Hi great southern land,
I am a great believer in simplicity, in spite of what must seem to many to be a rather complex subject. To cut through the confusion it helps to focus on what I call PPP. This includes focusing on the two basic functions of a mattress which is Pressure relief and Posture and alignment, and then making choices that best fit your Preferences (such as temperature regulation, motion transfer, overall liveliness, sleeping āinā or āonā a mattress, natural or synthetic materials, durability, and others). All of these can either be tested for in a store or chosen through basic knowledge of the materials in a mattress (in the case of natural materials or durability). All of these come from a combination of materials, layering combinations, and construction methods that go into a mattress but the āfinal resultā of everything is always PPP.
In essence (and in the simplest of terms) ā¦ a mattress has two basic components. One of these is the comfort zone which is the top few inches of the mattress. This is primarily responsible for pressure relief. The second is the support system which is the layers under the comfort zone. The first needs to be thick and soft enough to relieve pressure for your individual height and weight distribution, sleeping positions, and pressure sensitivity. The second needs to be firm enough in the right places to hold up your heavier parts so they donāt sink in too deeply and lead to an unnatural curvature of the spine.
The comfort zone will usually be made of one or a combination of 6 ācomfortā materials listed here but in most cases this will be one of the 3 types of foam which is latex, memory foam, or polyfoam. Of these 3, polyfoam is the one to avoid in any amount more than an inch unless it is being purchased from an outlet which is an expert in polyfoam mattresses and only uses the more durable grades or construction methods that are suitable for a comfort zone and that the price reflects the cost of a lower cost material. Polyfoam can be a good choice for a lower budget but only when purchased from an āexpertā in mattress materials and when the type of polyfoam being used is known. Other than that ā¦ foam choices would be between memory foam or latex.
The support system will usually be one of 5 choices listed here and of these 5 ā¦ it will realistically be a choice between an innerspring, polyfoam (again in a grade suitable for a support core) or latex. Each of these have a different feel and the price should also reflect the different costs between the materials (latex being the most expensive with an innerspring and polyfoam being less than latex)
So in essence ā¦ you have a comfort zone which is usually made of one or more of three common foams (with the occasional āotherā material sometimes included) on top of a support system made of one or a combination of three materials (with the less desirable air or the less common water being alternatives).
The weak link in almost all mattresses is the comfort zone so this is where it is most important to use the most effective and most durable materials.
Once you know the basics ā¦ which is the reason for the overviews in the mattresses section of the site, then for most people its time to go shopping.
There are really two approaches to mattress shopping. One relies on your own knowledge and it can be daunting, confusing, and time consuming to learn enough to actually ādesignā your own mattress. The other relies on the knowledge of the person or outlet you are buying the mattress from who already has the knowledge to design a mattress. Your best friend in mattress shopping is a person who is an expert in the different properties of the different materials used in a mattress, is transparent about what is in the mattresses they are selling and why they are there, and is more interested in fitting you to a mattress than they are in selling you a mattress which has the highest profit margin or is the āeasiestā to sell. Your āleast bestā friend is the person who will tell you that the materials in their mattresses are āproprietaryā or who for any reason is less than transparent about what is in the mattress either because they donāt really know or they donāt want to tell you.
There are no real āsecretsā in mattress materials or construction ā¦ only stories meant to make you believe that some type of material is somehow āproprietaryā or better than the same material used in another mattress. Those who rely on stories, confusing naming practices, or marketing techniques rather than expert knowledge about mattress materials and who have a greater desire to make the sale than they do to find the best mattress for your needs and preferences are the places which will do more to confuse you and discourage meaningful comparisons than they will to educate you and encourage you to make better choices.
These experts, including the owners and (hopefully) staff of most good sleep shops and independent manufacturers, who have the knowledge and integrity to educate you and show you how to make meaningful comparisons and choices, would do poorly in most chain store outlets where their knowledge and integrity would steer most customers away from lower quality materials and the higher profit margins of the mattresses that use them. They would likely spend much of their time in the managers office being told they are selling the āwrongā mattresses and that their sales profit margins are too low.
If you stick to the āruleā of never buying a mattress where the materials inside it are āunknownā or where the person selling it either canāt or wonāt tell you what is in it, then most of the worst choices in terms of ābrandā or āoutletā are automatically eliminated. What is left are the places to put your time and energy.
I just checked and there seems to be a minor issue with the forum template which I will have to investigate and fix. For now though, if you put the point of your cursor on the very bottom of the āadd fileā box (so it is an arrow instead of a hand) then when you left click the file upload window will appear. From there it is just a matter of selecting the file and uploading. I also changed the file size limit from 150K to 500K. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
This is a typical reply from a āmajor brandā whose existence depends on advertising and differentiating themselves from other mattresses which use the same or similar materials. āFull disclosureā with these companies would force them to compete based on meaningful and factual value comparisons of their mattresses which would dramatically reduce the effect of their advertising, sales techniques, and profit margins. Instead they rely on marketing techniques and stories to discourage comparison and maintain the ability to use āunknownā or āproprietaryā lower cost materials that have a good story attached but use lower cost materials.
An alternative to this is to become your own āexpertā to make up for what most of the industry canāt or wonāt tell you. This can be time consuming and frustrating.
The ābestā approach IMO is to do enough basic research into materials and mattresses to be able to tell when you have found an outlet that validates what you have learned and where you can trust that what they tell you is based on their knowledge and willingness to help you make the best choices for you rather than the choices that will make the most profit for them.
If you find an outlet where someone knows mattress materials and mattress construction ā¦ is more motivated in finding you the right mattress than they are in making the sale ā¦ are happy to share what they know and educate rather than sell you using various techniques ā¦ can translate your circumstances, preferences, and ālay on mattressā testing into the layering that is best for you ā¦ and has enough confidence in their own product to show you how to make real value comparisons based on the cost of the materials in and construction of a mattress, then you have found a place that is worth spending your time and probably spending your money. The rest will only do more to confuse or require so much time and effort into learning the truth behind what they are telling you that the whole mattress shopping experience becomes an exhausting chore and whoever happens to be āin the leadā or āin front of youā when you āgive upā in frustration and exhaustion will make the sale.
Phoenix
