(Quality) budget mattresses near 72131

Okay, I’m in a tricky situation. First off, I have fibromyalgia, so I have very real posture needs and very real sensitivity to pressure. Six years ago, I bought a Beautyrest with a pillowtop for this reason – it was the most supporting while not aggravating all the knots in my muscles. The top has now collapsed so bad that I can feel the springs digging into my ribs through a polyfill topper. I am getting extremely poor quality of sleep.

I have a sleigh style queen-size frame and a coil-based box spring that I’ve used for 6 years.

This leads me to the second part of the conundrum; being fully disabled, my budget is woefully inadequate. I need a quality mattress I can’t afford. Things like shipping, or having to return ship at my own cost are issues. Needing to buy a foundation is an issue.

My BIGGEST issue is that I absolutely cannot be ambushed with needing a bed (as badly as I do right now) and being forced to try to budget this again within the next few years.

I’m mostly worried I will get a bed that I will need to replace in 5 years or less because it has lost its comfort; specifically in regards to how sensitive I am to things like this with my chronic pain. I go through pillows every few months as they lose their firmness or become too firm or no longer the right size. If the mattress becomes drastically softer, less supporting, imprints too much, or harder (like all my memory foam pillows), that could be catastrophic. And I am going to be hair trigger sensitive to all that stuff, particularly imprints and hardness.

I was looking at the Tuft & Needle 10", the Casper, and the Denver Mattress Doctor’s Choice. $600 is about as far as I can comfortably stretch, but if it’s worth it I might be able to go very very slightly higher, like 650-700 (ouch).

I am wary to buy a mattress online without trying it but if I can get a refund and a company actually honors it’s no hassle trial claims, all the better. This is one of the reasons T&N is at my lead; I feel like I’ve heard they honor their refunds and, as I understand, I would get all $600 back if I can’t sleep on it. Being able to try stuff in real life would help a lot. I don’t, however, have a truck, and shipping fees have to figure into the budget.

Phoenix, man, I’ve been trying to read all this stuff about mattresses and it’s overwhelming considering the urgency of my situation. I could really use some help.

Hi Jon Do,

I didn’t see any specific questions in your post but hopefully you’ve read the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices regardless of your budget or any circumstances or health conditions you may be facing.

Two of the more important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to buy a suitable mattress that is the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for that are involved in each of them and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability, durability, and value.

[quote]My BIGGEST issue is that I absolutely cannot be ambushed with needing a bed (as badly as I do right now) and being forced to try to budget this again within the next few years.

I’m mostly worried I will get a bed that I will need to replace in 5 years or less because it has lost its comfort; specifically in regards to how sensitive I am to things like this with my chronic pain. I go through pillows every few months as they lose their firmness or become too firm or no longer the right size. If the mattress becomes drastically softer, less supporting, imprints too much, or harder (like all my memory foam pillows), that could be catastrophic. And I am going to be hair trigger sensitive to all that stuff, particularly imprints and hardness.[/quote]

This is the biggest reason to make sure you avoid the major brands or any mattress that uses lower quality materials (in the comfort layers especially) and only consider mattresses where you can verify the quality and durability of the materials inside it (see this article).

The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Little Rock, AK area (subject to the value guidelines I linked eaerlier) are listed in post #2 here.

If you do decide to look online some of the better lower budget online options I’m aware of are listed in post #4 here.

Phoenix

My major concern was durability in this price range and whether or not I was going to be forced to shop online due to store locations or in-store pricing/delivery. Also which types of materials/structure/layering would be durable in this fashion, and give both good alignment and soft pressure on the top layer.

To be honest I’m going over all the guides but it’s a lot. I guess I should have realized that I couldn’t get a specific answer or reccomendation. Mainly I’m feeling like I am missing a materials science degree to make an actual decision whatsoever. It’s truly an overwhelming amount of information to try to absorb and make a decision on.

Specifically, I was noticing noone here seems to want coils, which is a red flag. However, the Denver Mattress Doctors Choice appeals to me because I’ve never had a foam bed. Most of my concerns stem from having bad experiences with foam in pillows; namely, working for a short period and then not. I have no frame of reference, particularly for how the feel of a latex or polyfoam mattress will change over time.

I’m still torn, but I’m thinking if nothing in my post screamed to you “no do not get a T&N” I will probably start there. I have heard people say – though not here – that they got a T&N and it developed impressions and considerable less comfort after a period of months. This is why I’m torn between this and a coil bed.

I suppose durability is probably the most difficult question to try to answer in the first place. Thank you for the link to the mattress stores, hopefully I can have a square one to start at.

Hi Jon Do,

There have been many people on the forum that have purchased an innerspring mattress. The choice of materials or components or the type of mattress is a preference choice not a “better/worse” choice and innerspring mattresses are still the most popular mattress in the industry by a wide margin. The weakest link of a mattress is generally in the comfort layers above the innerspring and not in the innerspring itself so if the comfort layers use high quality and durable materials then an innerspring mattress can be a very durable choice.

There is more about the different types of innersprings in this article and in post #10 here.

Outside of a small percentage of mattresses that would be defective (which would be possible with any manufacturer) … prermature impressions in their mattress would be very unlikely for most people. It would be even less likely with their new design which uses even higher quality and more durable comfort layers than their old version.

Assessing the relative quality/durability of a mattress is actually one of the simplest parts of choosing a mattress if you make sure that you know the quality of all the materials in a mattress and follow the guidelines here. There is also more detailed information about the variables that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress in post #4 here and the posts it links to.

Phoenix

The materials article and posts you linked helps a lot, somehow I missed that in the articles and was going by a different materials-related post you had made that was a little past my depth.

Thanks, the additional info helps a lot. I am taking it that none of the reccomendations are beds are made of the kind of foam that turns much firmer or imprints, which was a big worry – what wouldn’t be an issue for some could be for me. That clears it up.

Hi Jon Do,

There are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved in choosing a mattress to make any specific recommendations about “what” to choose … so I can only help with “how” to choose … but if you make sure you find out the specifics of all the materials and components in any mattress you are considering and then compare them to the guidelines I linked (or post them on the forum and I’d be happy to make some comments about the quality/durability of the materials in the mattress) then the odds are very high that you won’t have any issues with premature softening or impressions and foam breakdown in a mattress.

Phoenix