I have bee in in so much pain the last 5-7 years with joint pains. This is compounded in my Hips and Shoulders, as I sleep on my side the majority of the time. My wife and I had a traditional inner spring pillow top for about 16 years, and now have tried two mattress in the last four years.
We tried a cheaper mattress - an Ikea Sultan Finnvik. I continued to have much pain and then my wife (who like firmer support) said it was making her back hurt. This lasted about 1 1/2 years. We now are in a Sterns and Foster; where I have my side a bit softer than my wife’s. We have had this now for about 2 1/2 years and I can’t stand it. My wife too is having back pain again.
I was finally fed up yesterday and order the Lucid 14", because it had appeared to have all that I wanted with great verified reviews on Amazon. It and the reviews had conveyed the “sleeping on a cloud” and not having so much pressure on my hips, shoulders, and my wife back when we sleep. Now, after seeing this site, I tried to cancel but it said it was too late but that I could refuse it. After reading, that there is no why to get these back in their box to send back, I am glad I found this site first. PLEASE HELP GUIDE ME TO THE RIGHT BED OUR NEEDS
The bed was around $600.00 on Amazon, that is comfortable but I can stretch it some if need be. I believe I have narrowed it to three companies from this site:
Dream Foam - ultimate dream supreme gel - med 12" or soft 13"
Brooklyn Bedding - med or soft
Tuft & Needle - i think it is just one
My wife and I slept on our son’s Tempurpedic about a year ago, I thought it was quite comfortable, but it was only one night. He wasn’t even sure of the model other than he had bought it about 15 years ago, and it was about $2500, back then.
With those three companies can you give me guidance as to which bed to be looking at from each? Can anyone else that is side sleepers too chime in with the one that took the most pressure off your hips and shoulders.
Welcome to the site … and I’m glad you found us :).
The first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
While other people’s comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful … I would also be very cautious about about using other people’s experiences or reviews on a mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you and in many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because any mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (even if they are in a similar weight range) and reviews in general certainly won’t tell you much if anything about the quality, durability, or “value” of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here).
There are also no “standard” definitions or consensus of opinions for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can also have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.
The first place I would start your research is the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice … and perhaps more importantly know how and why to avoid the worst ones.
Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists (based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you).
If you don’t know which of the Tempurpedic models you slept on then unfortunately your experience won’t be a useful reference point for helping you decide on a memory foam mattress made by a different manufacturer.
Assuming that the materials in a mattress you are considering are durable enough for your body type and meet the quality/durability guidelines here … the choice between different types and combinations of materials and components or different types of mattresses are more of a preference and a budget choice than a “better/worse” choice (see this article).
All of the companies you are considering are members of this site which means that I think highly of them and I believe that they compete well with the best in the industry and they would certainly be good quality/value choices and there are no lower quality materials or weak links in any of them relative to more average weight ranges … but they are also very different mattresses.
The Ultimate Dreams supreme gel - med 12" is an approximation of the firmness of the Tempurpedic Supreme and the Ultimate Dreams 13" GEL is an approximation of the firmness of the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe mattress. Both or these are memory foam mattresses (memory foam on top of a polyfoam support core)
The Brooklyn Bedding BestMattressEver is a latex/polyfoam hybrid which uses latex comfort layers instead of memory foam. Latex and memory foam have very different properties (regardless of their firmness level) and feel and perform very differently from each other. There is more about how they compare in post #2 here but the best way to know which type of materials or which type of mattresses you tend to prefer in general will be based on your own local testing on a range of different mattresses in each category in different firmness levels.
The Tuft & Needle uses high performance polyfoam in their comfort layers (which would be more resilient than memory foam and less resilient than latex) on top of a polyfoam support core. There is more information about the type and quality/durability of the materials in the Tuft & Needle mattress in posts #2 and #6 here.
There are also some comments about Tuft & Needle and the Brooklyn Bedding BestMattressEver in post #2 here in the simplified choice mattress topic.
While your own careful testing or personal experience is the most reliable way to know whether any mattress is a good “match” for you in terms of comfort and PPP or how it compares to another mattress … when you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
Once you have narrowed down your options to a list of finalists that are all choices between “good and good” and none of them have any lower quality materials or “weak links” in their design relative to your weight and if at that point there are no clear winners between them (which is usually a good indication that you have done some very good research) then you are in the fortunate position that any of them would likely be a suitable choice and post #2 here can help you make a final choice based on your local testing or mattresses you have slept well on, your more detailed conversations about each of them, your confidence about PPP and the suitability of each one, the quality and durability of the materials, their prices, your preferences for different types of materials, the options you have after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or exchange or return the mattress or individual layers, any additional extras that are part of each purchase, and on “informed best judgement” based on all the other objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
I or some of the more knowledgeable members of the site can certainly help you to narrow down your options, help you focus on better quality/value choices that are available to you either locally or online, help you identify any lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress relative to your weight that you may be considering, act as a fact check, talk about the pros and cons of different materials, or answer many of the specific questions you may have along the way that don’t involve what you will “feel” on a mattress, and help with “how” to choose but only you can decide which specific mattress, manufacturer/retailer, or combination of materials is “best for you” regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label or whether anyone else (including me) would have the same criteria or circumstances or would make the same choice.
After reading Phoenix’s reply, I spent the better part of the day yesterday still searching and reading many more hours of threads, reviews, posts, specs, etc., etc.
I am 5ft 8in at 175 lbs, and my wife is 5ft 2in at about 125 lbs. My wife likes a mattress a bit firmer as she is a predominately a back sleeper with some side sleeping; I am predominately a side sleeper with a little back sleeping. Nonetheless, I had narrowed it to the Ultimate Dreams 13" (Soft) or the Ultimate Dreams Supreme 12" (Medium).
Seeing Dreamfoam Bedding is currently offering a site wide 10% off, “The Mattress Underground” forum members too receive a free Latex Pillow with mattress purchase, and not to mention me having so much hip and shoulder pain (pressure point) - I just had to take a leap of faith. I couldn’t do anymore research or visit the stores to have a comparable test subject mattress.
Therefore, I ordered the Queen Size: Ultimate Dreams Supreme 12" Gel Memory Foam Mattress.
I have already emailed and corresponded with Chuck, a couple of times and as of today the next day received a FedEx tracking number of my soon to be new bed. …and yes, although they give us one free pillow - I did order the second pillow, so my wife to has one too! :lol:
Thank you Phoenix, The Mattress Underground, Dreamfoam Bedding and Chuck
Thanks for letting us know what you ended up deciding … and congratulations on your new mattress
As you probably know from your reading here I think you made a good quality/value choice and I’m looking forward to your feedback once you’ve received it and have had the chance to sleep on it.
:lol: