This is CRAZY! Why does my body make sleeping on 99% of beds impossible??

First off, I have a chronic illness. MCAS. Possibly Lyme. So they could be playing a part but who knows.

My body refuses to sleep comfortably on most beds. I am currently in a situation where I am staying at a hotel and I tried sleeping on the bed here and all that happens is my body gets stiff and sore and I will lie there for hours like a robot with a broken sleep command, falling asleep and instantly waking up over and over and over and over and the pain and stiffness gets worse. Finally, after what seems like forever of this, I notice only 4 of 5 hours have passed. I can no longer sleep and I suffer from chronic fatigue all the next day.

I even took my mattress and bed frame from home here to the hotel and am sleeping on that. STILL the floor here is different… At home I had a piece of carpet under the bed frame and one on top of it right underneath the mattress. It took me weeks of trial and error to get the exact right carpet and bed frame etc to finally get used to my apartment, but now I brought the same bed frame without the carpet (very cheap and thin carpet by the way - nothing special) to this hotel I am in, put a mattress pad below the mattress instead of the carpet and assumed since this hotel has carpet already I didn’t need to bring my own for padding.

Here’s the deal. My body seems to INSIST that the mattress and bed set up has to be PERFECT! That even if something in the padding or the mattress or whatever is even a millimeter off, it seems, that my body will not relax, will get sore and sleep will be destroyed.

THE SAME BED I brought from home I struggled to get 2 hours of sleep on here in the hotel after moving it here…

Is this a thing? Hypersensitivity to beds? I looked it up on google and all that comes up is allergies and maybe something about painsomnia.

Like the hell I had to go through in my last apartment - getting different carpet remnants, trying a box spring, trying a bed frame with wood slats, a different bed frame with different slats, trying to stack different combinations of different carpet remnants for padding, some seeming too soft, some seeming too stiff, like not even an inch of difference and my body senses it as a WHOLE other world of denseness.

My friend and family don’t believe me and frankly I will catch myself saying “this is NOT possible! Come on, body, you have got to be kidding me, this is comfortable!”

When I was younger I used to love to travel and stay in hotels. Now I can’t even sleep anywhere except for some overly conflated bed set up that takes weeks of misery and hell to get the right puzzle pieces in place just to get my body to relax.

Is this just me? Can I fix it? What the hell is going on??

Hi GeeseFX and welcome to The Mattress Underground :slight_smile:

[quote]
First off, I have a chronic illness. MCAS. Possibly Lyme. So they could be playing a part but who knows.

My body refuses to sleep comfortably on most beds. I am currently in a situation where I am staying at a hotel and I tried sleeping on the bed here and all that happens is my body gets stiff and sore and I will lie there for hours like a robot with a broken sleep command, falling asleep and instantly waking up over and over and over and over and the pain and stiffness gets worse … // …
My body seems to INSIST that the mattress and bed set up has to be PERFECT! That even if something in the padding or the mattress or whatever is even a millimeter off, it seems, that my body will not relax, will get sore and sleep will be destroyed.[/quote]
I can’t even begin to imagine the state you might be in with not being to get any period of restorative sleep. It looks like your sensitivity threshold is higher than most people. It is extremely rare for “a body” to detect any small change all the way down to the floor the mattress and foundation are sitting on. It may be far-fetched but one way to look at this is that your body and mind are desperately “INSISTING” that you look into a certain essential area of your life that escaped your awareness and in this way it is grabbing your attention. This essential area may be health related, psychological, mode of living, level of stress when away from home or a combination of things.

Generally, any bed (in your case the entire sleep system and the floor it lies on) is unique to the sleeper(s) using it based on their stats (height, BMI, sleeping position(s) and any underlying health conditions) and their PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). You did not give your stats or the type of bed you have, so it’s difficult to have any perspective on the mattress itself. However, you may have answered your own question; MASC as I understand it, causes anaphylaxis – swelling, hives, low blood pressure, breathing issues….and Lyme disease can cause endometriosis and additional pain…is the feeling uncomfortable with pain sounds like symptoms of those conditions. Since I am certainly not qualified to discuss medical issues, I’m wondering if you have brought these issues up with your healthcare practitioner? They may have some answers for suggesting what might be the root cause of this great sensitivity and perhaps for dealing with the pain and discomfort. I am also hoping that other subscribers that dealt with similar issues see your post and weigh in with their experience.

