Thanks for taking the time to share an update … I appreciate it
Once you have gone through the initial break in and adjustment period then any further softening will be much more slow and gradual over a more extended period of time and it’s good to see that you are rotating your mattress as well to even things out.
Losing that much weight would also make a difference in how firm a mattress feels as well (foam mattresses will feel softer for those that are in higher weight ranges than the same mattress will feel for those that are lighter).
There is more information about support systems (bedframes and foundations or platform beds) that are generally suitable for different types of mattresses and some examples of each of them in post #1 here and some of the information and comments in this topic (which would apply to any foam mattress) may be helpful as well.
My Arctic Dreams mattress is suppose to arrive on Wednesday night! I’ll check back in and let you know how I like it after I get some proper sleep on it.
After tons of research both here and elsewhere on the internet, I decided to make the Dreamfoam Arctic Dreams 10" Cooling Gel Mattress my first memory foam mattress purchase. I’ll be receiving mine next Tuesday, and the details that eventually swayed me were: Made in the USA + CertiPUR-US certification, fast response Energex gel foam, and of course, the price. Really looking forward to starting the new year with my new bed! Will check in again later once I’ve had time to test it out.
You certainly made a great quality value choice … and congratulations on your new mattress
Just for reference … the Energex is a high performance polyfoam which is a high quality/density and durable material but the Arctic Dreams doesn’t contain any memory foam.
I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback once you’ve received it and have had the chance to sleep on your new mattress for a bit.
My wife and I were in the market for a value king sized mattress to upgrade from a full. We ended up going with the Arctic Dreams.
Similar to above, I spent hours sorting through mattress reviews and websites. I ended up all over the web, including SLTD, and eventually ended up here. Thankfully, your mattress forum informed me about the objective quality of mattresses beyond the often listed specs (ie the density of foams, certifications, etc).
I wanted to buy online as I dread going into stores, so I inevitably came across many brands like Zinus, Costco/Target/Walmart brands, T&N, and more. We have a tight budget, so wanted to stay around $500 if possible. I was surprised when I found an American made mattress at this price point ($349.00 regular price as of today).
I don’t expect it to be on par with a $2,000 mattress, but for $314.10 (using their 10% promo), I have a feeling this will be hard to beat. I used their online chat for close to an hour, and Chuck answered plenty of my questions, and he echoed that this is their best option at this price point until you jump up the the latex ones (which start at twice the price). He said it should last 7-12 years, which is good enough for me at this price.
I’ll post a follow-up after receiving and testing it out over our 45 day trial period!
Welcome and I’m glad you found us … and congratulations on your new mattress
As you know you certainly made a great quality/value choice and the quality and durability of the materials in the Arctic Dreams mattress is very unusual to find in a mattress in this budget range (or even significantly higher).
I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback once you’ve received it and have had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.
I’m in the market for a new mattress and I’m looking at both the Tuft & Needle and Dreamfoam Arctic Dreams mattresses. I was originally set to go with the Tuft & Needle after sleeping on one for a weekend at my cousin’s house recently, but after some thorough research which led me to this site and this thread in particular, I’ve now added the Arctic Dreams as a possibility. I like the cost savings difference between the two mattresses and would be interested to hear from Powerattack again (post #10) since he owns both mattresses. I’m just curious how the Arctic Dreams is holding up now after 6 months? I’m also open to hearing from other Arctic Dreams owners as well.
Thanks Phoenix for this informative site. It’s quite impressive to say the least. Especially for the uninformed like myself. Your attention to detail is quite astounding. Kudos!
Hopefully powerattack or any of the other members that own the mattress will see your post and share their comments but I would keep in mind that even a very low quality mattress will generally hold up for more than 6 months so this type of very short term feedback won’t really tell you much if anything about the durability of a mattress.
While there is no way to quantify how long any mattress will last for a specific person or predict exactly when you will decide to replace it because it is no longer suitable or comfortable for you (because this is the only real measure of durability or the useful life of a mattress that really matters) because there are too many unknowns and variables involved that are unique to each person … if a mattress is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and isn’t close to the edge of being too soft when it is new (see post #2 here) and you have confirmed that it meets the minimum quality/durability specs that are suggested in the guidelines here then it would be reasonable to expect a useful lifetime in the range of 7 - 10 years and with higher quality and more durable materials like latex or higher density memory foam or polyfoam (in the comfort layers especially) it would likely be in the higher end of the range or even longer and the chances that you would have additional “bonus time” would be higher as well.
Just wanted to chime in to say I ordered the Dreamfoam Arctic Dreams mattress from Amazon. I’m not sure if the free pillow promo applies if we order it from Amazon instead of directly from Dreamfoam, but either way, I’m looking forward to my new mattress. Hoping for the best!
Thanks again Phoenix for this website. Lots of good information here.
Posting again to confirm that I chatted with Chuck via dreamfoambedding.com chat function and he told me that I do qualify for the free pillow promo. Thanks, Chuck!
As you know I think you made a great quality/value choice and I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback once you’ve received it and have had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.
