a little help

Hi Sheba,

The first place I would start is the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the most important information, steps, and guidelines that can help you find the best possible choices for you all in one place.

I would normally suggest focusing on the materials in a mattress rather than the name of the manufacturer on the label which says little about what is inside the mattress. Outside of how well a mattress matches your specific needs and preferences … a mattress is only as good as the quality/durability of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer. Post #13 here has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase.

There are also too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved for anyone to be able to predict how any mattress will feel and perform in terms of PPP for someone else based on either specs (yours or a mattress) or on “theory at a distance” or to recommend a specific product. A mattress that feels too firm for one person may be too soft for the next so the only way to really know whether a mattress is a good “match” for you is your own personal testing or in the case of a mattress that you can’t test in person a more detailed conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

There is also more about the factors that can affect sleeping temperature in post #2 here that can help you assess whether a mattress may be “cool enough” for you.

In terms of “safety” … I would go by the certifications of any foam materials (and to their credit Spaldin is Oeko-Tex certified which is a more stringent certification than CertiPur which is the most common certification for harmful substances and VOC’s that is used or memory foam and polyfoam). Industrias Tobias is the parent company for Spaldin (see post #2 here). If natural materials are most important to you (which is a different issue from the safety of the materials) then I would probably be focusing on natural latex (Talalay or Dunlop) or natural fibers along with innersprings (which aren’t “natural” since they are made from steel but would be acceptable for most people that were looking for a natural mattress). There is more about natural and “green” materials in post #2 here and the link it includes to post #2 here has much more information that can help each person answer the question of “how safe is safe enough for me?” for those that are more motivated to do more detailed research into a very complex and frustrating subject. There is also more about “plant based” foams or “biofoams” in post #2 here.

The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Brooklyn/New York City area are listed in post #2 here.

Hopefully this will be “more than enough” to get you started (and “finished” as well) but if you follow the steps in the tutorial post one by one you will have the best possible chance of making the choice that is the best match for the criteria that are most important to you.

Phoenix