I need help - need natural but need firm. Am not rich.

[phoenix]

Hi bobsbarricades,

I’ve got bronchiolitis obliterans and my lungs are really in the crapper. I’ve had my current mattress for 5 years and I know it’s got a lot of bugs and germs living in it. I bought a mattress wrap on it and was expecting it to cause problems because it was polyeurethane and I had to air it out for over a week before the smell didn’t make my lungs tense up…but my first night sleeping on it was an improvement over the bare mattress.

There is some information in post #2 here about dust mites and allergies that may be helpful

So I think I might have to send this guy back. Which sucks because the materials are all what I wanted - it’s just not firm enough. I knew I was going to sacrifice a bit of firmness and this is called “medium firm” but…I don’t know my spine is unhappy with it.

I’m sorry to hear that your mattress is too soft for you but the first thing I would suggest is a conversation with My Green Mattress so they can help talk you through the options that they have available that may be more suitable for you. I’m not sure if you are local to them or not (so you can test their mattresses in person) but they would be your best source of guidance about the options you have available to either exchange or return your mattress.

So…I need help. Is there a place out there that makes Cotton/Wool FIRM mattresses? Can I precompress the springs in this guy so that it’s firmer?

My Green Mattress also has an innerspring mattress made with cotton and wool comfort layers that would probably be firmer. I don’t know of any way for a consumer to pre-compress the springs after it’s made (although some pocket coils are pre-compressed inside their pocket when they are made) but there are many low gauge and very firm innerspring mattresses on the market that would be very firm without any pre-compression.

Some of the innerspring/latex hybrid mattresses I’m aware of are listed in post #2 here and there is a list of some of the innerspring/natural fiber mattresses I’m aware of in post #4 here as well and many of these would be in a firmer range. There are also some local manufacturers that make traditional innerspring/natural fiber two sided mattresses as well (see post #2 here for one example) 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 I’m aware of in your area.

There are also many firmer futons that only use cotton or wool and some of them have shorter innersprings in their design as well. Post #2 here has a list of some of the better sources for futons that I’m aware of.

I’ll tell you what, the best mattresses I’ve ever slept on were in the hospital. They have those airbeds but I would set them to MAXIMUM air fullness. Those are the best comfortwise (next to the posturepedic memory foam I slept on a few years ago) but they’re all plastic and as hospitals tend to disturb you constantly I’m really unsure how the body would handle actually sleeping the night through for any period of time. Plus they’re tiny, I need a queen size.

You can see my comments about airbeds here but consumer airbeds would typically be softer and more prone to sagging in the middle than a firm innerspring mattress.

Phoenix