I just spent a week in Florida, on an air mattress, and I was COLD at night. And at home, I usually only sleep with a sheet as covering, as I am usually overheated at night. It was actually somewhat miserable.
That was pretty much my experience my first time sleeping on an air mattress as well (Except I wasn’t in Florida). I’ve since realized that you really have to treat sleeping on an air mattress as if you were camping – you need at least as much insulation under you as above you, if not more. Most people don’t realize that and just make up an air mattress the same as a normal bed, not realizing regular mattresses help keep you warm at night, but air mattresses don’t.
Also, I think air mattresses have a flocked surface now but I remember them being really slippery.
If we’re talking a weekend visit and no one too elderly, just make them deal with the air mattress. They’re not ideal, but I’ve yet to see a decent alternative for the occasional guest that doesn’t cost a fortune. Maybe there’s a pullout sofa sleeper that doesn’t weigh a ton, but again I’ve never seen one.
I never really thought about the thermal properties of air mattresses. But I do remember one time I slept on one and kept shivering myself awake. It was in Boston, in a living room with a huge wall of bay windows, in the winter, so that’s what I blamed it on, but come to think of it the air mattress probably didn’t help matters. I’ve slept on many other air mattresses without an issue.
How exactly does that work? I couldn’t figure out for the website
Thanks,
Brian
Guess what. They put a metal frame fully across the center of their sofa-to-recliners models too. That’s what the living room couch is and even with an added 6" of memory foam padding over the cushions as a sofa it’s god awful. I’d never buy anything else from them.
Anyway, I voted futon. When I was a teenager we had one with a tubular metal frame and it was miles more comfortable to sleep on than a sofa bed.
From the guest standpoint, I taught myself to sleep comfortably on the floor, with a folded blanket under my hips. That was my own sleeping arrangement in my own home for ten years. I’ve slept soundly in the reclined front passenger seat of my car, maybe a hundred times.
The worst thing to sleep on is an air mattress.
I didn’t vote for anything because I’m not sure what my answer is. We have a twin sized hospital bed with tall head and foot boards. I dress it up like a day bed with pillows and such so it looks like a couch, but it’s easy to undress and comfy when we have guests over for a night.
A lot depends on who the expected gusts are. Are they children/teens, adults, older adults? Basically if you an score a comfortable sleep with a normal height bed you got all categories covered. For that reason a murphy bed could do very well and checks all the boxes including keeping the office office like. Add in some folding tables for a night stand and perhaps a luggage rack and you are good to go. But Murphy beds are pricy.
Then I’d go to a high quality and high air mattress, preferably with a built in inflator. I believe some have an insulated top section which helps with the above mentioned coldness issue. This would also maintain the office like environment and could be the cheapest option. It also allows you to forstall a more expensive option.
Pull out beds, well they typically suck as they seem to never be flat, and one can feel the bars underneath. I personally would sometimes take the mattress out of the couch and put it on the floor instead, and I offer that option for my guests (the house came with them, I would not buy them).
futons could work but they make odd couches and many take up as much room as a bed. If no one us going to use the couch but want to maintain a more office like set up that could be a option.
If the guests are expected to be younger/children you might consider hammocks with secure mounts for them. It’s an adventure in sleeping that can be fairly comfy, just make sure they know to sleep diagonally in them.
For a office I would really try to not go the bed route, it just takes up a lot of room.
I voted for a daybed. I think they make the most sense esthetic and comfort wise. If the room was solely for guests I’d say just get a bed.
I find sleeper sofas uncomfortable and most futons aren’t much better. I would be embarrassed to have a guest sleep on an air mattress.
With some of those, the trundle part will raise up to the same level of the main daybed, and can either be separated from it or shoved right next to it depending on whether two people want to sleep together or apart.
I’d vote for that option, with the futon as a second choice; but the main point I’d make is to get a decently firm mattress/whatever the underpinning is. At my sister’s house, I have to pull the mattress off their couch bed and put it down on the floor, not because of a bar in my back (there isn’t one) but because otherwise there’s so little support that I wake up with a horrible backache.
I am elderly; and both now and when I was young, I’d much rather sleep on a mat on the floor than on an air mattress. If you fill them really full you feel like you’re going to slide off the top, and if you don’t fill them really full they don’t give any support.
– Didn’t vote.
I didn’t vote. I get the dilemma…if you don’t get lots of guests, a bed takes up quite a bit of space that could be used for other things. And beds aren’t cheap.
I had one of these many years ago. It lets the guest sleep a few inches above the floor at least.
The daybed with a trundle bed seems like the best option but the person sleeping on the trundle bed is lower. I wonder if they make a trundle bed with legs that unfold or a scissors mechanism that can raise it?
When we went into lockdown last year, my guest room became my office. There was a small double in there, but it’s a small room and the bed took up a lot of space, plus people could see it on zoom calls, which I don’t think ever looks great.
So I sold the bed and bought a decent double sofa bed, with a proper sprung mattress. I use it when I’m scribbling/sketching, and my wife sometimes comes in and sits on it to chat with me or have lunch. I’ve used the bed maybe twice (myself and guests) and it’s actually very comfortable. I am very happy with my set up - it’s nice for your office to not feel like a bedroom, and people often comment on my nice sofa on video calls.
I wish I could tell you about the frame but the current occupant prefers to keep it as a couch to sleep on and the bed hasn’t been opened in quite some time actually.
They do. I’ve got one.
I absolutely abhor inflatable mattresses - they don’t breathe and I wake up with a sweaty back - ugh! I don’t like hard mattresses, so futons are usually out. And I don’t think I’ve ever slept on a comfortable fold-out sofa bed - there’s always a bar in the wrong place.
My first apartment had a murphy bed - it was fine. I stayed with friends who had a trundle bed with decent mattresses - it was also fine. And as long as the mattress isn’t stupid hard (looking at you, Mother!!!) I prefer a regular bed - queen or king is best, but I can deal with a twin.
In our house, our guest room has a queen bed with a memory foam topper, because the mattress I bought was lots firmer than I’d expected. We also have a futon in the basement, but it has a great mattress - not one of those cotton-packed deals. So our guests are afforded reasonable comfort.
I am liking this one and my try it out. It folds up into a chair, a lounge or even an Ottoman. Might be perfect for my office room.
I’ve been surprised by the disdain for air mattresses in this thread. As I said, I love them; and one big reason is because it’s so easy to adjust the firmness and amount of support by adjusting the level of inflation. And I haven’t felt like I was going to slide off, as long as we’re talking about one of the nicer ones with a flocked top.
And I was thinking of the nicer air beds. If “air mattress” makes you think of the rudimentary ones like what we took camping when I was a kid, I don’t blame you for rejecting that idea.