[quote]I’m not sure if the free pillow promo applies if we order it from Amazon instead of directly from Dreamfoam,
Posting again to confirm that I chatted with Chuck via dreamfoambedding.com chat function and he told me that I do qualify for the free pillow promo. Thanks, Chuck! [/quote]
The pillow bonus that they provide to the members here normally only applies to mattresses that are ordered from the Dreamfoam site and not to Amazon orders (regardless of whether they are fulfilled by Dreamfoam or by Amazon itself which is a completely different company from Dreamfoam) so you were very fortunate!
I’m trying to decide between the Dreamfoam Arctic Dreams and the Brooklyn Bedding BME. While I know the construction of these two mattresses is different (one HD Energex polyfoam over a polyfoam base and the other latex over a polyfoam base), it seems like both are medium firmness, responsive/springy, favorably reviewed, and made of high quality materials. While I assume the latex BME would probably have somewhat better durability and a slightly different (though not necessarily better) feel, it doesn’t seem like the differences are great enough to offset the big difference in price… Durability is important to me because I’m a bigger guy at 6’6", 250 lbs, but it sounds like the Artic Dreams is made of solid enough materials to hold up for me.
I think I’m talking myself into the Arctic Dreams.
There is more about the 3 most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase if your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for).
While I can’t speak to how any mattress will feel for someone else or whether it will be a suitable “match” in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) … the BME certainly uses higher quality, more durable, and more costly materials.
Latex in general is the most durable of all the foam materials (although the Energex is certainly a durable material as well that would also be suitable for your body weight) and the BME also uses a 2 lb polyfoam base layer which is also a higher quality and more durable version of polyfoam that meets the quality/durability guidelines here vs the 1.8 lb polyfoam base layer in the Arctic Dreams.
I would also talk with both of them on the phone because when you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
The BME also has a better trial and return/refund policy as well and this can also be an important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase if you aren’t certain whether an online mattress will be a good “match” for you in terms of PPP.
Of course the much lower cost of the Arctic Dreams may also be enough to offset the additional risk involved both in terms of the trial period and return/refund policy as well as the durability and useful life of the mattress.
They are certainly both great quality value choices and both of them are members here which means that I think highly of both of them and that I believe that they both compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, knowledge, and transparency but you are the only one that can decide which one would be the best “value” for you based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding.
I did talk to Chuck from Dreamfoam, who was very helpful. Interestingly, he seemed to talk down the durability of the Arctic Dreams. He indicated that I should expect 7-9 years of performance from a latex topped mattress like the Ultimate Dreams Latex or the BME but only 3-4 years from the Arctic Dreams. This was surprising to me, as it runs counter to your (Phoenix’s) guidance that 3.0 lb Energex polyfoam is a high quality, durable material. While I understand that latex is likely to be more durable than HD polyfoam, I had assumed that the difference would be much less than indicated by Chuck .
Perhaps he was being conservative in his estimates or perhaps he was trying to sell me on the higher cost latex mattress, but if the Arctic Dreams is really only likely to last 3-4 years, it’s not as good a value as I originally thought. I’m not sure what to believe now, although I’d rather pay the higher price for the BME if it will really last more than twice as long as the Arctic Dreams.
When you sleep on a mattress the upper layers of foam will compress and deflect more than the deeper layers partly because the comfort layers are usually made to be softer than the deeper transition and support layers of a mattress (and firmness/softness is also a factor in the durability of a material) and partly because they are closer to the sleeping surface and subject to direct compression without any layers above them absorbing some of the compression forces first. It’s this constant deflection of the foam materials in the upper layers of the mattress that softens and breaks down the foam and leads to the loss of comfort and support in the mattress.
Higher weight ranges will compress the deeper foam layers in a mattress more than lighter weight ranges and the BME has 4" of latex above a 2 lb base layer while the Arctic Dreams only has 3" of Energex above a 1.8 lb base layer so not only is there a difference in the type of comfort layers, there is also a difference in the thickness and you would certainly be compressing the base layer in the Arctic Dreams more than the base layer in the BME and the base layer is a lower density and less durable material as well.
As I also mentioned in an earlier reply in this topic … there is no way to quantify how long any mattress will last for a specific person or predict exactly when you will decide to replace it because it is no longer suitable or comfortable for you (because this is the only real measure of durability or the useful life of a mattress that really matters) because there are too many unknowns and variables involved that are unique to each person.
While there is no doubt that the Arctic Dreams would be less durable than the BME … it’s impossible to know for certain exactly how much less until a mattress is no longer comfortable or supportive to you and you decide to replace it because this will vary for different people. Some people may sleep well on a mattress before they decide to replace it for much longer than others even if they are in the same weight range. The information they are giving you could be somewhat conservative in the spirit of “underpromising and overdelivering” so that you have more realistic expectations of how long the mattress will maintain a level of comfort and support that is suitable for you over time even though you may have more “bonus time” beyond that range.
My Arctic Dreams mattress is suppose to arrive on Wednesday night! I’ll check back in and let you know how I like it after I get some proper sleep on it.