We’ve had a great experience with our Ikea mattress. We bought a firm mattress from Ikea 8 years ago and have been very very happy with it. We have a platform bed, topped with a firm mattress then a memory foam mattress pad. We have never been happier with a mattress.
We also have Ikea mattresses (2 twins on a king sized bed) on the bed in the guest room and one of our regular visitors says he looks forward to sleeping at our place because of the fabulously comfortable mattress.
We didn’t buy either the most expensive or the cheapest for either bed. Somewhere in the middle.
I just did this. Starting researching and ran into the Mattress Underground and perused their forums and such - it’s a good site with a lot of very technical information. In short, their recommendation is to avoid any of the big “S” mattresses (Sealy, Serta, Simmons) and buy a mattress from a local mattress manufacturer. (He can direct you to a local manufacturer on the forums, or perhaps you can find one in your area by searching.) They use high-quality materials and are better value.
So that’s exactly what we did. And we got a memory foam mattress that’s excellent and way cheaper than any Tempur model. I’d recommend checking out your local mattress manufacturers instead of heading to a big furniture store.
When I needed to buy my first bed as an adult (well, an adult with disposable income, I mean), I too was completely overwhelmed by the mattress purchasing set up. Ten stores, ten WILDLY different prices on the same mattress. Then a bunch of completely arbitrary industry standards for the mattress itself. No me gusta.
Ultimately, I went to a discount furniture store (it’s called Oak Liquidators here. . . they sell a bunch of oak furniture plus some other things. It’s basically an Ashley outlet), picked up a mattress and box spring for $200, then went on Overstock and bought a $110, 4 inch memory foam mattress topper.
My guest bedroom has the same set up and people frequently rave that it’s the most comfortable bed they’ve ever slept on. I travel a lot and my bed is vastly more comfortable than any hotel bed I’ve ever slept in. And to think: I almost spent $1200 at the mattress store.
We lucked out when buying a mattress. We went to a few stores, and tried out some memory foam, or, as I insisted on calling it for some reason, viscoelastic foam. At first I disliked it, but was willing to give it a try, and we found an online seller, which sent the mattress overnight mooshed up into a box. It was fun to slit the seal and release the mattress from the vacuum-sealed bag, and it grew into the most comfy bed EVER!
The problem is that sleep is so individualized and the market is so fragmented that what works for one person is almost guaranteed to fail for the next.
I spent a ton of money about 15 years ago on an Obusforme mattress and loved it. 2 years ago we rearranged the house and decided to leave it in the guest room and get a new bed for us. We bought an Ikea temperpedic type mattress and it lasted less than a year and my husband was unhappy with his sleep for most of that time.
We actually used their guarantee to go from the mid range model we bought to the high end version after 30 days. The new one was okay for a couple months but quickly developed divots.
We bought a new Sealy a couple months ago and I’m still in the love phase but it feels more like it’s going to last the way the Obus did. I’ll get back to you in a year or two
Buy a mattress in the only category with true competition - foam & memory foam mattresses sold by online retailers & ikea. Because these mattresses can be compressed and shipped via normal UPS and FedEx there is a thriving marketplace with lots of pricing competition that just isn’t there with traditional mattresses that are shipped locally.
I personally bought one from Overstock.com (Overstock.com: Online Shopping - Bedding, Furniture, Electronics, Jewelry, Clothing & more - read the reviews & choose soft, which equals probably 7 or 8 out of 10 firmish). But you also have many other choices from Overstock.com, Amazon.com, and many others.
(shrug) We bought a Simmons Beautyrest and have both been happy with it. Coil, yeah, but the separately wrapped type that drastically cuts down on movement transmitting from one side of the bed to the other, and I haven’t had any pressure point problems (side sleeper, arthritic hips).
We were at Sleep Train, and bought the storage foundation “boxspring”. Nicely solid, and the drawers on a queen-size are a very nice size for our needs (I love furniture with built-in storage. This also explains my Home Reserve sofa).
