Well, the Mattress Story, I’m sure, will have an epilogue, but it has been a while since I posted. I wanted to get a sense of how all the different elements worked for… well, you know…actually sleeping. You know the adage (actually, many know only part of the adage): It’s not “The proof is in the pudding.” It’s “The proof of the pudding is in the tasting.” Which makes sense, right? You have to really try it. And trying it, the case of a mattress, isn’t and shouldn’t be merely lying on it in the middle of the day with your day clothes on.
Unfortunately, for many high end bed makers, you don’t get a chance to try it for its intended purpose – sleeping. Lying on it, even for an hour, in the middle of the day, isn’t the same as sleeping, in your PJs or less, with the pillow that you’ll be using, in the home that you’re using at the moment, etc.
As a recap, we had gone to test beds from Gardner Mattress, Berkeley Ergonomics, Green Sleep, even ViSpring for a lark (Nicest mattresses, for sure, but way out of our price range.). We were, for the first time, really researching and trying to come up with a bed that truly would give us a good night’s rest and support my and my wife’s bodies, as well as being comfortable. I have had a couple of lower back issues, so proper support was of particular importance.
My wife and I tend to sleep on our side, but not exclusively. I frequently wake up on my back. I almost always fall asleep on my side. Finding the correct balance of support, comfort and heat/moisture management was kind of tough. Clearly the ViSpring would have been a no-brainer if the price were right (but the price wasn’t).
We ended up spending more than we had anticipated by going with the Green Sleep Niu. We wanted the benefits of a pocketed coil bed to isolate our movement from each other. The Niu has 2 layers of Dunlop foam (totaling 3") with layers of cotton and wool. The most interesting part of the design is the pocket coil support layer. It’s 2-sided. One side has coir (rubberized coconut fiber) while the other side has no coir but provides an extra layer of wool between the coils and the latex. It makes for a softer support, while the coir provides more firmness. Each side of the bed’s coils can be turned depending on the individual preferences of the sleeper. This means not only do the pocketed coils themselves help eliminate side to side jostling, but each side of the bed’s coils are segregated as well. This is not the case with regard to the latex. These 1 1/2" sheets (x2) cover the entire bed.
Initially, I was thinking I’d want the coir side up and we purchased it with that in mind. We also bought a Sleeptek 1" wool topper for 2 reasons - it added more air circulation between the mattress and sleeping surface, and it softened the contact a bit more. The Niu is not the cushiest, plushest mattress you’re going to sleep on, but it aligned and supported my body really well in the showroom, in most ways, better than any other. It wasn’t the plushest, but I thought that spinal alignment was the most important criterion. I figured that softening the top would be something that could be done with additives, so to speak.
Additionally, we wanted some sort of mattress pad, one that would absorb night sweats that my wife was experiencing and that was washable (the topper is not). We didn’t want a cotton one, which would keep moisture at the surface, nor did we want a rubberized one (Not at that stage – yet). We ended up with a St. Dormier.
So the results after a month or so are this:
Heat/moisture: Very comfortable. Honestly, temperatures in the Northeast this summer have largely been so moderate that we haven’t even needed to install our air conditioners. Could have used them, perhaps, for 2 or 3 nights, tops. Still, no sense that we’re sleeping on rubber latex, that’s for sure.
Support: Sleeping with the pocket coils coir side up proves to be a bit too stiff for side sleeping, I think. Pressure contact points are a bit too strong and, interestingly, I think the coir negates some of the effectiveness of individually pocketed coils in that the coir provides an integrated surface more like bonnell coils. You push down on one area and the areas around it get pushed down as well. Turning the pocket coil blocks over, you not only get a softer experience, but you get more of the individual pocket coil benefits as well (My theory, anyway). As it’s Dunlop, it’s a somewhat stiffer sort of latex (albeit a relatively soft version of Dunlop). As a result, it’s not as cushy as a soft Tallalay. If you’re really looking for a bed to sink into, this is probably not it, and probably someone who is quite heavy, north of 250, say, may not like this bed. But I will say that overall, both my wife and I are getting better sleeps overall, with my body feeling better in the morning than with my previous (13 year old or so) mattress.
Comfort: Well, I mentioned the heat/moisture thing above. Other than that, it’s definitely a nicer, plushier experience than my last bed (had become). My back feels that it’s still well aligned, even though it might have been a tad more so with the coir side up. My shoulder, the main sore point, so to speak, doesn’t feel as pinched upon as with the coir side up, but it’s still not perfect. I’d like to find a way (and I understand that there might be ways to isolate places like the shoulder with its own little pillow or something) to alleviate that pressure point. My shoulder still feels a bit sore in the morning. I recall trying out a Tallalay latex over pocket coil bed and having my shoulder really sink in, but then I didn’t feel as if my overall spine was as well aligned. It wasn’t terribly far off, so I have a feeling that it would have been a fine choice as well, but I was also worried that if that mattress softened (as apparently happens to latex), that mattress would have been too soft in time. At least with the Dunlop, if the latex softens, it will probably improve the sleeping experience more than it is now.
Coir, by the way, is used at the edge of the mattress to provide a solid edge sitting experience.
I think, in the end, I could have probably been happy with one of the Berkeley Ergonomics or the Gardner Mattress options, both of which would have been less expensive (the Gardner one much more so). The Gardner and BE mattresses wouldn’t have provided any level of easy customization after the fact as the Green Sleep Niu does (I mean, it’s not too hard to unzip the covers to the mattress and flip half an inner coil block over?).
In any event, now that I have slept on it for a while, I have a better idea of how I actually sleep on it.
Big question: How did my shopping experience equate with how I actually sleep on it? I’d say fairly close, but not exactly (I’d say within 15% accuracy, if I had to quantify it.). I still need to figure out how to alleviate the shoulder pressure issue. Perhaps I would have kept shopping if I had had a 60 day sleep trial; but I still remember how much more my spine seemed to be aligned with the Niu more than others. I’m certainly not unhappy with it, and if I had kept shopping, I might have still ended up with the Niu. If I could find a way to eliminate the shoulder pressure without personal amputation, I’d be slightly happier.
So again, the proper balance and alignment does not necessarily mean the most comfort. Would the ViSpring have provided this? Dunno until you actually spend time and sleep on it.
The Green Sleep Niu is a somewhat expensive, but well built and designed option and certainly worth trying out. Even the ViSpring was worth trying out. I was left having a greater appreciate for their products, but also a better sense of what I should try to look for in a less expensive product. I think I succeeded.
