Hi,
I’m new to this forum. I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading several posts and articles including this post, this post, and how to find you perfect mattress including the overviews. The wealth of information is incredible and invaluable. I’m very grateful to all of those who put time into building this site and providing this information. Unfortunately, I purchased a mattress prior to learning this great information. We have only another week to return the mattress if we’re not happy. I’m hoping someone can give me a bit of guidance on what to do now. Here’s my situation:
Background Leading to Mattress Purchase
My wife and I were sleeping on a Serta which we purchased about 10 years ago. The Serta is an innerspring unit with 61% polyurethane foam and single-sided pillow top. I really like the “feel” of the mattress due to the soft comfort layer. I’m 5’10" @ 140 lbs. and primarily sleep on my side although I occasionally sleep on my back. My wife is also primarily a side sleeper (5’5" and 175 lbs). After 10 years, I was starting to notice some back pain but only during bending over a certain way or sitting on a bench and leaning on my knees for 5+ minutes. My wife though was having back pain even standing. It was more intense in the mornings and faded as the day progressed.
For our anniversary, we stayed at Blackberry Farms and slept really well. We attributed it to the bed although in hindsight it could have been due to being on vacation, relaxed yet active during the day. We learned that Blackberry sold the bed although it was quite expensive.
Mattress Purchase
When Blackberry had a Cyber Monday deal, we jumped on the offer. Although it was still very expensive, we were willing to pay for what we hoped would give us the sleep we experienced there and would be a very high quality mattress. We briefly considered getting just the mattress (as they sell that) but then they recommended to get the sleep kit which included a mattress topper and pillows to replicate the bed at the farm.
Mattress Initial Assessment
When the bed arrived, we were excited but it seemed much firmer than we remembered. Perhaps, the bed at the farm was a few years old and had been broken-in.
Mattress Current Assessment
In the first week, we had a hard time getting comfortable and it took awhile to fall asleep. In general, our sleep was not good; we woke up several times in the middle of the night and were tired during the day. Both of our back pain had improved though (especially hers). We’re now in our third week, and our sleep is improving (both in terms of getting to sleep and staying asleep) although I still find it much less comfortable than our old bed. Some nights neither one of us sleep very well on it but other nights we do better or even very good. And on a huge plus-side my wife’s back pain is much better!
Next Steps?
With all that I’ve learned here, I’m concerned if we’re making the right decision with this mattress. It surely would have been disqualified from a “feel” perspective (through steps 1 and 2 here. I’m also concerned about durability. I don’t know anything about the layers including the topper and the materials in those layers (other than the Blackberry Farm site stating natural latex). I found the mattress is a Nature’s Spa mattress made by Paramount. So, based on other posts about Paramount, I’m concerned if I’ll be able to actually obtain any information about the construction and quality of materials.
Although things are improving, I’m wondering if we should keep it. Could we expect to find a mattress that can reduce our (especially my wife’s) back pain as this one has done plus offer the comfort that I really liked on the old mattress? I worry if we return this one if that it may also take too much time to find another one… although I have some time to research my wife has less time to do so.
Instead of making a decision now, should we maybe ask for a trial period extension? The return policy is only 30 days.
Based on our profiles (BMIs noted above, side sleepers with some back sleeping, my softness preference in comfort layer, back pain, early 50s, in Memphis, prefer mattress that stays cool), is there a certain mattress type / materials that generally works best and a good place we could go to find a great mattress? We’re also open to traveling, using an independent consultant, or ordering online to find a mattress that is best for us.
Many thanks in advance for reading this long post and help in providing guidance.