The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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I'm serious: http://www.duxbed.com/pdf_files/DUX%20Brochure.pdf This essentially is what we are all shooting for, whether back, stomach or side sleepers. I don't even want to know what they cost, but if money didn't matter, this is the bed I would want, not the over-priced, over-hyped custom mattresses I read about these days. This is what I have been trying to create with my zoned latex project--Bollinger on a Bud budget. You can do it on a Pabst Blue Ribbon, Gennessee or Duff budget with HR foam and/or a firm coil system instead of latex for support layer(s), but the concept is the same. And it's been around for a while. Looking at the forum archives, I noticed that someone mentioned Duxiana to me last year. I didn't get my ideas from the site, but I'm sure it reinforced my thinking about the importance of zoning. Most mattress sites (including latex ones) have a lot of fluff, smoke and mirrors. Yes, there's also that on the dux site. But, if you understand the duxbed concepts, and pay attention to them as you analyze, shop for and/or construct your mattress, you'll be well on your way to a better night's sleep. JMO |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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Just spotted this on epinions: "My parents own the Swedish-made Duxiana (aka Dux bed) and swear by it. In Sweden, these beds are so popular, that parents pass their beds down to their children - they DO, however, purchase a new "topper" for the bed. The bed is simple in it's design, yet very comfortable. Unlike conventional spring mattresses or foam mattresses, the Dux bed utilizes a base with a different spring system then in typical American mattresses. There are more springs and they are inter-laced. The result is less strain on your body. There is also a foam-type topper mixed with 'down'. The bed is also a bit lower to the ground than most, especially if you sleep on a pillow-top bed now. Which means, that if you switch to a Dux bed, you'll need new sheets. My parents could NOT sleep well...NOW they enjoy very deep sleep. Another key feature, is that if you sleep with a "toss & turner" the other person will not feel it as much because it's not like a typical inner-spring mattress. The topper seems to deflect vibration from the other sleeper. While at the Duxiana showroom, I tried out the bed for comfort...and it was amazingly comfortable. BUT when I asked the price, my jaw hit the floor. There are two models available and they range (depending on the extras you order) between $4900 and $6200. Who pays that kind of money for a BED? The price of the Dux bed is really targeted for the wealthy or the folks with bad backs (where insurance might help pay for it). The average American citizen would not pay SIX THOUSAND dollars for a bed. Yes, the Duxiana bed is an amazing sleep system, but for the price, you could get a bed that is just as comfortable and NOT spend the entire re-fi on it. If you have money to burn, this is the bed for you. " That was in 2001! Maybe $10K these days. Still cheaper than others I read about. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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Going full circle--flobeds article re: duxbeds. http://www.flobeds.com/onceupona20000mattress.htm This message was modified Feb 10, 2008 by a moderator
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Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
| Back at the hight of my mattress search I compared Hastens to Dux and Hastens won on both comfort and construction, but foam free was, and still is, very important to me. For others, your milage may vary, however at that price Dux is up against not only Hastens, but VI-Spring, McRoskey, Shifman, Hypnos and several other IMO superior companies. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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When I was jokingly telling my mattress guy about the Dux and how much they charge, he admitted it was very good mattress. He said they didn't scrimp on materials and they were very well constructed. No doubt about it. But he also knows that the average person can't afford the Dux bed. This is why he's trying to offer his customers another option, also using quality materials with the ability to customize their own comfort layers at a much lower cost. And, definitely better than what the Big S companies are putting out. mccldwll wrote: I'm serious: <BR><BR> http://www.duxbed.com/pdf_files/DUX%20Brochure.pdf<BR><BR>This essentially is what we are all shooting for, whether back, stomach or side sleepers. I don't even want to know what they cost, but if money didn't matter, this is the bed I would want, not the over-priced, over-hyped custom mattresses I read about these days. This is what I have been trying to create with my zoned latex project--Bollinger on a Bud budget. You can do it on a Pabst Blue Ribbon, Gennessee or Duff budget with HR foam and/or a firm coil system instead of latex for support layer(s), but the concept is the same. And it's been around for a while. Looking at the forum archives, I noticed that someone mentioned Duxiana to me last year. I didn't get my ideas from the site, but I'm sure it reinforced my thinking about the importance of zoning. Most mattress sites (including latex ones) have a lot of fluff, smoke and mirrors. Yes, there's also that on the dux site. But, if you understand the duxbed concepts, and pay attention to them as you analyze, shop for and/or construct your mattress, you'll be well on your way to a better night's sleep. JMO |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
