- Tempur-Pedic is the most expensive brand of viscoelastic foam. Other brands do exist. Some of them are very nice. Whatever the brand, not everyone loves sleeping on it – one reason is that, as mentioned, some people find it too warm and/or sweaty. If you like everything else about it, you might try using lighter blankets and a cotton mattress pad.
It seems warmer because it is a “closed cell” foam and does not let as much air or moisture circulate through it as other mattress materials do.
The main difference (not the only difference, but the main one) between the various viscoelastic foams is how dense it is. Common densities are described as 3 lb., 4 lb., and 5 lb. (Tempur-Pedic is on the heavy end.) I’ve seen 5.5 and 6 lb. versions advertised but haven’t felt them; on the other hand, I once got samples of 3, 4, and 5, all from one maker, to compare. 3 lb. doesn’t do, very well, what viscoelastic foam does best, which is to resist your weight at your heaviest points; it compresses too easily and ends up feeling like non-VE foam. Some people find 5 lb. oddly dense or hard (c.f. BarnOwl’s pillow.) My husband and I happen to find it just right.
Tempur-Pedic works hard at trying to convince you that you need a whole mattress of the stuff to be comfortable. In my experience, except for large or heavy people, more than 4" of viscoelastic foam is overkill. A 3" thick overlay of off-brand 5 lb. VE foam over a $99 cotton futon is what we’ve slept on for years, and we love it. In fact, if you read the fine print, you’ll find out that many “whole mattresses” (or worse, “mattress systems”) of VE foam only have actual VE foam on top, bonded to a core of plain old mattress foam. If you do go with an overlay, don’t put it over your old mattress if the old mattress isn’t flat anymore. I recommend cheap futons for “underlays” primarily because they don’t creak or bounce at all, unlike cheap spring mattresses; you might be surprised at how much insomnia is caused by your bedmate’s normal noise and movement. It’s even possible to put a 4" overlay by itself directly on a platform bed (or the floor, or the bed of a pickup truck, etc.) and be comfortable.
Brand-new fresh VE foam of any brand does smell like chemicals, which bugs some people. Brand-new fresh VE foam is usually bright white, sometimes tinted blue or green, but it yellows fairly quickly as it’s exposed to air. Many people balk at what looks like yellow stains on new mattresses, so many VE mattresses and overlays are returned, without ever having been used, just because the plastic bags they were stored in prior to sale had air leaks. If you are willing to accept that yellowed VE foam is yellow for harmless reasons, you can pick up a great deal (as I did).
If you’re interested in VE foam but not convinced, by all means, try a pillow first.
Mr. Mattress Warehouse Anti-Tempur-Pedic Salesman is **bullshitting you about the dust mites. **Mites don’t especially like closed-cell foam of any kind and they’re mostly indifferent to how much your sweat varies. (You sweat plenty enough to keep them happy in a regular mattress.) Closed-cell foam doesn’t have the easily traversable continuous spaces inside that fiber-filled things do, so the mites aren’t as keen on living in it.
- There is **no universally correct density **or elasticity for a mattress. Different people find different things comfortable. If you feel like you’re fighting your mattress, it’s not a good one for you. Do not listen to any mattress salesperson who implies you have back trouble *because *your mattress is too soft or too firm and you Just Need This One Instead. You need the one you and your wife find comfortable. Try out the floor models and all that, or if you can remember a particularly comfortable guest bed you’ve slept in, find out what kind it was.
A Select Comfort type mattress is priceless if you and your bed partner sharply disagree on the best mattress density/firmness. A cheaper, somewhat less ideal approach to the same problem is to put two X-long-twin-size overlays of equal thickness but two different densities side by side over one king-size mattress or futon. The fitted sheet keeps them in place.
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“Organic” has nothing to do with allergies, unless you specifically have chemical allergies (or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity or whatever they call that these days, and whether that’s even a real health issue is debatable). It has bugger-all to do with mites; if anything, I’d think a mite would be happier in an organic natural-fiber mattress than elsewhere. The reasonable argument in favor of organic is environmental: non-organic cotton is typically farmed with quite an astonishing amount of agricultural chemicals, which end up killing things downstream. If you buy organic bedding, you support sustainable farming methods etc. etc. If you can afford it and want that kind of mattress, go for it, but have no illusions about their health benefits.
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**Mattress stores and salespeople **are very much like car dealerships and salespeople: some are completely straightforward, most will say things of questionable factual value to upsell you, and some are outright liars. In general, I’ve found it best to suspect this pattern in ANYONE whose business it is to sell me something expensive that one buys infrequently (a car, a house, a wedding dress, a casket).
Good luck!
and makes you sweat. He said sweating increases the dust mites and propensity for bed bugs. Sounds like bullshit to me.
) every night, no problems so far but haven’t tried it in the summer yet!