Mattress Madness

Choosing a mattress for the bed can be a stressful and yet comic experience. Recently we decided it was time to replace our mattress. We had a sleep number bed and when we purchased it 5 years ago it was a wonderful bed. However, the air bladders in the sleep number bed are surrounded by a type of tightly concentrated hard foam and over time this begins to twist and bend down on the side of the bed. When this foam is twisted enough on both sides the two mattress bladders begin to spread and become quite uncomfortable. Now the company advertises that this mattress will have the same if not longer life span as a normal mattress and I suppose 5 ½ years is pretty normal.

To replace this foam boarder and the mattress casing and cover would run approximately $950.00 total so, that amount meant why should we not shop around for a memory foam or Tempur-Pedic mattress instead.

Off to Costco for their memory foam mattress at $499.99 we went. This mattress is 12 inches thick and a queen size, made and sold by Sleep Innovations, Inc. We brought home this mattress, which weighs in at 70lb's and placed it on our base. We were able to use the sleep number base because it is solid and not an inner spring mattress but a hard piece constructed to hold the shape of the upper mattress. The Head, Foot and down the middle of this Innovation Sleep mattress grew to it's intended 12 inches but each side where the center of the human body would lie was only 4 ½ inches thick. The process of swelling should take about 72 hours - unfortunately 7 days later we returned the mattress to Costco for a refund.

Just to let you know we did contact Sleep Innovations Inc. they were extremely professional and offered to replace the mattress but it would take 3 weeks. The extensive time to replace this mattress and then to start fresh for another 72 hours while hubby and I slept on the floor was just not a pleasant idea.

So off we went with our $499.99 refund to the Mohr Furniture Store to purchase our Tempur-Pedic mattress. We ended up purchasing the Advantage Tempur-Pedic Mattress for $1,499.00 and it was delivered completely formed. One problem is however that the air pockets have to open up that means each day we have to climb onto the mattress and walk back and forth to make this process go faster. The Tempur-Pedic mattress is extremely stiff and hard until this process happens. To date after 5 days the Tempur-Pedic is beginning to get softer and more form fitting while we sleep. I must admit I do not wake up with pain in my lower back but I am only sleeping about 6 hours a night. I feel completely rested and think perhaps that I am sleeping so well and so deeply I don't need more sleep than this.

Hands down for comfort, delivery, wait time before sleeping the Tempur-Pedic mattress is number 1 hands down. A bit on the expensive side but time will tell if this expensive mattress lasts longer than the sleep number which originally cost $2,999.99 for the entire set of air bladder mattress and bottom casing.