[quote] I even took my mattress and bed frame from home here to the hotel and am sleeping on that. STILL the floor here is different… At home I had a piece of carpet under the bed frame and one on top of it right underneath the mattress. It took me weeks of trial and error to get the exact right carpet and bed frame etc to finally get used to my apartment, but now I brought the same bed frame without the carpet

My body seems to INSIST that the mattress and bed set up has to be PERFECT! That even if something in the padding or the mattress or whatever is even a millimeter off, it seems, that my body will not relax, will get sore and sleep will be destroyed.

THE SAME BED I brought from home I struggled to get 2 hours of sleep on here in the hotel after moving it here…

Is this a thing? Hypersensitivity to beds? I looked it up on google and all that comes up is allergies and maybe something about painsomnia.[/quote]
From your description I am deducing that you sleep fairly well at home, however … on the same sleep system (mattress & foundation) that you move to a new location you start experiencing strange symptoms of “stiffness and sourness” and you aren’t able to get any sleep.

You are not describing the type of pains or what parts of your body you are experiencing them to make any meaningful comments but the first step is always to determine whether your “symptoms” are from pressure issues, alignment issues, or “feel” issues … all of which could have different causes or solutions. Here is one of Phoenix’s short list of forum posts that may help you recognize or “diagnose” the underlying cause of different types of “symptoms”, pain, or discomfort that may be connected to a mattress.

Post #2 (this is the primary reference post for different “symptoms” that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress)
Post #45 (this is particularly worth reading as well)
Post #2
Post #6
Post #6
Post #4
Post #7
Post #7
Post #18

If it’s your actual mattress that’s the issue, that would be easier to solve – you could take a look at the Mattress Shopping Tutorial as well as the Mattress Specifications You Need To Know and theMattress Durability Guidelines to become familiar with various materials, components and construction of mattresses, then, if possible, you can visit any local store or showroom just to see how the various mattresses – foam, latex, hybrid – feel, and if any materials or mattress types jump to the head of the list, or you find some that are definitely unacceptable. Then you can make a more informed choice purchasing a new more comfortable mattress.

Here again, I am thinking it may be your health, not your mattress. Hard to see how a thin layer of fabric anywhere in or on the mattress would make such a huge uncomfortable difference. Since again, definitely not qualified to speak as to medical concerns here, I think you need to deal with this as from a medical standpoint. If there are no steps you can take with that, you can see if you can find a new mattress that meets your new comfort needs, and after you decide on a few we may be able to answer any questions you might then have.

Hope this helps,

~ Basilio

So yea this is exactly what happened. I set up my bed here EXACTLY the way it was set up at my old apartment and yet here I am waking up and stiff and sore. The only difference is the hardwood floor where I used to live and the thinly carpeted floor here - I tried making adjustments and without one layer underneath my mattress of a thin carpet remnant the bed seems way too stiff and my body gets sore quickly.

Setting everything up EXACTLY like at home it FEELS so close and seems comfortable at first then a few hours later I am not sleeping well. I am not for sure but it almost seems SLIGHTLY too soft - like a FRACTION of softness so.

None of this makes any sense to me. I agree with you. Being so hypersensitive makes no sense. But it doesn’t change things. Ugh! I have an ok doctor for my illness but not sure she’s an expert in the pain and inflammation thing and she became super popular, and it takes forever to get in to see her now.

The REAL crap that I will have to deal with, if I can survive this ordeal, is when I get my new place to live… I will have to adjust all over again to a new floor, surroundings etc. I wonder if there’s a hack where instead of playing this musical mattress set up game, I can get to the bottom of how to get my body to be ok with stuff. I used to be able to sleep on anything when I was younger. Now??? Yuck.

Hi GeeseFX,

I can’t imagine how frustrating that must be for you. You say its’ tough to see your doctor due to their popularity - how about any RN, LNP or Medical assistant in the office who can refer you to someone…even your insurance, depending on which it is, may have an advocate or account admin who may be able to steer you to someone who deals with issues of sleep and pain management. There must be someone out there with answers. I honestly hope you can end up with a good resolution here.

~ Basilio