Hi all. I have a question for any tech savvy or mattress engineers out there.
I bought this I-Comfort foam mattress @ the beginning of 2015 (new). Having previously been sleeping on coil mattresses forever, this is my first foam mattress. I LUV it except for one issue, that no-one seems to be able to answer. I have been living in this house for 30 years, and it is on a solid concrete foundation, here in the Los Angeles vicinity, and is next to a very busy freeway. We have added additional insulation to the walls and ceiling, as well as dual pane windows. Sleeping on all coil spring mattresses previously, I have never encountered this issue. Every weekday morning @ about 3AM, the semi truck traffic picks up, and the rumbling from the tires pounding the pavement, transfers into the ground. That noise and vibration travels up through our foundation, through the bed frame and mattress, through the pillows (doesn’t seem to matter soft, or firm) and ends up waking me up on a daily basis. I have been using several brands of ear plugs, and am considering either an air pillow, or some sort of noise cancelling earbud system, but first, wanted to know if anybody out there, might have an idea how I might insulate the bed frame and/or mattress to reduce this pounding effect? I surely cannot believe that I am the only one on earth that has this issue, and would suppose that those living adjacent to a busy commercial airport, or railway might have a similar problem. Any ideas??.
Hi toolio,
I think that the first thing to determine is whether you are being woken up by sound or by vibration (although it may be a combination of both). Based on your comments it seems like the solutions you have been trying would have more effect on sound than on vibration.
If the vibrations you are experiencing are coming through the floor (you may be able to test this by putting a bowl of water on the floor and seeing if the water remains smooth and flat at the time you have the problem) then the best suggestion I would have is to try a process of elimination to try to isolate which of the three components you are sleeping on (your bedframe, your foundation, and your mattress) are contributing to what you are experiencing. I would start with sleeping with your mattress directly on the floor so that you can eliminate the bedframe and/or foundation as a potential source of the problem.
If this seems to solve the problem then you would have identified that the probable or at least the “biggest” cause would either be the foundation you are using or the bedframe. You could then try using the mattress and foundation directly on the floor (I would put a thick blanket underneath the foundation if you don’t have a carpeted floor) to see which of the two (foundation or bedframe) is the most likely “culprit”.
Once you have identified which component is the most likely cause or is transferring the most vibration … then you would need to do some detective work to figure out why. This could involve testing such as tapping one part of the component in various places and seeing how much you can feel it in other parts of the component and then trying to isolate the part of the component that is either loose or “wobbly” or somehow transferring vibration. If you are certain that you have identified the component that is the biggest contributor to the vibration but can’t identify the reason why then you may need to replace it.
If none of the options you try seem to help and you experience the same issues on every combination or you can’t identify why you are having the issue then it possible that the vibrations aren’t coming through the floor but are somehow coming “through the air” but it may be worth trying some type of rubber caster cups under the legs of your bedframe to see if they help isolate the vibration anyway.
I don’t know whether any of these suggestions will help you identify the most likely cause for your experience but I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback about whether any of them are helpful or make a difference.
Hopefully some of the other members that have experienced similar issues to you will also see your post and share any suggestions that have worked for them as well.
Phoenix