Tempurpedic Rhapsody Breeze Review

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

After lots of research and consulting my chiropractor, I made the decision to buy a Tempurpedic - Rhapsody Breeze (king) on 01/30/2013. There aren’t many reviews out right now on the Breeze so I thought I would try to help out and give as much of an ongoing review as I can.

To start, I’m 33 yr old male, 6ft 1in 240lb and a stomach sleeper (very rarely I will sleep on my side). My girlfriend is also in her 30’s is about 5ft 6in 155lb and a side sleeper. We share the bed with a 45lb dog, a 25lb dog, and occassionally a growing kitten.

I have had a history of back problems since I was 18, I was unloading a semitruck improperly and tweaked it; the following day I was in a car accident and struck my head and developed lower back problems that went away with chiropractic care. As time went on, I had several other minor lower back injuries. Additionally, I worked as a police officer so I carried about 20lbs of gear on a belt and my lower back always had something poking into my spine when I would sit while wearing the duty belt.

My back got worse and worse until finally I tripped during a raid of a marijuana garden and threw my back out for good. I left law enforcement, and had an L5-S1 microdiscectomy about two years ago. After a short period of rehab, I was ENTIRELY pain free for the first time in 13 years! Unfortunately, that only lasted until I was T-Boned by a drunk driver about 4 months ago and I immediately began feeling my same old lower back pains, left leg pain, and now nerve damage that makes it feel like I constantly have a sock jammed under my baby toe or I just have no feeling in my toe whatsoever. I also developed neck pain for the first time ever and now wake up with a minor stiff neck almost every day.

My girlfriend has very slight back issues from a car accident 20 years ago but she has never had to seek professional help for it and rarely mentions it.

As such, my current chiropractor and I discussed the need for a better bed and he suggested I go with the Tempurpedic Rhapsody. I chose the Breeze because I am a hot sleeper and sometimes wake up sweaty.

I ordered the bed on Jan 30th and it arrived at the house on Feb 6th. I also ordered a Tempur-Cloud pillow for myself and a Tempu-Symphony pillow for her and those arrived Feb 1st.

I am still waiting for my bedset to arrive (non-Tempurpedic, we wanted a storage bed) and that will get here on Feb 9th.

I originally planned to not use the mattress or pillows until the bedset arrived on the 9th because I want to try out the whole system together for the first time and boy am I glad I did!

After the mattress was delivered, I took off the plastic wrapping and was immediately enveloped by a horrible stench. I have read that these mattresses have a “slight odor” but this was so strong that I was only able to be in the room with it for about 5 minutes before starting to sneeze. I left the house to take the dogs on a 45 minute walk and when I returned, I could immediately smell the mattress as I opened the front the door. It’s a modest 2,100 sq ft home and the mattress is in the masterbedroom upstairs, not on the main level I entered through.

Over the course of next hour or so, I started to develop a headache. I never get headaches, period. I have not taken aspirin/tylenol/whatever you need for a headache in several years because I never have headaches.

I decided I had better shut the door to the bedroom to let this thing offgas in privacy. I opened both windows in the room, even though it is February in Wisconsin, and propped the mattress on it’s side so that it would have as much airflow hitting the surface areas of the mattress as possible.

I moved my original bed into a guestroom and slept there for the night. This morning, I went into a chilly master bedroom and found that the smell was beginning to subside, though it is still strong. I still have 48 hours for it to offgas before the bedset arrives and we make our first attempt to sleep on it that night. I will update you then and start reviewing the mattress itself.

I should also note, my girlfriend doesn’t live with me, so she has not had the chance to smell the new bed yet and make a comment. I will try to include her opinions in here as well, assuming she offers any. :slight_smile:

-Sean

2

Hi seanerrolquinn,

Thanks for your feedback :slight_smile:

Your circumstances (heavier stomach sleeper with back issues) indicate that at least “in theory” … the Rhapsody would likely be a good “fit” for you. Of course personal experience always trumps theory but it will be interesting to see your ongoing experiences with the mattress.

It’s always surprising to me when chiropractors recommend a mattress that is not particularly good “value” compared to many other memory foam mattresses that are realistic “apples to apples” comparisons (as opposed to the many that are unrealistically compared to Tempurpedic) but I also understand that they are often not particularly knowledgeable about mattresses and the many options that are available in the market so their knowledge may be limited to what they are most familiar with and which of the Tempurpedics may work best in certain circumstances regardless of their “value” rather than a wider knowledge of what else may be available.

In any case … Tempurpedic for the most part uses good quality materials (and this is certainly the case with the Rhapsody) and can be a “safe” memory foam choice in terms of foam quality even if they are significantly overpriced compared to many of their legitimate competitors.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and feedback and I’m certainly interested in seeing how the mattress works out for you as you (and your girlfriend) go through any transition and break in period and make the transition into how it will feel and perform over the longer term.

