Anybody have one or seriously looked into them?

We have some generic spring mattress that came with the furnished apartment we are living in. It gives both of us lower back pain. We have lower back pain when we get up in the morning. As the day progresses, the pain goes away, and the next morning, same thing again.

So we looked at a ton of spring/coil mattresses, and even the hardest ones were still soft enough that laying on them meant the lower back sank into the mattress (cause of the pain).

So then we researched non-spring mattresses at a few stores, and we found the following 3 kinds:

1) Memory Foam (Tempur-pedic, Sealy, Serta, a Canadian brand)
2) Natural Latex (King Koil, Sealy, Pirelli, and a local brand)
3) Compressed regular foam (very hard, and I have used one before for 1.5 years, and it didn't give me pain)

We tried the memory foam at home for 3 days, but it gave us pain as well (but maybe not as much to my wife). Shit was $2,100! So we returned it, and tried the 3 hardest spring mattresses we found at the stores in-home for like 2-3 days each. Still pain.

It is obvious we have to go with non-spring mattresses, but we don't know what to do. Latex ones are too soft (not tried in-home yet), and the compacted foam ones are too hard for my wife. So we are thinking of getting 2 singles, compacted foam for me, and latex/memory foam for my wife, unless we can find something that works for both of us. Or, we were thinking of getting a queen size compacted foam mattress, and a single 7 cm memory foam topper which my wife can use on her side on top of the mattress.

Any other products out there? Any personal stories about non-spring mattresses?

1/22/2009 8:13:17 PM

Have you tried doing some ab workouts? A lot of lower back pain can be attributed to weak abdominal muscles. Not trying to be a dick, just trying to help.

1/22/2009 8:16:55 PM

sleep number?

1/22/2009 8:26:20 PM

I have a sensapedic. The tempurpedic mattress was waaaay too firm but the sensapedic was perfect. I LOVE my bed.

1/22/2009 8:28:56 PM

^^^ Will try to start doing them regularly to see if that has any effect.

^^ ?

^ Is that a brand, or is it made by some brand?

1/22/2009 8:55:21 PM

It's a brand. It's a mattress with adjustable firmness on two separate halves since men and women generally have different desired firmness in a mattress.

1/22/2009 9:05:35 PM

My girlfriend just bought a California King sized latex foam bed by Sealy. It is the shit, and I cannot wait until it gets delivered on saturday. 500 thread count egyptian cotton sheets with it ftw.


We were told springless lasts MUCH longer, and from what I could tell they are MUCH more comfortable as well. I guess I'll see if it was worth the investment or not.

1/22/2009 9:19:22 PM

I dont like the foam mattress. it doesnt seem to support your lower back all that much. it does sinks down in the middle.

1/22/2009 9:24:32 PM

I have had a sleep number bed. Queen sized and two zones.

It's CRAP. I could never get comfortable. If it automatically adjusted to me, that would be great, but it doesn't. It was ALWAYS too soft or too firm, never in the right places.

The tempurpedic mattress that I had was ok, but it wasn't worth the exorbitant price tag. It also wasn't what I wanted. I'm glad that I returned it. I had it for a month and by that time I figured out that it sagged in the place I needed it most (the lower back). I figured I gave it a go and sent it back.

I ended up getting the Serta queen sized mattress that has a bit of memory foam AND coil springs. I couldn't be happier. I love sleeping in that bed. It might wear out after a few years (like most beds), but I don't care. I sleep like a baby every night. The price was less than the other beds too.

[Edited on January 22, 2009 at 9:32 PM. Reason : r]

1/22/2009 9:29:19 PM

Did you get a TempurPedic or a knock off. there's a world of difference. we have a TemperPedic and we LOVE it.

1/22/2009 9:29:59 PM

Who calls one thing another? I would never call Coke a Pepsi or vice versa.

[Edited on January 22, 2009 at 9:34 PM. Reason : I purchased a Demperpedic Generi-foam Mattress.]

