I impulse-bought a T&N. Was I dumb, and is plywood laid over a one-beam frame an okay mattress platform?

[phoenix]

Hi Your Loyal Vizier,

Nice to hear from you again, and thanks for the follow up (I did edit a few words in your reply. While I sympathize with your pain, I do try to keep the language here on the board “above board” .)

Between us we cover almost all the bases, and after more than two weeks of break-in neither one of us has managed to get a single night of restful sleep on the new mattress

I’m sorry to hear your Tuft and Needle mattress isn’t working out for you as well as you planned. As you’ve only had the item for two weeks, it will certainly soften up a bit and lose some of that “false firmness”, although I understand this might not be making enough difference for you in comfort to find the product something that suits your needs.

Since I’m above average weight, I expected it would feel softer than reported… not so. It’s so hard that once I fall asleep on my back, I often wake up on my side, then my stomach, then my side again, as though my poor unconscious self is trying any means necessary to find comfort.

Replying on other “reports” or the advice of some of the other sites you mentioned in your previous post is one of the least reliable ways to select a mattress, and one of the reasons I recommend to eschew such items. It is possible that you are not sleeping well on your new mattress because your body finds the product uncomfortable and is constantly repositioning because the pressure build-up requires this. It is also possible that you are going through a normal period of retrogression, where your body is not used to a new product and it will take some time for you to adjust. Ultimately, I would tend to trust your instincts, and if you think the product is too firm for your liking, that’s most likely correct.

I always try to keep the inherent subjectivity of choices like this in mind, but I really am struggling to understand how ANYONE could get a good night’s sleep on this thing

As you know, comfort is subjective, and there are people who find a product like this too soft, so not being good for you doesn’t necessarily mean that it wouldn’t be comfortable for others. But ultimately, it is your opinion that is the most important, as you’re the one who needs to achieve good, restorative sleep.

Maybe I got a bad apple? I put an encasement protector on it, not sure to what degree that affects the feel. I also know the floor beneath the mattress is somewhat pitted under the carpet, but I don’t think that explains irregular firmness…

I’m not sure what you mean by “irregular firmness”. The sheets of foam used in the product are solid sheets. If there is an area of the mattress that feels quite a bit softer than another, that is something that you may wish to bring to the attention of Tuft and Needle in a phone call. I will say that if the floor underneath your mattress is irregular, this will impact the feel of the mattress. Perhaps there is one area in your home where the floor is perfectly flat and firm where you could compare the feel of the product? And while I know this is an obvious thing, do you have the mattress oriented properly with the base foam side down? I know it seems silly to ask, but it happens more times than you might think that people have the mattress “upside down”.

Regardless, it’s going back to T&N. I came back to pick your brain about what to try next, as I’m pretty skeptical of the Leesa and Casper options that The Sweethome recommended. They’re usually pretty objective, but this is a subjective area and that’s a non-trivial step up in price.

I would include sites like what you just mentioned in the cautions I listed to you in my previous reply of ignoring them as a reliable source of mattress selecting advice.

But before I could even post, I saw the megathread about the currently-introductory-priced Arctic Dream from Dreamfoam. If it weren’t for your comments defending the build quality, I never would have entertained something with this pricetag as a valid option! Money is tighter than I like to admit right now, so replacing the T&N with something that costs half as much is truly exciting (as is the free pillow, I worry my current one might be part of my problem). I already left Chuck a voicemail asking what firmness he thought I should choose, and I’m looking forward to hearing back. In the meantime, have any other ultrabudget wonders cropped up lately that bear investigating?

The Dreamfoam Arctic Dreams is a budget-friendly item that uses higher-quality layers than what you would normally find in that budget price range. They’ve recently expanded their offerings in this line, and a phone conversation with Chuck, explaining what you have right now and what you’re trying to accomplish, would be your best option. He’ll be the first to admit what this mattress is all about and the potential pitfalls to assist you in managing your expectations.

My previous reply to you had some of my best suggestions for online options, but as you’re considering a more restricted budget range, then post #4 here and the posts it links to also include many of the better lower budget online options I’m aware of.

I also found a princess-and-the-pea thread where you commented that a variance of 0.25" or more in your foundation can create a noticable difference in mattress feel. That’s shocking, and very worrying. As I mentioned before, I live in a s&$^@^le apartment where they’ve obviously just recarpet over damage to the floors from previous tenants… it’s not easily visible under carpet, but there are pits deep enough to feel with your foot all over my room, and my T&N mattress is currently lying directly on the floor (their website claims this is fine). What is my most budget-conscious option to try and responsibly correct this?

It is correct that small imperfections on a floor can translate through to the comfort of the mattress. I don’t know if your flooring imperfections would rise to that level of unevenness, so my best suggestion is as I listed previously to find an area in your apartment where the floor is perfectly flat, perhaps without carpet, jut to test and see if the mattress feels about the same. If you did find that you had rather large imperfections in your floor, the least expensive option I can come up with would be plywood sheeting on top of the carpeting.

I’ll be interested to learn of your conversation with Chuck at Dreamfoam (they’re members here, which means I think highly of them), as his suggestions for you.

Phoenix