edited on April 26, 2010 at 11:34 AM. Reason : .]

4/26/2010 11:33:09 AM

Quote :

"FYI, there are no springs... not much bounce back... think about it."

this is true. you may have to change things a little bit.

4/26/2010 11:49:28 AM

tempurpedic for the win.

and fuck what ya heard. you can go to poundtown on a tempurpedic just as easy as on a regular mattress.

4/26/2010 12:24:49 PM

Quote :

"No motion in the ocean... "

4/26/2010 12:55:32 PM

Costco sells a memory foam mattress that is 90% as good as a Temperpedic and costs 1/6th the price.

And ^^ is right, there's no big difference, I still rock the bed like a boss

4/26/2010 12:58:20 PM

it's not that it can't be done, not that by any means...it's just that after having a spring mattress for 238416750 years, you get used to and expect the bounce.

4/26/2010 1:24:02 PM

sounds like you're lazy in bed.

sucks for your s/o

4/26/2010 2:06:53 PM

I laid on a Tempurpedic mattress for about 15 minutes in the store and just didn't find it comfortable. I know that's not a lot of time, but that mattress was twice the cost of the others I was looking at ($3.5k) and I just couldn't see it working. I was fond of a 3" memory foam mattress topper on my old bed.

I tried a bunch of different settings on a sleep number bed. While it was comfortable, I could not find a setting that matched the comfort of the pillow top soft-firmness mattress I ended up buying. After 30 years of sleeping only on "firm" mattresses I couldn't believe what I had been missing out on. So much more comfy.

4/26/2010 2:30:58 PM

^^come on man, i know you're not that slow. just like with ANYTHING ELSE that you've been using for the past 10 years, when you buy something new there are new/different things about it. i never ever said it was difficult, it's just DIFFERENT.

is that clear enough for you?

4/26/2010 2:38:02 PM

lol

U MAD?

4/26/2010 2:46:01 PM

lol

U STUPID?

4/26/2010 3:18:25 PM

haha i implied that your sexual prowess was SUBPAR!

4/26/2010 3:19:25 PM

Quote :

"Costco sells a memory foam mattress that is 90% as good as a Temperpedic and costs 1/6th the price."

I second costco, definitely. We bought the one Noen was talking about. The thing with Costco is, that mattress was a great mattress and a very good price (I think ~$800 now for king). We honestly didn't like the memory foam mattress, so we returned it after about 5 or 6 months. With Costco, every product is guaranteed for life, so if you but it and decide you don't like it, you call em up, they arrange for someone to come get the mattress (or you can donate it like we did) and you get your money back. I wasn't willing to buy a mattress not knowing if I would like it, and luckily I didn't have to.

We started out with this mattress or one just like it (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11314437&hierPath=93*1924*78455*) and wound up with this one (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11503319). I like the regular kind better. We use it on our platform bed without a box spring. It works out well.

4/26/2010 4:02:16 PM

let me sidetrack the thread real quick

suppose i want to sell my current tempurpedic down the road and its still in good condition. is there a mattress cleaning service that is relatively legit that could sanitize it for me?

or just in general if i felt like it got gross?

never really considered that aspect of it before.

4/26/2010 4:05:29 PM

^^ for that first mattress that you linked, would you recommend that it be paired with a box spring? i am a memory foam n00b, but considering replacing my current mattress.

4/26/2010 4:28:43 PM

^ do you have a platform bed? if not, you're going to need some kind of base. You could probably use a box spring just fine. The tempurpedic bases aren't like your typical box spring, they're a little more heavy duty and I think they were solid across the top.

box springs are really just a sturdy base, not much more. Memory foam mattresses aren't very rigid. and they need to give in a certain way to work right. You don't want it to bow under you, you want the bottom to stay level and flat while the top layers do whatever they do.

You could always take an existing box spring you may have and then put some finished ply or mdf board on the top so there's one close-to-solid surface on top.

4/26/2010 4:52:54 PM

still not sure what type of mattress to get when we get a new bed to replace the one we have (which will become the guest bed). I have never actually slept on a memory foam bed, but I actually haven't liked the few I have laid down on. Not sure if they were low end models or the way I sleep or what. They were tempurpedic.