| Hastens, and the other "prestige" mattresses, certainly are well made, and extremely high quality, desirable, comfortable mattresses. And Bentley or Rolls are desirable, high quality, automobiles, but I would much rather have a Porsche (or even BMW). If you look on the various web sites, the emphasis ii on luxurious materials--organic cotton, lambswool, cashmere, silk, horsehair--and stitches/inch by elves. They are sealed systems. You pay a lot of money and get what should be a good mattress for you. OTOH, the Dux is not a sealed system. If you look on the website, the emphasis is on biomechanics, adjustability and even replacement of toppers. The user is in much more control of the experience/outcome. I'm not suggesting anyone buy a Dux--just that anyone who wants a comfortable, good night's sleep, could benefit from the information on the Dux website and apply it to his/her own quest to buy, modify or build a better sleep system. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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mccldwll wrote: I'm serious: http://www.duxbed.com/pdf_files/DUX%20Brochure.pdf This essentially is what we are all shooting for, whether back, stomach or side sleepers. I don't even want to know what they cost, but if money didn't matter, this is the bed I would want, not the over-priced, over-hyped custom mattresses I read about these days. This is what I have been trying to create with my zoned latex project--Bollinger on a Bud budget. You can do it on a Pabst Blue Ribbon, Gennessee or Duff budget with HR foam and/or a firm coil system instead of latex for support layer(s), but the concept is the same. And it's been around for a while. Looking at the forum archives, I noticed that someone mentioned Duxiana to me last year. I didn't get my ideas from the site, but I'm sure it reinforced my thinking about the importance of zoning. Most mattress sites (including latex ones) have a lot of fluff, smoke and mirrors. Yes, there's also that on the dux site. But, if you understand the duxbed concepts, and pay attention to them as you analyze, shop for and/or construct your mattress, you'll be well on your way to a better night's sleep. JMO Thanks for this link. I didn't read the whole thing but looking over the info, it looks very informative. I saved the .pdf to my drive so I can print it and read it later. I agree, if money were no object, I would buy this bed. It looks like it might well be the perfect bed! I'm doing the Duff version with Sealy springs, HR foam and some latex and visco foam. So far I am having a hard time getting it adjusted. I know the "answer" is available in some combo of the foam I have, but so far I am not hitting it. Also, it's hard to tell because my back has been hurting bad ever since I over-worked it the day we bought the foam, cut up the bed, put in new foam, put away the old foam, etc... Ironic, huh? So it's really hard to tell how much of my problems with being comfortable on the bed are from the bed itself or just from my back, neck and shoulders problems. But I'm continuing to plug away with experimentation! |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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"Beer mmmmmmmmm beer." Jim--I finally spotted and replied to your PM. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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jimsocal wrote: I'm doing the Duff version with Sealy springs, HR foam and some latex and visco foam. So far I am having a hard time getting it adjusted. I know the "answer" is available in some combo of the foam I have, but so far I am not hitting it. Also, it's hard to tell because my back has been hurting bad ever since I over-worked it the day we bought the foam, cut up the bed, put in new foam, put away the old foam, etc... Ironic, huh? So it's really hard to tell how much of my problems with being comfortable on the bed are from the bed itself or just from my back, neck and shoulders problems. But I'm continuing to plug away with experimentation!
I hope you come up with something that is comfortable for you. I tend to think the less foam between you and the springs the better. Especially with lower back pain. But since you have pain in other areas of your body you may have to zone the mattress which makes it even more complicated. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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cloud9 wrote: That's the problem I run into any time I tweak my mattress. I have chronic lower back pain and if I engage in some activity that puts additiional strain on it it hurts even more. And sometimes it just hurts a lot for no reason in particular other than the barometric pressure has changed or it's damp out or cold at night... who knows? So I can never really be sure now if the mattress configuration is to blame or if it's just me. One thing I haven't run across yet is an arrangement that actually makes it feel better. I hope you come up with something that is comfortable for you. I tend to think the less foam between you and the springs the better. Especially with lower back pain. But since you have pain in other areas of your body you may have to zone the mattress which makes it even more complicated. Yeah, cloud9, ain't it great having back pain that seems to be caused by anything or nothing? Well, you apparently did not notice but I AM zoning my mattress! I bought all pieces of foam 1" x 25" x 37-and-1/2" just so I could zone it into 3 zones. My back has been slowly getting a little better (that is, out of acute pain!) over the past week and last night I think I finally hit on a very good combination of foam for my mattress. Since I also have upper shoulder/neck/arm problems this is what I had confgured 2 nights ago: For my shoulder area, from top to bottom: 2 layers of medium ILD visco foam (3/4" each) 2 layers 3/4" latex - low ild (24?) 1/2" Extra Firm HR foam (61ILD) Sealy springs For my hip section I had this from the bottom up: 1" Medium HR foam 31ILD 1" Firm HR foam 41 ILD 1/2" Extra Firm HR foam Sealy springs If you notice, the shoulder zone in the above configuration has an extra inch of foam, but since it was mostly very low ILD I thought that I'd sink down into it enough that it would not put me out of alignment. Well, for the first night since building my mattress I found that I woke up with NO lower back pain, which had been really plaguing me (also, I had a higher ILD under my hips in previous configurations which I guessed, finally, might have been too firm, so I was right, the Medium over Firm was better for me than Firm over Firm and Firm over Very Firm. So I got a much better night's sleep last night. However, I woke up with a slightly sore UPPER back, now! But on waking up I had my wife shoot a photo of my back as I lay on my side and sure enough my back and head were curving upwards from the extra foam at the shoulder area and the too-high pillow (before it was too low) . So NOW I took out one layer of latex from the shoulder area so it is now only slightly higher than the hip section, and I took the visco foam of my pillow and shaved off about an inch using my electric carving knife. So now I have the same middle section as above, but now the Shoulder section is as follows: 2 layers of medium ILD visco foam (3/4" each) 1 layer 3/4" latex - low ild (24?) 