Yeah, I will agree that the latex was pricey. We almost didn’t go that route just for that reason. But we’re very glad we did. Hell, amortized over 20 years it’s not that bad!
kiz - try both foam (tempurpedic-type) and latex, I think one or the other might work for you. They seem to work for both ‘hard-as-rock’ and ‘soft-and-squishy’ people. That’s one of the issues we had in our household. (Actually, the first time I flomped down on one of the mem-foams at the store, I called it the “softest rock I’d ever laid on”. They do soften up as they warm to your body temp, which latex doesn’t.)
Maastricht - I’m assuming you’re talking about what we USAnians usually call ‘foam rubber’. We didn’t get one of those because they’ve gotten so expensive here - it was almost as much for a good, dense, foam mattress as it was for the memory foam. And a foam rubber mattress will break down fairly rapidly compared to the 20-year warrantied lifespan of either the memory foam or the latex mattresses we looked at.
When I first bought my house, I had almost no furniture, so we spend the first year and a half sleeping on airbeds. I LOVE those things, but if you sleep on it every night you have to replace them every 5 or 6 months. And I don’t think they’d be conducive to a good love life. (I didn’t have one at the time, so no matter.)
Last tax time I decided to buy a grown-up mattress and wanted a memory foam. Too pricey, until I found a good deal on Overstock.com and got an RV modular type memory foam. It came in three seperate layers which can be rearranged if you want a different firmness, although I haven’t tried it. The only problem is the three layers eventually slide around and you have to haul them back into place. I guess if you installed it in an RV it would be surrounded by walls which would keep the layers in place better.
At any rate, I got my memory foam for under $300. Sweet. And I LOVE it even more than the airbed.
I’m not sure, but I meant polyurethane foam. That is purely synthetic and it used to be the cheapest kind of matress. You could buy it in any shape and thickness and cut it with a bread knife to match the size of your bed. It looked like an oversize kitchen sponge. It didn’t last more then about five/ten years, but it was cheap enough to replace often. I remember it being quite comfortable. It didn’t have the memory feature, but I never missed that.
I have a TempurPedic memory foam, and I don’t get what trench you all are talking about. It sort of smooshes around me, but it’ not like I have to sit up to peer out.
And speaking of sex, I don’t think I’ve completely adjusted to sex-on-the-memory-foam. No bounce! At all. I mean, I don’t want to hit the ceiling or anything, but I do think it’s weird not to have a little give. :o
I have a question for you latex and memory-foam owners: don’t those things get HOT? In my mind, foam is essentially PLASTIC, and if you put a plastic cover on your mattress you’ll end up simmering before the night is over. That’s one of the reasons a damned hospital bed is so uncomfortable!
Now, our waterbed is basically a great big baggie full of water, but in the summertime we turn OFF the heater and the bed becomes a fantastic heat sink that drains away all our body heat.
~VOW
Your “hot” is my “snuggly warm,” I’d say. But there is a cloth cover over the foam, and then the sheet over that. It’s not as though you’re just millimeters off plastic.
My memory foam does get hot, mostly because I start out the night (regardless of weather) with two huge comforters. By midnight, I’m hot no matter what I’m sleeping on, but there is definitely a papergirl-shaped hot spot. I just scooch over to the cooler side and toss the covers overboard.
When I deliver papers in the winter, though, it’s a nice feature–I’m hypothermic by the time I get home, and it’s nice to be able to snuggle into my self-made warm spot.
For some reason, people obsess over softer beds, but, honestly, softness just feels weird. I don’t get this idea that support is a bad thing. And air beds are horrible because of the way the slosh around and lose support through the night.
I’m not sure about latex matresses. If you mean the spongy ones, they’re okay, but go bad fast.
@Victrolic Bump - Hi, my name is Chris and I work for Sleep Number’s Online Customer Care team. Based on the information you posted here, it sounds like you would probably sleep much more comfortably if you had additional padding underneath the air chambers in your bed. We have an optional part called a base pad which is designed for owners like yourself who have extremely low sleep numbers, and I think it would help you a lot. If you’d like to talk about your options, please feel free to contact us at 1-888-411-2270 or email us at customerservice@selectcomfort.com.
@Dereknocue67 - If you haven’t already done so, you may want to give us a call at the number I listed above. I’ve found the majority of our owners who aren’t comfortable on the bed have never contacted us to see what suggestions we have for them. There’s a very good chance we can help you get more comfortable so you and your wife can both sleep well. We’ll hope to hear from you soon!
@gargygnu - It sounds like you could also benefit from having a little extra padding underneath your air chambers. We also have solutions for the other situations you mentioned in your post. If you have a chance, I’d recommend getting in contact with us to see how we can assist you. We’d love to help you get your money’s worth out of your bed.
