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I have a friend who swears by his Select Comfort although admittedly he never had any sleep issues such as back pain. He even bought one for his parents and says they love it too. I think they seem very over-priced but if it gave me a good night's sleep with less back pain the price would not be an issue. Just curious if anyone here has ever tried one of these? |
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Kait wrote: Yup. I bought one when they first came out. I got a non-pillowtop which was probably the smartest thing I did. Darn thing was still over 1K, which was a lot of money back when. Anyway, only way to sleep on it was with a nice foam pad. This was also when I was younger and had zero issues(which I think have been caused by the beds and furniture and car seat foam wearing out, but I digress). I slept OK but the second the foam wore out(which was typically in the middle of the night...it went to dead foam...had to get up)there was no sleeping on the thing. Face it, we think of air as light, fluffy soft...but compressed air(that in the bed chambers) is used for power tools!! It is HARD and has no give. Doesn't support the heavier places. Feels dead, no rebound. Then I gave it to the kids(they still have it in storage if you want to try it...central CA)and bought a latex mattress. It got a fanny-dip in three years. Heavy. Hot. Then 2 Restonics(one pillowtop one plush/body impressions 3 mos.), then S & F(same thing, warranty not worth scrap), then a Stress-o-pedic my husband picked out(way too soft foam/ too thick..over pocket coils) which I had rebuilt with different foam(pocket coils don't work right for me)....and now my coil spring bed custom made. I am liking this bed better every day. And it wasn't expensive. Mostly I think the problem with beds is that PU foam wears out...and some of it is really crap from the start. Lest you think that I am some football player who wears these things out just by sheer size...I'm 5'6" and 125#. Most of my weight probably in the fanny. I don't personally like the feel of latex anymore...I know people swear by it, but it feels too boingy to me and doesn't have much airflow. Memory foams are very diverse...many are hot to sleep on...but they really are designed to give but not support. p/u foam wears out by the nature of it. So we are left with springs and maybe cotton batting, and whatever else we put in the bed. I know my back pain is from the foam not supporting me and letting my fanny drop further than it should. Stresses my low back all night and I wake up sore and muscles siezed up. Only soluntion I could figure was getting a bed with supportive innards, made the best possible way, box springs with actual springs, and dealing with people who would fix the foam if/or really when it died. So I did. My husband calls me the Princess and the Pea. Now I am replacing the foam in my couch. What a nighmare.... Kait Kait, I agree with you about the latex, and having been a member for many years here, I can assure you that there are many others who do not like the feel of latex, especially a 100% latex mattress. I find it way too bouncy. Someone here (it might have even been me!) coined the phrase "it pushes back too much" and that is exactly how I feel about it. I felt as if it was always pushing against me as opposed to gently supporting me. However, in the past year I have used a very soft latex topper from time to time and found that it can work as one layer. I am even considering trying it again as one of my 1" layers, replacing a layer of HR foam. I will also say, that contrary to popular opinion, I have found that I like both the natural latex (some call it jungle latex) and the Dunlop latex better than Talalay. To me, Talalay is the worst feelling of the 3 types of latex. In fact, if I could find some cheap enough (so far I've found it way overpriced), I would like to try a Dunlop or natural latex core, and then put a layer of HR foam or this "M-grade" foam that overnightmattresses uses, over that, with perhaps a 1" topper of memory foam or soft latex on top. As to the "fanny dip" problem, I have that problem too and I have found SOME comfort by using a tri-zone bed (mine is home-made with HR foam) and adjusting the midsection to be firmer. However, even with high quality HR foam, what I find is that the first night or two will often be good but after another night or two, it softens up. I do not know how to fix that problem. Maybe if I used latex for the lower layer (I have 2 x 1-inch HR foam layers over 2 x 1/2" super hard HR foam layers). Maybe I need to try just one layer of foam instead of 2...? But also as I mentioned in another post I am working with the theory right now that the main problem is NOT the foam itself but the springs. It may be a bit of both, though. I KNOW the springs are shot and as soon as I get the overnightmattresses.com mattress I just ordered I will be throwing out the Sealy springs and trying their mattress without the Sealy mattress springs, just the foam sitting on the box springs. If the box springs give too much I'll but a hard board of some sort over the box springs. Anyway, I was just curious if you've tried a tri-zone approach, particularly one that you can change up from time to time, just by replacing the foam with harder or softer foam per your needs? As to memory foam, the overnightmattress site (see my seperate thread on them) says their memory foam breathes more. I am looking forward to trying both their "M-grade" pu foam and their memory foam to see if it's anywhere near what their advertising fluff says it is. One thing I have tried in the past is putting a wool topper over the memory foam to minimize the hotness. It does of course take away from the foam interacting with your body heat, but that is not necessarly a bad thing I don't think. I do theorize that the 2" of memory foam they put over the "M-grade" foam core is probably too much memory foam (I would prefer 1") but I figured "what the heck?", I'll try it since they have a full 100% refund return policy with 100% free shipping. By the way, no one should think I am promoting this company. Anyone who's been here long knows I am not affiliated with any company and I will be completely honest re the quality and feel of it once I try it. I am just somewhat excited to try this one because I have never heard of "M-grade" foam and their claim that it is better than HR foam which is what I use, intrigues me. By the way, for those of you who do not like the feel of latex, I do encourage you to try HR foam. OR maybe "M-grade" foam. I'll let you know re the latter in a few days after I get a chance to compare it. |
