<p>Our mattress needs to be replaced. I feel like I am walking down a busy, seedy, city street, being accosted by barkers, hustlers, and con men every step of the way. This makes buying a car seems like a serene experience.</p>
<p>We do not like the memory foam feeling. Everything else is on the table. One thing I can’t seem to get answered: Spend the money and buy a top of the line mattress and get many years out of it or buy a midline product and replace it more frequently?</p>
<p>Any advice from the assembled would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I thought I wouldn’t like memory foam, but I LOVE it. DH and I can toss and turn without bothering the other one. And we never have to turn or flip the mattress. There is a wide range of firmness - you can still get a soft mattress if you like that better.</p>
<p>The ONLY drawback we found was that it has an odor for the first week or so. I am terribly sensitive to smells, so I just didn’t sleep on it for that period.</p>
<p>My other advice would be to look online and find a reputable, well-established mattress store. I really think the extra money is worth it. There are a LOT of scammy places out there! My hairdresser used one of them and ended up really unhappy with what she’d bought.</p>
<p>Cross-posted with missypie - sorry to hear that! Shows that everyone is different!</p>
<p>The bed <em>I</em> didn’t like was the Sleep Number one. Just felt weird to us.</p>
<p>I would also go to a good mattress store and try to find a salesperson you trust. A good one will really be able to help you and there are usually sales. Day after Thanksgiving might be a great time to shop!</p>
<p>Costco or Sams Club might be good place for getting a basic, decent mattress. I agree, I’d rather buy a new car from a dealer than have to go into a mattress store full of mattress sales sharks.</p>
<p>Costco. I pretty much trust their product selection and pricing. We bought mattresses this summer and I decided I was just going to go with what Costco had, and we’ve been satisfied.</p>
<p>We bought a mattress for my son recently, and we were really turned off by the car-salesman tactics at a mattress store (one of the big chains, but I suspect they are all about the same). We ended up buying a mattress at Macy’s–the salesperson gave us information, but no hard sell. I suspect we could have gotten a similar mattress for less at the other place, but it was worth it to me to avoid the unpleasant experience.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, DON’T REMOVE THE MATTRESS TAG. There is a secret electronic link to the NSA, and you could be renditioned to a torture cell in Bahrain.</p>
<p>Each time we have bought a mattress we have gotten a very nice firm mattress. Loved each each one. Mattresses are one thing I won’t skimp on. I love my sleep!</p>
<p>btw - I use a Tempurpedic and I really like it and would recommend it. If you lay on one for 10 seconds in a store you won’t get a decent feel for it - it actually takes some time (a couple or 3 minutes) for the foam to warm due to the body and hence conform to the body). Also - not all memory foam mattresses are the same. A Novaform from Costco won’t have the same feel as a Tempurpedic (a Tempurpedic is superior IMO).</p>
<p>I think the success of the memory foam is obvious since virtually everyone offers it or pieces of it now.</p>
<p>But different people have different desires when it comes to this area.</p>
<p>I have a gf who is considering buying a bed they slept well on in a nice resort. It’s hard to know, though, what part is the quality of the matteress and what part is the being on vacation.</p>
<p>My fiance wanted memory foam and I did not, we compromised with a Trump spring mattress with a memory foam pillow top. We both love it and it doesn’t feel like memory foam. </p>
<p>The drawback is that it does get warm at night, we sleep with the ceiling fan on year round. We are usually comfortable but it is different from a plain spring mattress with no memory foam. I get irritated because if I go to bed first my body heat alone is not enough to heat it up and I am cold unless I bundle up, but if I do bundle up I am roasting hot when fiance comes to bed later. We have to have an extra blanket that he pulls off the bed when he comes to sleep so I don’t get too hot. It’s a minor irritation that took getting used to, but I love the bed. I don’t think about the temperature anymore, I just sleep in lighter pajamas than I used to and don’t change out the blankets for winter like I used to.</p>
<p>My first night with a memory foam topper (the ikea hultsvik, which I liked but fiance’s trump was better), I was a bit too warm the first night for reasons that probably had nothing to do with the bed, but I convinced myself it was and kept myself up all night fretting about the new bed. I never had a problem with it again after the first night. It was in my head.</p>
<p>We have a pillow top mattress from Serta that has foam and gel in it and I hate it. It is too hot. I recently went to a Sleep Number store and tested out their hot/cool mattress toppers. I was in heaven, until I asked the price. Queen size with dual control was about $1,700. Thought of getting the twin size, but that was $999. It might just be worth it since our mattress is only going on 3 yrs. old.</p>
<p>The mattress companies intentionally make it almost impossible to compare prices and offers between different vendors. Manufacturers modify innerspring mattresses for different sellers, changing color, padding, quilting pattern, etc. Then each seller can call the mattress by a different name. Consumers are the losers. Some mattress makers provide helpful information on their websites. Go to [Simmons®</a> : Simmons® Beds and Mattresses](<a href=“http://www.simmons.com%5DSimmons%C2%AE”>http://www.simmons.com), for example, and you’ll find basic information about the company’s flagship Beautyrest lines, including TruEnergy, ComforPedic, Natural Care, and BeautySleep. You’ll see those names wherever you find Beautyrest, and all beds in each line share attributes. Also, you have to try before you buy. Lie down on it in the store for 15 mins. Really. Don’t trust the name. One company’s ultraplush might be another’s supersoft.</p>
<p>The mattress you bought last time around, might be too firm now. Alan Hedge, Ph.D., professor of ergonomics at Cornell University, said the best mattress supports the spine at all points while allowing it to maintain its natural curve. By age 40, Hedge said, skin loses elasticity and becomes more sensitive to pressure points, so a softer, more cushiony surface is more comfortable. “Slightly softer works better because there’s less compression on the skin,” he said.</p>
<p>Finally, never pay full price. The “normal” price at which mattresses are always sold is 50% off.</p>