1/22/2009 9:33:40 PM

Costco sells a memory foam mattress by Sleep Innovations called Novaform. We got a King size for about $600 (it was a crazy good sale), but I think they regularly go on sale for $700-$850 (depending on the model). NovaForms are 12"-thick mattresses with generally 9" of dense support foam on the bottom and 3" of memory foam on top of that. We had always found Tempurpedic to be way too soft, but really like the NovaForm (plus it costs a lot less).

1/22/2009 10:11:44 PM

^ We bought that (I think, It was this product: http://tinyurl.com/dk8lpy). We had it for a month or two and I really didnt like the feel of a non-spring mattress. It was too soft and I would always form this giant hole that I had a hell of a time rolling out of. I dont think it would be a problem if I didn't move around in my sleep much but I do. You might like it though!

1/22/2009 11:35:11 PM

We got the sleepnumber bed a few years back. My wife used to really bad tension headaches and migranes, and they stopped after the new bed.

I liked a retardedly firm bed, so i pretty much crank it all the way up. i could sleep very comfortably on a wooden plank, so my opinions on beds don't mean much to civilians.

i hate nothing more than a really soft bed. it pushes my shoulders up and aggravates my rotator cuff tendinitis. I'm old and creaky these days.

1/22/2009 11:42:54 PM

0EPII1, Sensapedic is a brand. I don't think Kurtis was responding to your post, because the Sensapedic does NOT have adjustable firmness (that's the sleep number that donmega mentioned). The Sensapedic is very similar to the Tempurpedic in that it is a foam bed. Its a little softer, but still supportive. I have a horrible back myself and, while there are still days I wake up sore, they are much fewer than the days I woke up sore on a regular spring mattress. I LOVE my bed, but I already mentioned that in an earlier post.

Just an FYI too, the foam beds RETAIN heat...so...if you or your wife are hot natured then be ready to turn down the ac or use a fan or something. It takes a little while for your body heat to transfer, but it WILL happen and you WILL get hot if you are sensitive to that kind of thing.

1/23/2009 7:19:25 AM

Temperpedic actually has some air-flow design to minimize heat build up. I don't know exactly how it works, but that is one of the reasons it is so expensive.

1/23/2009 8:01:33 AM

what about a futon mattress?

the one we have is made from cotton rags, is hard as shit, and cost like $100

[Edited on January 23, 2009 at 10:16 AM. Reason : sp]

1/23/2009 10:15:12 AM

i have a High Density Polyurethane Foam Core mattress (not memory - traps heat, not latex - i'm allergic) from original mattress factory.
http://originalmattress.com/products/p_foamlatex.asp
i LOVE it. you don't feel the other person moving around as much. i don't think i'd ever go back to one with springs. before it, i was having a lot of back and shoulder pain on my old mattress. i have 1 plain egg crate on top of it and it's not super hard, but it's not super pillowy in-the-clouds squishy either. i've had it about a year and half or so now. after i bought mine, a lady i work with told me her father had one he bought 20 years ago and still sleeps on it (it is polyurethane foam, don't know where he bought it).

for mattresses in general, get one you can flip, not just rotate. also, if you just get a mattress w/o the pillow top on both sides, you can buy your own, nicer one that you can easily replace once it gets worn out, instead of replacing the whole mattress.

Quote :

"Just an FYI too, the foam beds RETAIN heat...so...if you or your wife are hot natured then be ready to turn down the ac or use a fan or something. It takes a little while for your body heat to transfer, but it WILL happen and you WILL get hot if you are sensitive to that kind of thing."

not all foam mattresses retain heat. that happens with memory foam ones b/c the way the memory part works is by retaining heat. i'm super hot natured and i'm fine on my polyurethane foam mattress.

[Edited on January 23, 2009 at 11:07 AM. Reason : ]

1/23/2009 10:59:36 AM

Quote :

"So we looked at a ton of spring/coil mattresses, and even the hardest ones were still soft enough that laying on them meant the lower back sank into the mattress (cause of the pain)."

? shit man i'm <200 and never had any sort of consistent back issue on a bed.

my bed has foam and springs and it's nice, my gf's are normal coil ones and they are fine for me

1/23/2009 2:28:16 PM

Quote :

"what about a futon mattress? the one we have is made from cotton rags, is hard as shit, and cost like $100"

funny as hell

1/23/2009 4:01:21 PM