How to look for and find the best mattress ... for YOU! ***READ FIRST***

[phoenix]

Hi Taco Shop,

I switched your post to a topic of your own so your questions don’t get buried in a more general topic.

I already know as much to stay away from the ultra premium retailers, such as tempur pedic, which I am good with as I usually don’t agree with charging and exorbitant amount for items that can be made of the same quality for a lot less. My concern is that I feel like I am overwhelmed with information and there are so many different options, I don’t even know where to start with narrowing all of them down.

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read the mattress shopping tutorial which is the first post in the topic you originally posted in and has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones. Your best chance of success is to follow the steps and the information there one step at a time.

1. I am an extremely warm sleeper, and I hear memory foam is extremely warm. Whatever I get HAS to have some kind of heat dissipation assistance. From what I understand, they use some form of gel infusion? I’ve noticed not all mem foam mattresses have that. This is probably one of the most important factors because I cannot sleep when I am hot. I can be in shorts under a light sheet, and my girlfriend has to be be bundled up under a blanket and 2 comforters, and I am still too warm sometimes. Is there any specific retailer that you have seen that excel’s in this area?

Memory foam (or gel memory foam) in general will tend to be warmer than other types of mattresses but there there is more information in post #6 here about some of the ways that can help cool down memory foam a little that can give you some sense of what to look for.

2. I am a side sleeper 80-90% of the time, but would like to be able to sleep on my back as I know that is the most neutral position you can be. From what I gather from this, it seems I need a medium to medium-firm mattress, is that correct?

There are also no standardized firmness ratings between manufacturers so a mattress that is rated as “medium firm” with one manufacturer may be rated as a “medium” or a “firm” by another manufacturer. Firmness is also very subjective and relative to each person so what feels too soft for one person can feel too firm for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping positions, and preferences and sensitivities. The only way to know how firm or soft a mattress feels for you would be based on your own personal testing or sleeping experience regardless of how anyone else or any manufacturer may rate it. Only you can feel what you feel on a mattress (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). I would avoid trying to predict which firmness level will work best for you based on “theory” and use your own personal testing and what your body tells you to make the best possible choice.

There is more about the most reliable ways to choose a mattress that is the most suitable "match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) either locally or online in post #2 here that can help you make the best possible choice and help you identify and minimize the risks involved in making a choice that turns out not to be as suitable as you hoped for.

3. I’ve seen mem foam mattresses advertised as being able to alter the layers, or rather, switch them around. This seems like it would be an ineffective thing to have as I would assume that the central and lower layers would be quite a bit more firm, but I really don’t know. Is having a mattress that I can rearrange the layers something you suggest? I would rather be able to just set it up and forget about it. I’m terrible about being able to decide what I want, and it will probably just drive me crazy.

In general a component memory foam mattress would allow you to rearrange either the memory foam layers (if there is more than one) or the deeper support and transition layers (which are usually polyfoam) so you could adjust either the comfort or the support of the mattress. It normally wouldn’t be a good idea to use the memory foam in the deeper layers or the polyfoam in the upper layers. They can be a good option for those who need to do some fine tuning to their mattress but for some people the process of rearranging the layers would be more uncertain or time consuming than they would prefer. A choice between a component mattress (which is much less common with memory foam mattresses than it is with latex) is really a part of your own personal value equation and there isn’t any “better or worse” choice between them although based on your comments it sounds like your preferences would be a “finished” mattress.

While it’s not really necessary to know this … if you are interested 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”.

4. I don’t mind purchasing from an online retailer, and honestly may even prefer it due to the various ways I can pay for it. In the past when I looked, I had it down to bed in a box and Brooklyn bedding. Would you recommend one over the other, or would you have any other’s you would recommend?

Brooklyn Bedding is a member of this site which means that I think very highly of them and I believe they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, and transparency.

I would be very cautious with Bedinabox or any mattress that uses more than “about an inch or so” of lower density 3 lb memory foam. There are more comments about Bedinabox in post #2 here.

The tutorial post includes a link to the better online memory foam options I’m aware of (in the optional online step) and if you let me know your city or zip code I’d be happy to let you know about any of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in your area.

5. In the past, I have read that a general rule of thumb is that the higher the density, the higher the quality… so in theory, try to stay away from <3 lb. memory foam mattresses, so I planned on not going anything lower than 3.5-4. Is this kind of a standard rule to go by?

The density of memory foam is the single biggest factor in its durability and higher density memory foams are more durable than lower density memory foams. Density has less to do with the properties of a memory foam material though and there is more about the many different properties of different types of memory foam in post #9 here and post #8 here.

You can see the foam density guidelines I would suggest in post #4 here and in general I would tend to avoid anything more than about an inch or so of memory foam that was less than about 4 lb density (not less than 3 lb density).

6. My budget for this bed is about $2,000, and I am hoping that I can get the mattress, the base, a really good waterproof cover, and possibly a really good memory foam pillow. Based off of this, do you think I am in the ballpark that I can get something of decent quality? Would it make a huge difference if I lowered my expectations slightly and raised my budget to, say, $2,500? I know in the industry I work in, changing the purchase price by just a little can make a huge difference in what you can get in the end.

A $2000 budget certainly sounds reasonable to me and there are many good quality memory foam mattresses that are available in this budget range (although you didn’t mention the size you were looking for which can have a significant effect on the price of a mattress). You may also need a good foundation if you don’t have one that is suitable already. If you find and test a mattress in a little higher budget range and it is a significantly better match for you in terms of PPP compared to all the lower budget mattresses that you tried then I would certainly consider it but only if you can identify a specific reason that it’s better that would be enough to justify the higher cost.

Phoenix