New Alexander Hybrid Mattress from Nest Bedding

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
83

Hi Torin,

I switched your post into a new topic of its own since it had nothing to do with the topic you posted in.

Iā€™m not sure why you would be qualified to recommend any mattress for someone else or your knowledge about mattresses or mattress materials but Iā€™m assuming that you purchased a Casper and you like it ā€¦ although this would have nothing to do with whether your mattress would be suitable or comfortable for anyone else.

You seem to have also ā€œboughtā€ their marketing story along with your mattress.

Phoenix

84

Hi Phoenix, thanks again for your thoroughness & expertise. I did notice there was no mention of the composition of the mattress. I called Voila, but the service rep didnā€™t have the information available. They promised to get back to me, so as soon as I hear from them, I will post it. She did say that Talay was in it & the materials came from outside the US.

85

This one looked intriguing to me too but I wasnā€™t able to get much information from them either on the materials used and I am put off by the fact itā€™s a Chinese made mattress although that likely explains the very competitive pricing.

86

I donā€™t typically have issues with sleeping hot. My husband said our old TempurCloud was very hot for him yet I only had occasional heat issues. I can give you a better assessment in a few days. I was not hot last night by any means.[/quote]

How is the mattress going for you? Still happy with it? I am strongly considering this one as a replacement for my Nest Hybrid. Would you say the firmness is comparable to your Cloud Supreme or would you say itā€™s a bit firmer or softer?

87

I donā€™t think so but since Iā€™m not really sure if I was right to post it there I guess itā€™s your call in the end.

Well, if weā€™re talking qualifications as in official certifications then no, Iā€™m not qualified to recommend anything at all. It just so happens I once had a job as a mattress salesman. Granted, that was quite some time ago and I had been working for four months. Doesnā€™t make me a pro, but stillā€¦

I guess? The video Iā€™ve seen on Amazon is very convincing.

88

Hi Torin,

If you worked as a mattress salesperson then you would know that there is no such thing as a single mattress that is the ā€œbest choiceā€ for the specific needs and preferences of most people. If there was then you would only have been selling one mattress in each budget range. You can also read more about what I call the ā€œsimplified choiceā€ mattresses and some of their marketing claims in post #1 here. There is also more about the Casper mattress in post #2 in the same topic.

As sad as it may be ā€¦ most of the members here that have spent an hour or two on this website or reading the mattress shopping tutorial will also know more about mattresses and mattress materials than the large majority of the sales people in the mainstream industry that sell them.

One of the most frequent comments that I also make in my replies on the forum is this one ā€¦

A video wonā€™t tell you much if anything about whether a mattress will be a suitable ā€œmatchā€ for you in terms of comfort, firmness, or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) or the quality and durability of the materials inside a mattress.

Phoenix

89

Hi Abbygrant,

How do you like the Novosbed? My wife and I have a Bear mattress but after 2 months were just not happy with it. I find it too firm and sometimes wake up in the night with my arm numb (side sleeper) and have been experiencing shoulder and back pain. I am leaning towards the Novosbed Soft and see thatā€™s what you purchased. Having owned the Bear mattress yourself, how does the Novosbed compare? Is it significantly softer? I am about to pull the trigger on the Novos, but would like to hear your opinions first. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tyson

90

[quote=ā€œzexpressā€ post=61535]
How is the mattress going for you? Still happy with it? I am strongly considering this one as a replacement for my Nest Hybrid. Would you say the firmness is comparable to your Cloud Supreme or would you say itā€™s a bit firmer or softer?[/quote]

Well, Iā€™ve been sleeping on the Novosbed soft for a week now. I am cautiously optimistic that this is ā€œthe oneā€. So far, I would consider it firmer than the Cloud Supreme. It has that tempurpedic type feel, meaning the foam feels dense and you sink into it a bit. I think it is also cooler than the Cloud Supreme. As I mentioned before Iā€™m not a hot sleeper. But I always noticed that the Cloud Supreme retained heat and felt warm to the touch for quite awhile after I got out of bed in the mornings. The Novosbed does not retain heat like the Cloud Supreme did. I will report back again in another week or so.

91

Hi Tyson,

My Bear Mattress was too firm for me and I also woke up with shoulder and upper back pain. I liked it for the first week, but I gradually got more and more pain and stopped sleeping on it after about 3 weeks. I know they recommend 30 days but I couldnā€™t take it.

