Newbie looking for new mattress

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

I am thankful I found this place before I purchased my next mattress. A little history on what I’ve had and what I’m looking for.

I started off with a “normal” Verlo mattress with pillow topper. We then had some friends gave us a factory 'test" Tempurpedic mattress. It was basically the foam with no cover. Well that must have been a bad batch because it cracked. My wife and I liked it while we had it but needed to replace it quickly because we were falling into the cracks! Being fed up and wanted a quick fix we bought a Bragada memory foam mattress. It was okay but it hasn’t been that long and now we are noticing that it is compressing where we sleep and the middle of the bed has a hump where we don’t sleep. So we are now on the lookout for a new one.

I’m interested and have been reading a lot about natural movements and patterns. One of the things that I cam across is how sleeping on hard(er) surfaces is supposed to be better for you. I started looking into Japanese futons and that is when I found the Tuft and Needle mattress and then this site.

Whenever I’ve had to sleep on the ground I never had a problem, I just don’t think I can convince my wife to do the same! I really like the minimalist look of the Tuft and Needle but have the concerns of compression/durability and comfort. I’m also interested in becoming a little more “green”, so the natural latex mattresses are catching my eye.

Neither my wife nor I are big people; both under 5’5" and under 140lbs.

I have admittedly not ready all of the information yet but I wanted to just say hi and thanks for a wealth of knowledge and information.

2

Hi EvanP,

I know there are some people who believe this but I’m certainly not one of them. Because it can result in pelvic tilting and pressure points … it would not only be uncomfortable for most people but could be harmful as well because the spine isn’t supported in its natural alignment. To some degree this may be “less harmful” for a back sleeper but a sleeping surface that is too firm provides poor support/alignment for the body. There are some cultures (such as Japan and parts of Asia) where people use this type of sleeping system much more because they tend to have a much higher percentage of back sleepers than the west and because of physiological differences their pelvis doesn’t naturally tilt as much when they sleep on a firm surface but this is not the case for most people in the western world.

Of course it’s also true that what works best for “most” people may not work well for “some” people and if your experience indicates that you sleep better and more deeply on a firm surface compared to a sleeping surface that provides more contouring support then that may be what’s best for you regardless of how suitable it may be for anyone else.

I’m glad you found us :slight_smile:

You’ve probably already seen this but just in case you haven’t … the tutorial post here is the best place to start.

Good luck in your search and I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding … and of course any comments or questions you may have along the way.

Phoenix