Am trying to find unbiased info on baffled feather and polyester filled mattress toppers. Do you have any knowledge of these products and/or can you direct me in the right direction. I am interested in using one to make my bed softer, also, I weigh 300 lbs so wonder if one of these products would be suitable for me. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Hi smmimp14,
A down/feather topper or featherbed or a fiberbed is more “fluffy” than resilient and while it can provide some degree of localized pressure relief under pressure points … it is much less resilient than a foam topper and won’t redistribute your body weight as effectively or provide the same degree of pressure relief as a foam topper. It will also pack down and compress more, requires more maintenance and regular “fluffing”, and with your weight it also won’t be as durable as a good quality foam topper. There is a little more information about featherbeds and “down alternative” fiberbeds in post #10 here and in post #6 here and in this topic about featherbeds.
There is also more about the different types of softness in post #15 here but a featherbed or fiberbed is more of a “feel” product than a “pressure relief” product and unless you are just looking for a little localized pressure relief under pressure points or a different “feel” for your sleeping system they probably wouldn’t be your best choice.
Post #2 here and the topper guidelines and other posts it links to also have some suggestions about choosing a topper that may be helpful.
If you do decide to try a featherbed anyway then post #2 here and post #10 here has some sources for featherbeds that also have some good information on their site. Fiberbeds filled with polyester are widely available at some of the big box stores or on Amazon and other sources that have a good return policy so with their lower cost and good return policy there would be little risk in trying them so you can decide whether they are suitable for what you are looking for based on your own personal experience but I also wouldn’t expect any of these to last very long either.
Phoenix
For interest’s sake, while a topper made of feathers or polyester may make the bed softer, feathers in particular will make the bed warmer. Florence Nightengale is said to have said, "“Never use a feather bed, either for sick or well”. Perhaps her advice came from a position that a sleeper did not need a soft, warm, luxrious mattress as much as they needed a firm, practical bed.
Hi diynaturalbedding,
I would tend to agree with you (and Florence Nightingale) and I think that in today’s mattress market there are many consumers that look for the “feel” of luxury and this can often be at the expense of a mattress that will provide then with what they really need. What we feel when we are awake or going to sleep can be very different from what our bodies need when we are sleeping and we can’t feel the mattress at all.
IMO … a mattress is more of a utilitarian item with a specific purpose to help your mind and body “let go”, relax, rest, heal, and recover rather than a luxury item which is chosen for “feel” alone. In a way this is something like eating and how our culture views it. In many cases the choices about what people eat is based more on pleasure and gratification than it is on nutrition and providing the body with what it needs so choices become more about what feels good (or tastes good) than about what is necessary. What makes it easier to do this is that the “price” of these types of long term choices often won’t be paid until some time down the road so people don’t connect what they have been eating (or sleeping on) in the long term to the symptoms that may arise in the shorter term when something puts them “over the edge”.
I think that Florence Nightingale may also have included polyester fiber in her suggestions if it had existed at the time 
Phoenix