Too Many Years Without Sleep.. Please help..

[phoenix]

Hi Thaih,

I’m sorry to hear about all the challenges you are (and have been) facing and I can certainly understand why a good mattress would be even more important to you than it would for most people. Of course it won’t resolve the many health issues you are facing but it would certainly be one step in the right direction.

I am desperate to buy a bed, and I am so overwhelmed by the information that I’ve read. I swear I could become a mattress expert myself. I reside outside of Detroit Mi. and have several mattress factories, retailers, etc., to choose from. I have gone to the store Art Van Furniture, most well known store in this state, and supposedly a “mattress expert” retailer, which is by far from the truth. I have tried several beds up to and including the new Tempur-Pedic lines. None of which I could say were worth the money let alone not comfortable enough for me to purchase.

You may have read it already but I would make sure you follow the steps in the mattress shopping tutorial one by one which can help you from getting overwhelmed with information (it has all the most important information all in one place) and will also help you to avoid stores like Art Van and the major brands they carry.

Once you are at step 3 then the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Greater Detroit Area are listed in post #2 here.

I will reinstate that I have read several times your advice about buying a bed and what to look for when it comes to the 3 P’s. I cannot find a bed that compares to the couple I spoke about above or be able to choose what type of mattress would work best for me, e.g. Memory foam, Latex, another futon etc… I know that you do not choose “the best mattress” for people, and only advise them with your expertise. I am beyond ready to buy a bed, and I am begging you for your help in this most discouraging matter.

I do know that for myself, I like a firmer feel on a mattress, I definitely need good support, I like to sleep “on top of” rather than “sink into” a mattress. Although I liked the Memory foam conforming feel and support of the mattresses, again I spoke about above. Please help me with and advise me which way to go. I am so desperately in need of just one night of good sleep!!

Unfortunately (as you hopefully know from the tutorial post) there are too many unknowns, variables, and individual preferences (and in your case health issues) involved for anyone to be able to recommend a specific mattress using specs (either yours or a mattress), health conditions, or “theory at a distance” (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). Only you can feel what you feel on a mattress and the part of your research that involves testing and/or assessing a mattress for PPP is something that only you can do. It would be great to be able to just plug in information into a computer program and then have it tell you which mattress to buy but unfortunately this doesn’t exist so all someone else can do is help with “how” to choose and the steps to follow that have the highest chance of success … not with “what” to choose for any particular person or individual circumstances.

One of the most important parts of a successful mattress purchase can be the knowledge and expertise of the retailer or manufacturer you are dealing with and “finding the experts” that already know what you would otherwise need to learn can be one of the most important parts of a successful mattress purchase.

Firmness and softness is very subjective and what one person calls “too firm” (in either the comfort or support layers) can be “too soft” for someone else even if they appear to be similar in body type, sleeping positions, or circumstances. The type of materials you prefer (either in the comfort layers or support layers) are also an individual preference and here again (just like with food choices) only you can know which type of materials you tend to prefer. If you prefer to sleep “on” a mattress rather than “in” a mattress then it would make sense to look for more resilient materials in your comfort layers (such as latex or polyfoam) rather than memory foam which is a slow response material that has a more “in the mattress” feel (see post #2 here about memory foam vs latex).

The most important parts of your research are to make sure you have some basic information about mattresses and materials (which it appears you have), know what to look for and what to avoid, choose the retailers and manufacturers you deal with carefully so that you are working with more knowledgeable and experienced people, use the testing guidelines in the tutorial and the information about the quality of the materials in a mattress (see post #4 here) to narrow down your choices to one at each store (or online retailer/manufacturer) you are dealing with, and then once you are down to finalists that are choices between “good and good” to make your final choice between them based on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Phoenix