1/2" Extra Firm HR foam (61ILD) Sealy springs In my view, the feet section doesn't matter much. I generally just use it as a storage area for 2 different ILD's of HR foam that I can interchange as needed with the shoulder or hip area. If all this sounds crazy, all I can say is, IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING! And my wife likes her mattress just fine (we have 2 twins right together so as to avoid disturbing each other with tossing and turning/ cover stealing in the night). I'm anxious to see if tonight, having made the change to my pillow and shoulder section, I might wake up with NO pain! That would be amazing... But like you say, it's not ALL the mattress, sometimes it's just my back hurting for no good reason, or from something I did "wrong", and so sometimes it hurts no matter what. But if I can find a configuration that gives me at least SOME good nights of sleep, then I think I'll stick with it for awhile and see if I can work on my back problem during the day by doing the right exercises and stretches and so on. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
| One more thing you might want to try--Vitamin D capsule with evening meal. Supposed to aid sleep by relieving muscles. Can't hurt. |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
| Jim, it seems to me that if you were going to stack more foam in one area than another, it would be under your hips to "buoy" them up to stay aligned with your shoulders. Your experiment is very interesting anyway. I can't wait to hear how the latest configuration works... |
Re: The perfect mattress for anyone with $$$$
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Wow! My back hurts just reading about all the "tweaking" you did, jimsocal! :-) But, hey, isn't this great that we CAN do this?! Your last paragraph says a lot. No matter how I configure my mattress, this sacroiliac joint pain is still going to be here, it seems. :( Somedays are better than others. And, like you said, it also depends on what activity we partake in during the day or if we just might have twisted wrong. But, like you, I'm going to try to make my mattress be as comfortable as I can without adding to the situation. Right now it's not too bad, actually! jimsocal wrote: Yeah, cloud9, ain't it great having back pain that seems to be caused by anything or nothing? <BR><BR>Well, you apparently did not notice but I AM zoning my mattress! I bought all pieces of foam 1" x 25" x 37-and-1/2" just so I could zone it into 3 zones.<BR><BR>My back has been slowly getting a little better (that is, out of acute pain!) over the past week and last night I think I finally hit on a very good combination of foam for my mattress.<BR><BR>Since I also have upper shoulder/neck/arm problems this is what I had confgured 2 nights ago:<BR>For my shoulder area, from top to bottom:<BR><BR>2 layers of medium ILD visco foam (3/4" each)<BR>2 layers 3/4" latex - low ild (24?)<BR>1/2" Extra Firm HR foam (61ILD) <BR>Sealy springs<BR><BR>For my hip section I had this from the bottom up:<BR><BR>1" Medium HR foam 31ILD<BR>1" Firm HR foam 41 ILD<BR>1/2" Extra Firm HR foam<BR>Sealy springs<BR><BR>If you notice, the shoulder zone in the above configuration has an extra inch of foam, but since it was mostly very low ILD I thought that I'd sink down into it enough that it would not put me out of alignment.<BR><BR>Well, for the first night since building my mattress I found that I woke up with NO lower back pain, which had been really plaguing me (also, I had a higher ILD under my hips in previous configurations which I guessed, finally, might have been too firm, so I was right, the Medium over Firm was better for me than Firm over Firm and Firm over Very Firm.<BR><BR>So I got a much better night's sleep last night. <BR><BR>However, I woke up with a slightly sore UPPER back, now! <BR><BR>But on waking up I had my wife shoot a photo of my back as I lay on my side and sure enough my back and head were curving upwards from the extra foam at the shoulder area and the too-high pillow (before it was too low) .<BR><BR>So NOW I took out one layer of latex from the shoulder area so it is now only slightly higher than the hip section, and I took the visco foam of my pillow and shaved off about an inch using my electric carving knife. <BR><BR>So now I have the same middle section as above, but now the Shoulder section is as follows:<BR><BR>2 layers of medium ILD visco foam (3/4" each) <BR><span style="font-weight: bold;">1 layer </span>3/4" latex - low ild (24?) <BR>1/2" Extra Firm HR foam (61ILD) <BR>Sealy springs<BR><BR>In my view, the feet section doesn't matter much. I generally just use it as a storage area for 2 different ILD's of HR foam that I can interchange as needed with the shoulder or hip area.<BR><BR>If all this sounds crazy, all I can say is, IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING!<BR><BR>And my wife likes her mattress just fine (we have 2 twins right together so as to avoid disturbing each other with tossing and turning/ cover stealing in the night). <BR><BR>I'm anxious to see if tonight, having made the change to my pillow and shoulder section, I might wake up with NO pain! That would be amazing...<BR><BR>But like you say, it's not ALL the mattress, sometimes it's just my back hurting for no good reason, or from something I did "wrong", and so sometimes it hurts no matter what. But if I can find a configuration that gives me at least SOME good nights of sleep, then I think I'll stick with it for awhile and see if I can work on my back problem during the day by doing the right exercises and stretches and so on. |