Phoenix

3

We (my DP and I) also had a reaction to a memory foam mattress (not Tempur-pedic). Though the bed had almost no odor, we both had sinus and throat irritation, headaches, and a general unwell feeling night after night. Interestingly, the mattress we bought had over 2,000 reviews, and while many reported a “slight odor,” quite a few reported an overwhelming stench such as you describe. Everyone’s different, but I have to wonder about quality control during manufacturing (“consistency” is part of “quality”), possible different sources for the “same” materials, or whether raw materials that sit for a while before assembly may have much lower odor levels than those “fresh out of the vat.”

I also wonder which chemicals could cause a headache like that…

I hate to say it, but if the bed gave you a headache already, you could be in for a rough ride… It will be interesting to hear how you like the bed after sleeping on it. Good luck!

4

As promised, an update on my new Tempurpedic Rhapsody Breeze. I have slept on the mattress now for 3 nights and am already noticing some changes.

First off, after letting it air out for several days with the windows open, the horrible smell is dramatically reduced! I can only smell the mattress now while laying on it and not from the other side of the house or even just standing inside the room as before. The odor is not overpowering and is not causing us to have any adverse conditions. I stop noticing the smell after just a minute or two on the mattress. As such, we were finally able to try it out for the first time on Saturday night.

Night 1 - My girlfriend and the dogs absolutely loved the bed from the start. I loved the feel of the bed, but had tremendous trouble falling asleep; though it should that I drank a very large quantity of soda (something I don’t usually do) so the caffiene may have had a role in this. I tried everything, my stomach, my side and even my back but just couldn’t fall asleep. The bed felt great, I just couldn’t relax mentally. When I did start to fall asleep, I had the sensation that I was sliding towards the edge of the bed and would fall off. This was probably a result of a) the new, super silky smooth sheets and the fact that my old bed was a mattress on the ground (approximately 1ft from the floor) and the new bed is a storage bed with a 12" mattress on top so I am now literally 3ft from the floor! I previously had a near fatal accident at work where I fell 15ft and had a 200ish lb object land on me and break some bones and cause a hospital stay so I have a healthy fear of falls. I probably wound up sleeping about 3-4 hours over the course of the night and felt tired the entire next day. My back, neck and foot all felt about the same as before. My girlfriend said she felt amazing after the full night’s sleep and the little dog, who always follows me everywhere I go, refused to get up and out of the bed and even jumped back up after I carried him off of it to go outside.

Night 2 - Just me and the dogs and I slept a lot better! It wasn’t a “sleep like the dead” deep sleep as I woke up a few times during the night. One thing I noticed, I normally go to sleep in one spot and wake up exactly where I started but not this night. Every time I woke during the night (3-4 times), I was slowly migrating across the bed. I started near the left corner, (where I traditionally slept before the new king size) at one point, I was just a few inches from the right corner! By the morning, I was back to near the middle of the bed. It was quite odd! I felt much more rested, but wished I could stay in the bed longer. Incredibly, the pain/stiffness in my neck and foot were totally gone and was greatly reduced in my lower back.

Night 3 - Just me and the dogs again. Again, a much better quality sleep. I think I only woke up once during the night. I’m noticing that I am having an increased number of dreams (at least that I can remember). I didn’t “migrate” across the bed at all :slight_smile: And my neck felt perfect this morning, and just a minor amount of pain in the lower back and foot, though still much better than on the old mattress.

Overall, I am pleased with the mattress experiment so far. I know it was an expensive purchase but I am a very frugal person and hardly ever treat myself to anything frivilous so it was nice to treat myself for once. Who knows, maybe I can get some or all of it written into my settlement for the car accident, as a medical expense :stuck_out_tongue:

I will post again in a week or so since I don’t think you guys need a daily update, but are more concerned with the long-term at this point.

One more thing, the Breeze aspect of the mattress seems to work pretty well, I didn’t sleep hot the first night with my girlfriend and actually put an additional blanket on the next two nights as I felt the bed was doing a little too good at regulating the heat away. I keep my house pretty cold at night (61 degrees) and the additional synthetic down blanket worked perfectly. Til next time!

-Sean

5

Sean,
I liked your way of writing… you are detailed and that has provided us (me and my wife) the comfort to trust a stranger / unknown reviewer…

I hope, you are doing good and probably you got paid for this mattress by the insurance. B)

What we are wondering now is, after sleeping for more than 6 months on that mattress… What do you think about the bed?

Are you really liking it?
(Sorry but I am skeptic and I think… when people spend so much money then they hate to admit… I made a boo boo)…
And that’s why I am interested in your honest opinion… because as I mentioned above… you sound like a person who tell what is true… regardless the situation…
May be we trust you because of your law enforcement background?:wink:

Regards,
Kas