I ordered a Novosbed soft, which was recommended by Gaille at Novosbed. I was leaning toward a Novos medium, but after I explained my likes and dislikes to Gaille she strongly recommended the soft. Iā€™m glad she did. It is a good deal softer than the Bear mattress, yet it feels supportive. I have been sleeping on it for a week, have not had shoulder pain and am sleeping soundly. It definitely works better for me than the Bear. I can give you another report in another week if interested. If you do order a Novosbed soft Iā€™d like to hear your comments as well.

92

They never responded to my initial inquiry about the composition of their product, despite my having given them my phone number.

93

Hi Loiroi,

Thanks for letting us know.

I hope that at some point someone will be more successful than you were in finding out the specifics of the materials inside it but of course itā€™s also possible that they are just choosing not to disclose this information as well.

Phoenix

94

Abbygrant,
If youā€™re still around now a couple months later, Iā€™ll add my voice to the crowd requesting your updated opinions on the Novosbed Soft. :slight_smile:

My wife and I tried many beds at the local big brand store and ended up finding the Cloud Supreme Breeze 2.0 as our favorite. The Cloud Luxe Breeze 2.0 was too much sink in for my wife, and another that she liked didnā€™t have hardly any sink in in my opinion, but the Supreme was just enough in the middle to seem right to both of us.

Until this morning I had been considering going with the NovosBed Medium and adding the Soft Comfort+ layer if necessary, but the common thread among the NovosBed reviews is that theyā€™re a bit firmer than most people expect. I talked with Gaille and based on what I said above, she strongly recommended the Soft mattress. She separately told me that itā€™s generally better to start with their medium bed and make it softer than to try to make their soft bed firmer, but based on our preferences she said weā€™d want the Soft anyway.

Along those lines, in case anyone is wondering, I got the specs on the Comfort+ layers from Gaille as well. First they are a ā€œhigh grade foamā€ instead of a memory foam. Second, they are both 2.0lb density. Last, the Soft Comfort+ has an ILD of 8 while the firmā€™s ILD is 32. I know that doesnā€™t mean much in absolute terms, but just for reference if anyone else is considering the combinationsā€¦

Finally, I did stumble across a screenshot from 2013 when they had the 4 beds (Aria, Harmony, etc.) and their website used to compare the Harmony (now called Soft) directly against the Cloud Supreme Breeze. Hereā€™s the site where I found the screenshot: Sleep, Dream, and Feel Good : NovosBed.com. I know that comparison doesnā€™t mean much objectively about how the beds actually feel, but I take it as a good sign that weā€™re making the right choice on the Soft over the Medium.

So with all that said, now that youā€™ve had yours for a few months, and owned both the Cloud Supreme and the Novos Soft, Iā€™m sure many of us would love to hear your updated impressions. Even (especially!) if it turns out you ended up returning the mattress for some reason. Weā€™ll be taking the plunge on the Soft in about 2 weeks! Thank you!

95

Hi Magialisk,

Hopefully abbygrant will see your post and share their comments but I would always keep in mind that while other peopleā€™s comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful, you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and I would be cautious about about using anyone elseā€™s suggestions, experiences or reviews on a specific mattress (either positive or negative) or review sites in general as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you. In many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own personal preferences) may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (even if they are in a similar weight range). In other words ā€¦ reviews or other peopleā€™s experiences in general wonā€™t tell you much if anything about the suitability, quality, durability, or ā€œvalueā€ of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here).

Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like ā€œmediumā€ for someone else or even ā€œsoftā€ for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they ā€œrateā€ a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can also have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.

When you canā€™t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help ā€œtalk you throughā€ the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and ā€œfeelā€ of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and the options they have available that may be the best ā€œmatchā€ for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the ā€œaveragesā€ of other customers that are similar to you (which you have already done). They will know more about ā€œmatchingā€ their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else and their guidance will give you the best chance of success.

Like many of the other simplified choice mattresses ā€¦ Novosbed also has a great return policy that lets you try the mattress in your bedroom without any risk so you can decide for yourself based on your own perceptions of firmness and softness whether the mattress is a good match for you in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP without relying on other peopleā€™s experiences which may be very different from your own.

You are certainly looking at a great quality/value choice.

Phoenix

96

Magialisk,

Well, Iā€™m not 100% happy with the Novosbed. It is definitely firmer than the TempurCloud Supreme. Sadly, I am still experiencing shoulder pain. I ordered the comfort kit soft and that did not work for me. It made the mattress too soft and caused lower back and shoulder pain. I took the comfort kit off for a few nights, and the back pain subsided but the shoulder pain came back. I added the comfort kit back for 2 nights and the back pain came back. The last few nights I have slept on the mattress without the comfort kit. I also added some stuffing to my Nest Bedding easy breather pillow, thinking that some of the shoulder pain could be caused by the pillow being too flat.

