I am a new member but have been researching the site and all of the helpful and wonderful information on here for awhile now. My husband wants me to make a mattress purchase ASAP and I nearly did, I was on way to check out with the Lucid memory foam mattress on Amazon and the Ultimate Dreams latex Plush mattress popped up with many fantastic reviews which led me into my research about Ultimate Dreams and latex and eventually to your site. My husband is very impatient and believes that anything is better than our tired old mattress we suffer with now so anything I buy will be fine and does not care what mattress I pick, just that I buy something now. I however, do not operate in this way, I research everything before I buy it so with that being said I have narrowed my choices down to the Ultimate Dreams latex plush and the 16" LUCID by LinenSpa Natural Latex and Memory Foam Mattress Plush Four-Layer with Bamboo Charcoal. Both my husband and I want a plush/soft mattress; he is a combo back/side sleeper (mainly back) and I a combo stomach/side sleeper. I also sleep very hot as well which is a concern of mine with memory foam. I have had the opportunity to sleep on my mom’s tempurpedic and although I suffer from insomnia (I take prescription sleeping pills for it) I was able to fall asleep unintentionally several times while laying in it which led me into looking at memory foam beds. The problems I did note with her tempur was 1. it was too firm for me, my body hardly made an impression into the mattress (I’m 5’2" 125 lbs) 2. it was very hot. My research about latex mattresses has convinced me that it might be a better choice than memory foam but I am still unsure since I have not tried it and only the tempur and I was impressed with how quickly I fell asleep on it. This is why I am considering the Lucid because it does have both latex and memory foam (best of both worlds for someone indecisive like me) but from what I have learned on your site thus far is that the quality of materials is very important and the materials the Lucid bed uses is questionable to me. My question to you is, given the circumstances and above mentioned info, which bed would be a better and safer buy? My worst fear is purchasing a mattress I will hate and can not return it. I like the price points for both and would not want to go any higher than $700. Please Help!!
I think that other than personal testing on a mattress … some research into the quality of materials and dealing with a retailer or manufacturer that can provide you with good guidance about which mattress may best “fit” your needs and preferences is among the most important parts of a mattress purchase. I think the quality of sleep is very important and there are very few purchases that we can make that can have such a big effect on our overall well being for the next decade or so than the mattress we sleep on. Rushing a mattress purchase IMO is a big mistake along with a mattress purchase that doesn’t take into account the suitability and quality of the materials in it.
I personally would tend to avoid the Lucid because they tend to use low quality memory foam which I would not consider. Based on the listing and subject to finding out much more information about it … it doesn’t meet the criteria I use for memory foam mattresses in post #10 here. At the very least I would want to know the exact details of every layer of the mattress so I could identify any potential weak links and make meaningful comparisons with other mattresses. No matter how good some of the materials may be … the “weak link” of a mattress will determine how long it will last and in the case of the 16" Lucid … this would be in the memory foam used in the top 4" of the mattress regardless of what was underneath it. A forum search on “Lucid” (you can just click this) will bring up much more information about them.
In a comparison between these two … the choice for me would be easy. One (Dreamfoam/Brooklyn Bedding) is one of the recommended members of the site and is among the best quality and value mattresses in the country. The other (Lucid) I wouldn’t recommend at all … at least not without a lot more information.
Of course with all online purchases … your confidence in the suitability of the mattress in terms of PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences), local testing you have done on similar materials to make sure you like them, and the knowledge and ability of the vendor to give you some guidance, is (or at least should be) an important part of your choice as well.