We needed a new mattress and the search began. Dh is happy with just about anything and I’m the one with back issues so he deferred to me. As a stomach sleeper, I knew I needed something pretty firm. First I replaced our Stearns and Foster with another S&F through Costco. It had a mattress topper and was too soft so back it went. I found a firm Beautyrest at a local shop that, after lying on it for 3 minutes I thought would work. It ended up being hard as a rock! That made me realize there really is a too firm mattress for me. It went back. Now we’re 45 days into our sleep number bed and, even with fiddling with the number (65, 75, 80), I wake up on my stomach with my back aching from being, for lack of a better way to describe it, bent the wrong way.
Any stomach sleepers out there? What mattress has worked for you?
DH is a stomach sleeper and I’m a back and side sleeper. Both of us have been happy with our memory foam mattress (like Tempurpedic, but made by Simmons). It’s fairly firm, which we both like. Some people don’t like memory foam mattresses, but we had no problem adjusting to ours.
I’ve been told that people over 40 need a medium, not a firm mattress. All I can tell you is not to buy a Saatva. We HATE ours and found this out when it was too late to return it. We will be shopping for a Gardner in the near future. You can’t get those everywhere, but they are excellent. We just tried to cheap out with the Saatva and failed.
Last year we got a Beautyrest Black and it was the perfect compromise between hard and soft for us. Our friends got one too and it works for them also.
My kids have termperpedic in their childhood rooms and I find I sink into them too much so I don’t think memory foam is for me.
@Singersmom07, thank you for the suggestion. The Beautyrest that we bought and returned did not have the word ‘black’ in the name so I can check that one out.
I wish there was a way to standardize mattresses! Being stuck with an expensive object that does not work is not fun. Being stuck with a giant object that does not work is a hassle. Being stuck with an expensive and giant object is a major PITA. That said, we are happy with our Tempur from Costco. Tempurs come in various levels of softness. I picked the firmer one and added a wool
cover. Bliss.
Arrggh. I thought my H and I were headed to an expensive Sleep Number type mattress, but your experience seems to say no. I love hard mattresses, he likes them soft. Good luck and let us know what you end up with.
You need to put all embarrassment aside and spend 20-30 minutes on each mattress you have narrowed it down to. Lie on it like you would at home. It will save you time and money in the long run.
I read somewhere that you should bring a book and settle in for 30 minutes when trying a mattress. That is what I did. I found out pretty quick that I didn’t want a Temperpedic type of mattress.
I also went to another mattress store that had some sort of machine on a test bed that you laid on in the position you like to sleep and it analyzed and gave you a reading of what you might like in a mattress.
I can’t imagine ordering a mattress online.
Sleeping on the stomach is not recommended for people with back problems. I used to be a stomach sleeper, so I get the allure. But decades of back problems cured me of that. Have you tried putting a pillow under your lower abdomen to eliminate the bow in the back that sleeping on your stomach creates?
There are two main types of beauty rest black mattresses. One is a hybrid, which has coils and the memory foam top. I have two of the second kind, which are all memory foam. Both kinds have a cooling top and are medium firm. My bed has an adjustable base, which works great. I paid for the adjustable bed frame, but months later, Mattress Firm gave them free with purchase of a mattress. My friend bought hers then.
If you have a note from a physician that you need a bed (&frame) , then you don’t have to pay taxes.
If you stomach sleep and it starts bothering your lower back, you know, because you are old, try popping one leg out to the side with a bent knee, that relieves the stress.
In certain parts of the country there is The Original Mattress Factory. We got two different mattresses for our two sons there. One is very firm, but extremely comfortable with a gel mattress topper on it. The other is somewhat less firm but also very comfortable, even without a mattress topper. They were a little more expensive than some places you can get mattresses, but service was excellent and the mattresses are finished on both sides so you can actually flip them.
I was cured from stomach sleeping when I was recovering from abdominal surgery. A pillow under my knees made sleeping on the back so much more comfortable!
I do not like memory foam so ours is the hybrid type with coils. The Black is more expensive and I was not going to do it until we spent time on it at the showroom. I am sensitive to pressure points and I am very comfortable on this one.
OK, I’m pretty intrigued about teaching myself to sleep in another position. If I had my choice, I’d sleep on my back which would help with wrinkles and creases from my pillowcase. So, can anyone who’s trained themselves (@nrdsb4, @BunsenBurner and anyone else) give more detail? In the meantime, @somemom, I’ll try your suggestion.
And, I’m happy to hear about more beds that work for stomach sleepers.
^^too late to edit but, in terms of training myself to sleep differently, I always fall asleep on my side but wake up on my stomach. Really don’t know how I’m supposed to change that.
We just bought a new mattress 1 week ago from the Original Mattress Company. We went there because my SIL did a ton of research and bought from them and was happy. I like a firm mattress so we went back and forth between firm and ultra-firm and finally got the ultra. First night of sleeping it was just way too hard for me, and I like a firm mattress! I could hardly sleep. Thing was like a rock. So we bought a 2 inch topper from Amazon.(zinus) and it is now pretty comfortable. I wanted to get one of those mattress in a box things, but wife wouldn’t hear of it. It’s a compromise, but I can sleep.