As someone who lives with GERD, I have slept on an inclined bed for about eight years. I have always just used those inexpensive bed risers to raise reheard of my head. I have always used a simplemetal bedframe with no headboard or footboard. Now that I’m actually a respectable (more or less) and mature (more or less) adult, I have really wanted an actual bed. You know, a nice solid wood piece of furniture that looks nice… I have never pulled the trigger on such a purchase simply because of my inclined bed problem. Headboards look really weird at a 6 degree angle away from parallel with the wall. I finally found the solution.
This is a metal bed frame insert which gives the mattress an inclined frame but still allows the bed itself to remain parallel with the floor. Am I the last person to find out about this? I am thrilled to have found this for myself. I will post again after it is installed.
Well I didn’t know about these either so at least you weren’t the very last one to find out about them :).
Of course many people use adjustable beds (and some of these will tilt as well as bend) but these seem to be an effective and much less costly solution and as you mentioned also keep the mattress flat instead of having just the head of the bed raised.
Thanks for sharing your discovery and I’d be interested to know how well it works for you.
Beds up insert arrived yesterday. I assembled and installed it under my current box spring/innerspring mattress (new latex mattress will arrive in a couple of weeks). Assembly/setup was not difficult. However, I do have a couple of observations.
First, I didn’t realize until after I returned the box spring to the frame that the frame was assembled so that it isn’t completely square. That’s my fault since I didn’t think to put a carpenter’s square on it before I put the box spring back on. I’m sure I can loosen the clamps and fiddle with the angles to get it to be square. I’ll do that when the new bed and mattress arrives.
Immediately after returning the mattress to the top of the box spring, I went for a quick test nap. I found the frame makes the bed a little more wobbly. This has either “settled in” or I have quickly adjusted to it because I can’t really feel any undue wobbly-ness at this point. Also, I used the highest adjustment bracket (6") which may be more wobbly than the lower settings (which are the starter settings recommended by the manufacturer).
I also have to throw in some kudos to Beds Up for their customer service. Last Saturday, I found this frame. I had a question about compatibility with certain beds. I sent an email through the website’s “contact us” feature. About ten minutes later, a very knowledgeable representative (may have been Mr. Beds Up himself…can’t remember) called to answer my question. On a Saturday. Shipping was fairly fast too. Ordered on Saturday, received on Thursday.
All in all, this seems to be an outstanding solution for someone who wishes to sleep on an inclined bed. So far, I’m very satisfied with this and would whole-heartedly recommend it.
Thanks for the report. I think this will help a lot of people who are looking for a cost effective solution to inclined sleeping. It sounds to me like it just took some weight to settle into even support.
Not sure how long ago you wrote your post about the BedsUp product, but I’d be very interested what you think about it after having used it for awhile. How has it been working for you?
I know I’m not teaguejb, but through the years I have referred people to the BedsUp system and they’ve been happy. I can say that you have to make sure you assemble it well, it’s square, and the legs are tight. It may take some small adjustments to get the height on the legs just right.
Thanks for replying. I’m doing some market research for a possible product based on my own experience with very persistent GERD. Can I contact you? I’d love to pick your brain about what people like about this product and what they do not like. I have seen this product before but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it myself.
During the day it’s pretty difficult for me to talk to people, as I’m running my own store. It’s easier for me to reply to posts on forums like this when I have the available time, plus it benefits others who may have similar questions.
I can tell you that people like elevations systems like this as the entire sleep system is angled, so there is no bend in the mattress. Also, it is much more affordable than getting an adjustable bed, and it works with any mattress set, so you don’t need to purchase something new that would be adjustable bed friendly should your old mattress set not be so.
Just so you know, I do not sell this product.
If you have other specific questions, feel free to post here and I’ll do my best to answer with my experiences. Others might also be able to chime in.
The benefits are pretty obvious of this bed, and it definitely looks like a solid product. Are there things people don’t like about it that you’re aware of?
I know that it would be subjective, but I would say the most common “issue” would be that you set this frame at a set height, and if you need to adjust it you need to crawl under the mattress set and adjust things manually, so it’s not something that you can adjust to different angles with a touch of the remote like an adjustable bed base. I don’t see this as a problem, but instead a limitation of the product due to its intended design.
That’s what I would have thought just looking at it. Do you know if anyone has ever had an issue with how it looks? My wife took one look at it when I first saw it and thought it would look strange even with a bedskirt because of the angle. Also, what would you do if your partner didn’t want to sleep on an incline?
No one has ever commented to me about the looks, as it is more like a standard bed frame, and the reason they were considering the product was more for health/sleep issues and not so much for aesthetics, but I guess it could look odd with the bed skirt being higher at the head of the bed, and as I’m not aware of any skirt made for such a product, all I could recommend would be the “pin-on” style that you could adjust to follow the elevation, or of course creating your own and adjusting the hem.
Both people sleeping on the incline would also be another thing that I could have mentioned as a potential downfall, but with the incline being gentle and the bed not being “bent” to incline it, the feedback I’ve received from people is that their partner was fine with it. But I know that is subjective information and not from a particularly large sample size.
Are you aware of any companies out there actually selling an inclined bed that was specifically designed on an incline? There are plenty of foam wedges out there in addition to the BedsUp, but I haven’t seen anything else.
I know I’m not Jeff, but Glideaway did come out a few years ago with an adjustable bed that also inclines called the Elevation. There is also an Inclined Bed Therapy site that is interesting.
I know this is an old thread, but it helped me a lot and I wanted to share my solution. First, I used the BedsUp metal incline insert for about 15 years and it worked great. But I had a split queen base from Flobed (with legs removed) sitting on top of the BedsUp, which was sitting in the rails of a metal bed frame. There was insufficient support in the middle, both lengthwise and crosswise, despite the extra legs on the Heavy Duty BedsUp incline. Over the years, the split queen platforms separated, creating a trough down the middle. I was sleeping in a ditch.
I planned to buy a new mattress (either the Nest Finch or SleepEZ) but knew I needed a new platform bed to put it on in order to comply with the mattress companies’ warranties in case I needed to return anything. I looked seriously at the Glideaway 500, which is still available on Amazon, and a new product line from Symphony Sleep, who bought Glideaway. But I don’t want hydraulics that rely on an app to control them or something with a lot of moving parts that will eventually break. And I didn’t need the head/foot tilt – I just needed the base incline, so I’d be paying a lot of money for stuff I didn’t want or need.
I tried to get bids from carpenters to build me a wooden bed, but they were in the $3000 range. I ended up purchasing the Nomad Platform wooden bed base from KD Frames for $219. It ships with 15" legs. I purchased additional leg sets at 18" and 12", which gave me the 6" incline that I needed. I was (and still am) concerned about the torque on the bottom legs. They no longer sit flat to the floor, and the 5 degree incline puts most of the bed and mattress weight on them. The Nomad is extremely well built, but I added additional bracing anyway. So the incline bed problem was solved.
A bigger problem was attaching the platform bed to my headboard. If you use a headboard, please consider the triangular gap that will be created when you tilt the headboard forward to be square to the bed base. I ended up cutting triangular wooden wedges to insert between the base and headboard. I bolted them all together with 6" carriage bolts.
I’m using the old Flobeds mattress that still has sufficient support now that there is no split in the base. It will outlast me (I’m 70). I plan to purchase a natural latex topper to mitigate the split in the mattress halves.