I bought a Tuft and Needle in December with the help of you and this forum and couldn’t be happier with my purchase. I’ve had months of my first pain-free sound sleep in many years.
Now I’m in Houston, Texas visiting my mom. She is sleeping on a horrible mattress that she purchased from a local retailer that went out of business a few months after she purchased. The mattress is a knock off Sleep Number bed and was considerably less expensive. Due to arthritis and bursitis in her hips, she has to sleep with the mattress very deflated to make it soft enough. About 6 months ago she added an inexpensive memory foam topper, which she says has helped her hip pain, but she wakes up stiff and with upper back pain. The mattress also has quite a large “dip” in the middle- she said it’s like the air has moved to the sides of the mattress (it is a double with only one controller). I believe the mattress is about 3 years old.
After my own significant reduction in back pain and improved comfort when during fibromyalgia flair ups after switching to a mattress that fits my PPP, I am trying to convince my mom to get a new mattress…
But, she is on a very limited income, living check to check on Social Security payments and any extra goes to medical expenses. So she won’t even listen to any suggestions of a new mattress, even when I mention that my husband and I could help with the expense. I think part of her reluctance is her bad experiences with purchasing her last 3 mattress purchases over the last decade, none of which have been a good PPP fit. This latest knock off Sleep Number is really awful. It breaks my heart to see her rolling around at night and not be able to get comfortable. I feel almost no postural support on this mattress, I can’t imagine that my mom 50 lbs heavier feels much support either, but she has always been more concerned with a “cloud” soft feel for her arthritis… I tried to talk her out of the purchase back then, not having a good feel for it, but that was before I found MU. She never got to try the mattress in person, she did her trials in a Sleep Number store and bought the equivalent in the knock off brand over the phone and had it delivered. One reason she was attracted to the air mattress type system is so that she could deflate the mattress on her bad nights to get a “softer” feel. She has a friend who had a Sleep Number for about 10 years and claimed it was as good as the day she got it. I tried to at least talk my mom into a Sleep Number, not the knock off brand, but price was her primary consideration.
My mom is very hot natured, but seems to sleep okay on the convoluted “cool” memory foam topper (inexpensive, very soft one). I am a bit worried about the “break in” period of any mattress- are there any types that require less break in than others? She’s already in so much pain all the time, and is a very impatient person. She has had numerous memory foam toppers over the years, and really likes the feel, but not the hotness (except this newest topper, which she says is okay. It was a cheap thing from WalMart online).
Can you possibly recommend any temporary “easy” fixes to increase support of a baffle mattress. Sorry, I don’t know what the brand is- she bought it in Houston, Texas about 3 years ago, and it cost $1,000, the manufacturer is out of business.
Can you recommend any reputable mattress stores for a low-income senior in the Houston, Texas area? Southwest area (but you may not know houston, I can research any list). My mom is without transportation, and I live out of state and only here a few times a year, so she will need somewhere that delivers and will take away an old mattress…
This is one of the issues with airbeds because air displaces and tends to sag under the heavier parts of the body unless it is pumped up to its firmest level or has a separately adjustable section in the middle that can be kept firmer than the top and bottom section of the airbed (see this article).
Since you spend some time on the forum you will at least be able to tell her a little more about what to look for in a mattress that is a good “match” for her in terms of PPP and the importance of using good quality and durable materials that will maintain their comfort and support for many years.
All mattresses will have a break in and adjustment period that is usually a few weeks but it can vary from person to person so some people don’t seem to notice it at all while for some it takes longer (see post #3 here). While some materials such as latex will soften less when they break in, sleeping on a different type of mattress can still need some time to get used to it outside of the mattress itself breaking in so I think it would probably be more realistic to set her expectations that there will be a break in and adjustment period of a few weeks and then hope it will be less rather than having her “expect” less and find out it’s longer than she expected.
The air bladder in an airbed is the primary deep support for the mattress and while letting out some air can affect the pressure relief and make it “feel” softer … it also makes the mattress less supportive in the deeper layers where more firmness is usually needed to maintain good alignment. About the only thing I can suggest would be to pump up the air bladders to a firm setting and then use a thicker topper for pressure relief and to isolate her from the firmness of the firmer air bladder.
There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Houston area (subject to the quality/value guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here. I would check their websites and make some calls first to make sure that they have some options that she would be interested in testing in the budget range you are looking for before you spend time paying them a visit. You have several good options available in the area but I would make sure that you include Texas Mattress Makers in your research. They are a member of the site which means I think highly of them and I believe that they compete well with the best in the industry in terms or their quality, value, service, and transparency.