Just to complicate things further, Tempurpedic is the only type of mattress that can give me a backache within two minutes of lying down. It might be good if you needed to ship yourself across the country and wanted to arrive intact if not necessarily alive. For sleeping, I’d honestly prefer the floor.
That’s probably because it is stretching and relaxing muscles you didn’t know you had!
Really, I was a “Who cares?” kind of guy for all of my life. With the amount of time I spend in hotel beds, recliners and “lie-flat” first class seats, I can sleep anywhere.
The wife wanted a Tempurpedic, so we got one. I never sleep better than on this bed. If I have any soreness in my back from a crappy night, a few hours on this bed will fix it. Simply amazing.
For me.
If it’s not for you, then it’s not for you. I can’t stand the Sleep Number beds. Radisson hotels tried putting them in all their rooms a few years ago and I could not get a good night’s sleep. It felt too much like an air mattress to me.
But some people love them - a mattress is ALL about personal preference. For buying advice, my only advice is to take it slow. Try everything, then try everything again. Go full nerd and take notes on manufacturers and model numbers.
Most people spend more time on their mattress than any other piece of furniture in their house. Don’t skip your research, and if you can spend a few more dollars for something that feels better to you, then do it. You will thank yourself every night.
And no, I am not a mattress salesman. Just someone who did not figure this out until my wife enlightened me.
Let me add to the chorus to say buying a mattress is a huge pain in the ass.
As mentioned, “We will match any price!” is worthless, as there are apparently 68 million name brands of mattresses out there, and no two stores on earth have the same brand name.
I am convinced there is actually only one mattress factory on earth, they have a monopoly and simply print out millions of different labels that they slap on at random.
We went thru this torture not too long ago. Eventually went with a Sleep Innovations memory foam from Amazon. Packed tight in a box and all that. Seems okay. Bought a new box “spring” locally.
Cruising the stores was … not good. The yelp-type reviews ranged from “awful” to “nightmare” for almost all places. An intrinsically messed up business.
Actually there aren’t that many brand names out there - but there are an infinite number of model numbers.
“You saw a A511B cheaper at “Go to the Mattress?” Sorry, you bought a B511A. No rebate for you!”
Computer stores are the same way. Best prices guarantees are useless on PCs since every store carries different model numbers. The only time I ever won that game was when the store itself reduced the price.
Well, it will sag ultimately: we have one, and the foam forming the perimeter is pretty well collapsed in places. It also doesn’t stay in place on its foundation - for whatever reason, it migrates over to my husband’s side of the bed ( I have to drag the head end of it about 4-5 inches back toward me every night). And if you’ve got a slat-style bed vs. a steel bedframe, this will destroy the plastic foundation (we replaced that once, then bought a regular box spring instead).
When we bought our Sleep Number bed, we were looking to replace our aging waterbed (as the quality of the liners had gone dramatically downhill to the point where we were needing to replace them every 18+ months). I tried the TempurPedic and hated it. If I lay down on my back, it felt like my butt was being pushed up to the point that my hips were higher than my head. Lying on my side was similarly painful.
A few years later, I tried one at a different store and it was much nicer. I think the difference was: the first place only had one model, and either the second place had a bigger selection all along, or the company had come out with different models - with, for example, a much softer top layer that actually gave under the pressure of different body parts.
Not saying a TempurPedic is necessarily right for you, but it’s possible you could make one work if you were shopping now.
I was faced with a similar prospect a year and a half ago. I never planned on going to a mattress store, though. I ordered a mattress online, from Walmart actually. In the end, I researched about 10 mattresses in my price range. The one I chose was a spring/memory foam hybrid. It didn’t require a box spring, just a platform to set it on. Altogether, the whole shebang cost me $450. I could have spent less, but I had always really wanted a queen bed all to myself (it was worth it!). No shipping fee, since I did a site-to-store pickup. They compress the mattress pretty well, so I didn’t have to debate between tying them to my roof or paying an arm and a leg for shipping. The boxes easily fit into the backseat of my sedan.
