<p>I’ve been meaning to ask this for ages. Does anyone here sleep on an air bed? I see ads for the Select Comfort Sleep Number bed all the time. Unfortunately for me, I’m conservative when it comes to spending vast amounts of money for something I’ll spend a third of my time with and I resist buying things that expensive on spec. Any opinions or experience?</p>
<p>I recently slept on a cheap airbed ($150) while in the process of moving. After 4 days, the back pain I woke up with for years was gone. I slept like a baby.</p>
<p>My dental hygienist and I just had this conversation. She’s had one for a couple of years and says she and her husband are completely spoiled by it, and that it was worth every penny and then some. She gushed about it so much I’m seriously considering it when it’s time for a new one. She has the one the Bionic woman advertises.</p>
<p>Beds are a very personal choice. What one thinks is great another hates. What one thinks is firm another thinks uncomfortable. I’d visit a store and literally take a nap on one. </p>
<p>We have had a Select Comfort bed for about 3 maybe 4 years. My husband had signficant back problems develop during a 3 year period, during a time he battled degenerative knee problems and was limping around. The limping uncovered degenerative back problems as well. The knee was eventually replaced, with excellent results. The back improved a bit. He decided against back surgery.</p>
<p>This bed has been a godsend. We were waterbed folks from way back. Our first bed was a first generation waterbed, with the rustic wood frame. It was not waveless, etc. We sloshed on it when we turned. But we slept well. That was 27 years ago. Over the years we graduated to a waveless, then a softsided waterbed. When H’s back problems accelerated, it just wasn’t helping. Enter the sleep number bed. It has been good for us. I like that we can each set the firmness of our own sides. We got a basic one, and I do wish we had gone for a bit more of the foam topper on the mattress. </p>
<p>Assembling it is interesting. You look at the pieces and you definately have buyers remorse. You wonder how it is going to be to sleep on the darn thing. But it works.</p>
<p>They do mean it when they say you can return it for a full refund, although they don’t reimburse for the postage. And I did wonder how I would ever get the pieces back in the same boxes. BUt we were happy, so I didn’t have to figure that one out. They do email once in awhile about letting current owners upgrade their bed or buy a second bed at a much reduced rate via refurbished ones (those that ware sent back.)</p>
<p>Go to a store, and lay on the thing for a good 20-30 minutes. Take a book or something. They say everyone should do this when they pick a mattress, but it is amazing how few people spend more than 60 seconds on any one mattress. </p>
<p>Try it, you just might like it.</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree with sunnyflorida. We have owned a Select Comfort bed for more than 8 years. We initially bought it due to my husband’s back issues which were nothing serious, just aggravating. It helped to some degree (nothing miraculous overnight!) but I absolutely love this bed. I have a hard time going on vacation and sleeping elsewhere. Our children also love this bed and our daughter who graduated from college last May made a Select Comfort bed her first big purchase. It does really hold up well too.</p>
<p>I enjoyed the campmore air pads. The memory foam toppers are nice but in the summer they too warm for me. I am thinking a thin air pad over a 2 inch memory foam over an moderate priced mattress.</p>
<p>My memory foam topper cured my back aches. I sleep on an air bed when I visit at my sister’s house. It works too. I like thisoldman’s proposition.</p>
<p>^thankyou for the kind words. However, what really works for my spouse, is to move into another bed. I moved back in my mother’s home at night into my old teenage bedroom. Always a momma’s boy, she’s 90.</p>
<p>Campmor (note the correct splelign) isn’t a bad short term answer, but it’s not what I want for every day. At summer camp, I put my Thermarest Camp Rest LE pad on my nylon cot and sleep like a baby. It’s a little confining for 365 day use. Unfortunately, the cot only goes to camp – usually I’m on the ground with the Thermarest, which isn’t quite so comfy.</p>
<p>My real problem isn’t comfort, it’s support. Traditional mattresses sag over time and ours is at the stage where I’m sort of sleeping in a hammock. A really bad hammock, and WashMom has her own hammock on the other side. The only comfortable part of the mattress is right in the middle, but I only get to sleep there when WashMom is out of town (since she isn’t willing to cling to the side of the bed to help me out – she’s pretty self-centered). Even putting a topper or Thermarest on top wouldn’t help any.</p>
<p>Washdad, in college those matresses were know as “tacos.”</p>
<p>I’ve got a Tempur-Pedic memory foam bed and like it okay. I considered a select-comfort but it didn’t seem that comfortable to me in the showroom and I couldn’t get over paying megabucks for an air mattress with an electric pump. I suspect there’s a huge markup on all types of mattresses. Bed comfort is particular to the individual though like in the story of Goldilocks.</p>
<p>Meeting tonight and too late to go Mom’s House. So I get sleep in joint bed at home. </p>
<p>Got another solution. Our beds at the Beach are inexpensive (cheap) and the mattresses have the sag problem-too soft. I didn’t want to buy new mattresses because we have occasional guests (really I am cheap, and since guests get to use the House virtually free, I feel obligated to make their stay uncomfortable). So I discard the box springs (useless and squeeky, I don’t like to hear squeekings in the next bedroom), and used a sheet of 3/4 ply (high thread ring count) as the new support. Now the beds are too hard (bad for goldilocks). So now I have ordered and will install on 4 July, memory foam, 2 inch, high density, premium toppers (oughtabe just right.) My bed at the Beach is usually the cot. Things I do to make people happy. </p>
<p>The porridge is another story. I suppose you have a problem with that too?</p>
<p>I know so many people who complain of back problems, spend fortunes at doctors and on meds but when you ask about their beds say ‘oh, it’s 25 yrs old and pretty saggy…but it’s fine.’ Nope. It’s not. A mattress is not a life-time purchase. All the fancy beds are great – I’m loving my Tempur-pedic – but a new bed instead of a ‘taco’ will help even if you don’t spend a mint. My dh and I have a terrible time sleeping when we leave our bed behind. I’ve spent a few nights in friends’ homes, clinging to the side of a mattress like a mariner on an overturned ship, fearing the inexorable slide to the deeps if my grip should fail. Hotels are worse yet – they tend to be like sleeping on rumble strips. </p>
<p>This 4th of the July every furniture/bed store seems to be running a sale on mattresses – even the fancy ones have discounts. (The Founding Fathers would be so proud…sniff.)</p>