So this leaves me still thinking about trying another mattress while Iā€™m still in the trial period. Iā€™ve had my eye on the Alexander Signature Select soft. I may go ahead and order one, sleep on it for awhile and see how it compares to the Novosbed. Iā€™m really frustrated and not understanding why Iā€™m getting shoulder pain from every mattress except my old TempurCloud supreme.

97

Hi abbygrant,

Thanks for taking the time to share your update.

Iā€™m sorry to hear that your Novosbed also isnā€™t working out quite as well as you hoped for although based on your previous comments I was hopeful that you would have better success than you did with the previous 3 online mattresses that you tried.

It seems to me that you are more sensitive to smaller differences in a mattress than most people and since you have already tried 4 online mattresses that didnā€™t work out for you it may be worthwhile considering a local choice that you can test in person and compare to many other mattresses before making your next purchase.

While there is little financial risk in continuing to try online mattresses that have a good return policy ā€¦ I do understand that trying and returning many mattresses and starting all over again each time can certainly be both time consuming and frustrating.

Phoenix

98

Thanks Abbygrant for sharing your updated thoughts. Iā€™m sorry to hear about all the trouble youā€™ve been having with the different mattresses.

My wife and I are going to take the plunge with NovosBed in a couple weeks, and keeping my fingers crossed that after all this research weā€™re doing the right thing :). Our current bed is a eurotop innerspring, roughly 10 years old, and there are two depressions where we each sleep, a little over an inch deep. So Iā€™m really hopeful that just about any mattress we get will be an improvement, but I really want the NovosBed to work out.

Best wishes to you in finding that perfect mattress. From what Iā€™ve seen, both the Alexander and the Brooklyn Bedding (Latex) seem to be pretty popular in terms of a ā€œsoftā€ option, instead of the universal medium-firm that most companies are offeringā€¦

99

Hi abbygrant,

Iā€™m sorry to hear that your shoulder pain is continuing despite trying 4 different mattresses. I can sense your frustration - Iā€™ve been there myself: I suffer from Ankylosing Spondilytis and have had many frustrating nights sleeping on beds that aggravate my condition. I also found that there were many other potentially aggravating factors, such as:

  1. Room temperature
  2. Nature/duration of my physical activity (or lack thereof) during the day
  3. Changes to my duvet/comforter (and even sheets)
  4. Stability of my bed frame
  5. Changes in weather (this is highly subjective and unscientific, but definitely noticeable)

In some of your earlier posts you suggested that the Novosbed was working well for you, but that now (~2 months later) your pain has returned. Has every night been uncomfortable for you, or are you still having some comfortable nights?

Thanks,
Sam

President

100

Hello Sam,

The Novosbed has been better than other mattresses Iā€™ve tried, but it is causing shoulder pain. My shoulders are sore and tender every morning. The difference between this and firmer beds is that the pain and tenderness is not as bad with the Novosbed. I donā€™t want shoulder pain all the time so the Novosbed must be too firm for me.

Other factors that you mention are not an issue for me. We keep our bedroom cool at night. 64 in the winter and around 72 in the summer. I am an active person so I usually sleep well. We use a Legget and Platt adjustable frame so bed frame is not an issue. My husband does not snore near as much or as loud because he now sleeps with his side of the bed slightly elevated. His snoring used to be my main problem sleeping!

101

Hi abbygrant,

Can you describe the nature of your shoulder pain? Is it on the outside of your shoulder? Inside? Back? Front? What movements are causing you discomfort?

I know that the Comfort+ seemed to cause you back stiffness, but did it definitively solve your reduce your shoulder pain?

Memory foam can soften up over time, so it could be that you are comparing your brand new Novosbed to a used and softened TempurCloud Supreme: how old was your TempurCloud Supreme?

Thanks,
Sam

102

The pain is on the outside of my shoulders. Movement doesnā€™t bother me, itā€™s simply sore on the outside from pressure. I sleep on my side and usually turn over once or twice during the night. I did not ever get that soreness on the TempurCloud Supreme. The TempurCloud is about 6 or 7 years old. The novosbedhas a similar feel to the TempurCloud, but the TempurCloud is softer and has more of a ā€œhugā€ feel to it.

The comfort+ kit did relieve the shoulder pain, but gave me terrible lower back aches.