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jimsocal wrote: However, even with high quality HR foam, what I find is that the first night or two will often be good but after another night or two, it softens up. I do not know how to fix that problem. ..I will be throwing out the Sealy springs and trying their mattress without the Sealy mattress springs, just the foam sitting on the box springs. If the box springs give too much I'll but a hard board of some sort over the box springs. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Jim, I know exactly what you're talking about. I had the same experience with a latex mattress. The first night on any configuration was fine. The second night the mattress felt too soft and my back was uncomfortable. It got worse each night until I rearranged the cores again. I thought about this phenomenon long and hard and came to the conclusion that it's not that the foam is mysteriously softening up after a couple of nights. I think what's really happening is that making some change to your mattress configuration feels good initially because you are taking the stress off your back. But because the mattress is not providing the correct kind of support by the second night or so your back muscles are being strained again and you just think the mattress feels like it's gotten softer when what you're actually feeling is lack of support. I'm eager to hear your opinion of the Overnight Mattress bed you ordered. Just a thought on that-- it might not be a good idea to put it on a box spring. In fact, I wasn't aware you had a real box spring at all, since most mattresses these days come with a solid foundation. Had I known I would have suggested you try taking your existing mattress off the box spring and try it on a foundation or even on the floor. Placing a mattress intended for a boxspring on a solid surface really eliminates a lot of the bounce. I know because I took an innerspring mattress off the boxspring and it hardly has any give at all now. And actually it feels pretty good on my lumbar region because my back doesn't have to strain to find support. And you might want to avoid adding any more soft foam--latex or otherwise--to the mix. I couldn't agree more with what Kait had to say about excess foam. Less is more. I'm in the process of mattress surgery myself. (And I promise a full report will be posted in the near future.) I already removed 2 1/2" of horrible soft squishy convoluted foam from the cover and it immediately made the mattress firmer and more supportive. So much so that I was able to use my 2" 4lb memory foam topper--and it still feels really firm. Now I'm about to try replacing the last remaining layer of soft convoluted foam with 1" of latex--and then I should have something to report. So far I've slept on this configuration for nearly three weeks and it's the best this bed has been since I've had it. But again, I agree with Kait--I think sleeping on foam for a lot of people --and that's any kind of foam--just ruins your back. Mine has never felt the same from the day I retired my old flippable innerspring mattress. And I don't think it's a coincidence. |
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Cloud9: Where are your pictures??? Did you see my reply before asking what down mattress topper you were using? Are you still using that? Also are you sure you want to use the latex? I am thinking of ditching mine. My shoulder is in such pain and I try to lift weights or use my Total Gym and it kills me. I have the 1" latex under the cheap foam and the 1" memory foam over that with the Cuddlebed on top. It is not working. I toss and turn after 4 hours sleep, and wake up so tired. This is very hard to get right, good luck to us all.... |
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Select Comfort was part of our research. Decided against it as we (1) found them waaaay too expensive and (2) we have a inner-spring and air combo mattress in our RV and it is okay for camping but we wouldn't want to sleep on it regularly. Have you taken a hard look at modern waterbed mattresses?? My bride has a menu of recently identified back problems from curvature of the spine to multiple failing discs. We have been sleeping on waterbed mattresses for 22 years after an almost new and expensive inner-spring mattress began to sag. Anyway, she starting having pain while trying to sleep so I simply added water to our 8 yr old mattress which firmed it up and lowered wave action and she is sleeping well. We have decided to buy one of the dual mode models so that she can have more firmness than I need and the new one will be "ultra-waveless". Waterbeds are not the shoshy and bouncey things we played on in the early 70s - they are serious sleep platforms that are also seriously less expensive than ANY spring or foam alternative. The new one will be only our third in 22 yrs and will bring our total cash investment in mattresses to just $800. We keep the mattress temperature at a very comfortably warm 89 degress (having a heated bed is sooo civilized and nice) - so if you don't have very sharp clawed cats or often sleep with sharp objects we believe that a modern waterbed has all the others beat and at prices just a fraction of the other choices. Best of Luck |
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Hi imjay, Yes, I have considered a waterbed. I used to sleep on one of the old wavey squishy waterbags when I was in my 20's and loved it! And then in my 30's I had a little more complex one with some baffling in it and that was fine, too. Finally it kept leaking at the corners and I had to get rid of it. Then, about 5 years ago I slept on my nephew's waterbed for a couple nights and that felt very good, too (his was a more modern one with baffling and maybe some foam in it?) So I am interested in water beds but when I looked at them 7 years or so ago all the ones I found that looked to be of a good quality were too expensive. May I ask if you can recommend a not-too expensive one? I am not ready to try one yet. Right now I am very happy with my new overnightmattress.com M-Grade Foam mattress. But should it become uncomfortable, I may indeed try a waterbed next... |