Anyone in here sleep on their stomach with a memory foam mattress?

4/26/2010 5:38:43 PM

I sleep on my stomach or side, but mostly stomach. I occasionally take naps on my back just because I know I won't fall into a deep sleep when I only want to be out for like 20 minutes.

4/26/2010 6:49:45 PM

I've had the Walmart memory foam mattress cover things. They're pretty good for what you pay.

4/26/2010 6:58:04 PM

I'm with Joie on the Tempurpedic thing.... well not with her..... but I agree with her assessment. I have had mine for a couple years and I love it. Defnitely well worth the investment for something you probably spen 1/3-1/2 your day on.

4/26/2010 8:37:48 PM

we got the tempur boxspring which adds some bounce and springiness but it has gotten damaged and now we have to replace one side of it (caveat: hubby and I together weigh close to 600 pounds). the metal frame they give "Free" with the bed is also a piece of shit, need to replace that as well.

just be aware that the memory cell stuff will decrease in effectiveness pretty considerably after a couple of years. ours doesnt hold a handprint at all anymore.

4/27/2010 2:59:56 PM

^I think a reduction of a couple hundred pounds of load on memory foam would increase it's lifespan considerably.

4/28/2010 6:48:05 PM

One of my buddies just offered me his mattress, so I think I'm going to top that with a memory foam cover and call it good

4/28/2010 9:26:11 PM

We had a knockoff brand memory foam mattress for a while that we got from Costco. It was fine for a while, but within a month or so it started caving in. I've had that problem with traditional mattresses but never this quickly--it had giant dents in it where we slept. Costco has an awesome return policy though, so we were able to trade it out for a decent traditional mattress that has been fine with us. I don't know if anyone else has had trouble with that, but it was surprising to me that it reacted that way.

4/28/2010 9:57:13 PM

We bought a sealy memory foam mattress. Its the cheapest one as it was the firmest and after about 8 months it has really gotten comfy has no sag and is just fine for poundtown.

4/28/2010 10:08:27 PM

terrible!
i had a king size tempur pedic and it was great for about a year. then it started to sag in the middle.
in the winter it is hard. do not run and jump on it.

i sleep on my stomach and as it heats up it gives, causing your back to make a u shape.

eventually my gf and i decided we had had enough of waking up to back pain, sold it on craigslist for 800 bucks and bought a normal mattress.

back pain gone.

4/28/2010 10:35:46 PM

^ did you have it on a normal box-spring?

I sleep on my stomach and have had mine for ~4 years, no sag, no pain, ect. If i sleep at my gfs house for a night then i wake up with back pain from not being on my mattress

4/29/2010 8:31:36 AM

I just picked up a latex topper because we were debating a new mattress. After trying out a memory foam mattress and reading all the horror stories about the stench from a lot of the toppers.

I was skeptical, but it was a great decision.

4/29/2010 9:06:51 PM

had a terrible time with memory foam toppers, mattresses, and the sleep number bed.

Ended up with a custom stearns and foster with an extra latex layer inside.

If I were to purchase another mattress, I would go for a custom latex mattress. I visited a foam shop and put some different density foams together and was amazed. No heat problems, Breathes extremely well, and good lumbar support.

I purchased a latex topper from overstock.com and it's great too. Make sure you get a 2" thick model as the thinner one does not give as good support.

4/30/2010 5:33:44 PM

next mattress i buy will be from ikea (price). i refuse to buy from those sketchy mattress stores where a mattress has a different name at each store. consumer reports won't even rate them b/c none of the manufacturers are consistent. i bought the one i have from the original mattress factory, the amish people. i hate used car dealer-like bullshit.

4/30/2010 5:38:25 PM

^ that's not just "sketchy mattress stores." That's industry standard, you'll get the same "different name" thing at department stores as well.

funny, i was actually going to mention that in a previous post. But it's kinda like some cell phones. Pretty much the exact same mattress, but the company uses a different name for each store/carrier.

4/30/2010 6:28:19 PM