First off, gosh-dangit, I love The Mattress Underground; it is chock-full of helpful info! Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU. I’ve read & learned & “test-driven” & compared all of that to my previous mattress experience, and I now know precisely what I want - what my body needs - in a new mattress. Springs for support, foam (as organic as possible) for comfort, (organic) cotton over wool for the top layer. I want my bed to be as natural/organic as I can manage (as in, afford). Finding a mattress with the right combination of what I want (and without mortgaging my home) is the challenge I’m currently facing, which is why I need some more, specific guidance from The Mattress Underground.
I have MS, which comes along with severe joint & muscle pain (especially my hips and shoulders) which is a significant factor when you’re mostly a side sleeper, so I require a more plush comfort layer with good pressure-point relief. I’ve found that both the “bio” (quasi-organic) memory foam and the Talalay latex feel the best to me. I prefer the more organic latex, but it’s proving difficult to find (especially for actual showroom testing purposes).
I understand the correlation of the number and quality of the springs/coils in the support layer of the mattress. What I have found works best for me are those support layers which have a combination of larger coils on the bottom with micro-coils on top of/nested in those. Obviously this combo is usually in more expensive mattresses. I’ve tested them out in name brands such as the top of the line Sterns & Foster, Aireloom & Ethan Allen (to name a few) - but the problem is that these manufacturers use comfort layers that are not of the natural/organic quality I’m looking for and/or (if I’m not mistaken) do not use non-toxic flame-retardants. Of those three, the Aireloom feels like my dream bed (pun intended), save for the fact that I cannot verify how potentially toxic their flame retardants are. And, ya know, that price tag that’s bigger than the state I live in.
Also related to having MS, I need as cool of a sleeping surface as possible, which is why I’m looking for a mattress topped with organic cotton & a generous amount of organic wool. Our current bed is a YuMe from Mattress Firm (the most plush version) which we nabbed for only $700 as it was a return (for being too soft). What I love about our bed is the comfort; what I hate about our bed is the heat-retention & the (what I didn’t know then but do now) chemical-ladenness of both the memory foam and the flame retardant process.
Because of my health/body issues, I’m hesitant to buy any mattress I cannot try out first. That being said, if I knew of a mattress that had this construction (coils & micro-coils / natural Talalay latex / organic cotton & organic wool) I would be willing to take the risk as long as the price weren’t astronomical and the company had a customer-friendly exchange/return policy. I actually love the idea of giving my business to a mattress company who is striving toward eco/organic, transparency in every piece of their products, and an organizational ethos of ethics from production to customer service. So, please, will you help advise me? I live in Houston, TX if you know of some local places to find what I’m looking for, and where I could actually test mattresses. But, as I’ve said, online/direct is fine as long as trust is deserved. Also, what is reasonable to expect to pay for this mattress “recipe” that I need.
Mucho thanks,
Denise