WOW! There is a lot of stuff to read and digest! Of course, I found this site 18 months too late, after I had already purchased the ālast mattress I will ever buy.ā I thought I had shopped around smartly, and ended up with a Serta foam/conventional mattress that was very expensive. I have been in several accidents, and have chronic back pain, and, since one of the accidents, have had shoulder pain, as well. The doctors tell me itās arthritis. Anyway, what I have noted is that my shoulders seem to like a softer mattress, so that there isnāt so-much pressure, but my mid section needs firm support. (Iām a side sleeper due to the back problem.) Is there such a mattress, with different firmness zones? I have been, and still am, on a mission to shore up the bed and mattress. Started with plywood on top of the metal frame. It sagged, so I bought a new foundation. (They used to call them box springs, but my Serta has box springs built-in. Itās about 14" thick, which is twice the size of my old mattress.) Still sags. Today, I found out my frame lacks a middle rail, which I ordered. I have been considering bed boards, to put between the mattress and the foundation. (We used to use them back in the day.) But all the ones I find are not large enough to cover the entire foundation. You need 2 or 3 of them. Well, if they arenāt one piece, it seems to me they will still have a weak point at the place where they meet, which could cause them to sag. Maybe I need another piece of plywood, but I donāt have a truck to get it home. I have also discovered that most mattresses and box springs now-a-days are made to be flexible, so they can be used on adjustable bed frames, like the ones they used to use only in hospitals. I can certainly understand why people would want them for their homes. I suspect Iāll probably end up with one some day, but they are expensive. As a result, mattresses tend to flex and give more then they used to. If I had known this when I bought the thing, I would have asked for one with a rigid wood frame around it, like mattresses used to have.
When shopping for the mattress, of course, I laid on nearly every item in the stores I visited. The one I bought seemed to me to be the most comfortable. It is plush with a euro top, whatever all that means. The problem is, there is a big difference between lying on a mattress for 10 minutes, and sleeping on one for 8 hours. But, for the first 6 weeks or so, I was so in love with this mattress. My pains were greatly reduced. I even stopped in the store to tell the salesperson what a great product it was. But then the sagging started, and now, I wake up with great pain, and itās not just my lower back anymore, but, for the past couple of weeks, my left hip and down into the leg. And my next chiropractor visit isnāt until Nov. 11. So Iāve been working out and trying to live up to my name by spending lots of time in the hot tub.
It is impossible for you to tell anyone what is right for that person, because there are simply too-many variables. I understand that. At one point 15 years ago, a chiropractor prescribed a Sleep-Number bed, and got the insurance company to pay for it. I thought that was the answer for awhile, but gradually, I found I was lowering the number over time, and then the bed started to sag in the middle, as my body pushed all the air to the outside. Select Comfortās answer was to let out all the air, then fill it all the way up, and then lower it to my setting. That would work for a week or 2, but I got tired of that noise, so I sold the thing to someone else, and bought the current Serta.
It seems, no matter what I do, I canāt get away from sagging. Maybe you have some words of wisdom. And maybe I need a firm mattress, even though I find a soft one more comfortable. The doctors and chiropractors arenāt much help. They say āBuy the one that you find to be the most comfortable for you.ā Well, thatās what Iāve been doing! DUH! I mean, does anyone really go into a store and say āI want an uncomfortable mattress?ā Every time I laid on a Tempur, I found it to be too hard, but now Iām wonering if that isnāt what I should have gotten. This journey is just too frustrating for this old man.
