What to Do When Your Mattress Is Too Soft or Too Firm Why Mattress Firmness Matters Remember the story of Goldilocks and the beds? She tried three different beds, trying to find one that wasn’t too hard or too soft, but “just right.” Turns out, she was really on to something. Of course, “just right” bed firmness is a subjective thing about which opinions will vary wildly, and—as we saw with Goldilocks—most people would have to lie down on the bed before they could even say what “just right” means for them. So how do you find your “just right” when it comes to mattresses—and what can you do if you realize that the mattress you have doesn’t fit the bill? First, let’s take a moment to drive home why you should care about the firmness of your mattress. The short answer can be distilled down to one word: alignment. Diving little deeper on that, your spine needs to be aligned while you sleep. Lying in an unaligned position for eight hours a day, every day, can contribute to serious back pain as well as negatively affect your sleep quality.
Mattress firmness, in turn, plays a big role in determining how aligned you are. What’s Better, a Firm Mattress or a Soft Mattress? Firmer mattresses provide more resistance for your body, which can help support you but can also apply too much pressure to certain points of your body, leading to painful pressure points or unaligned positions caused by your body compensation for any local discomfort. A soft plush mattress, on the other hand, can cause your spine to collapse into the mattress, which leads to its own alignment issues. Ultimately, there’s no straightforward answer about how to choose a mattress or whether a firm mattress is better or worse than a soft one. Spend some time doing a little research and a thorough mattress comparison before making a decision. Each person’s preference will vary based on a multitude of factors, including height, weight, age, and whether or not you have back pain or other health considerations. Your sleeping position will also play a role:
Side sleepers tend to need softer mattresses that don’t put too much pressure on the shoulders or hips. Back sleepers are better off with a medium firm mattress that supports the low back without pushing too much on the spine. Stomach sleepers require a firmer surface that prevents the body from sinking into the mattress and collapsing the spine. To make it all even more complex, your firmness needs may very over time as injuries, pregnancy, or weight fluctuations change your sleep needs. How to Deal with a Too-Soft or Too-Firm Mattress If you come to the realization that your mattress is too firm or too soft, the best thing to do is to buy a new mattress. Of course, finances or other circumstances don’t always allow for that. In a pinch, here are some makeshift solutions for remedying your current mattress firmness: If your mattress is too soft, try slipping some plywood boards between the mattress and the box spring or the bed frame. This will add some extra support.
Try a mattress pad or mattress topper. Pillow-material mattress toppers can help soften a too-firm mattress, while thick pads or firm mattress toppers can add some more support.Some mattress materials, like ones made from 100% memory foam, can become softer in warmer rooms, so try adjusting your thermostat to see if it makes your mattress more to your liking. If your mattress is too soft and it’s two-sided, try flipping it. The unused side will often be firmer. A better solution for finding your best mattress is to choose an adjustable latex mattress. As we outlined above, everyone requires different levels of firmness—and what’s more, you need different levels of mattress firmness for different parts of your body, and all these needs are subject to change throughout your life. Because of these variables, choosing one level of firmness for your whole mattress just doesn’t make sense. That’s where adjustable mattresses come to the rescue. In the case of Reverie, each of our latex mattresses is composed of individual DreamCell™ foam springs that come in three levels of firmness: firm, medium, and soft.
Our Sleep Specialists help customers determine the precise configuration of these DreamCells to best support each area of their body—so their shoulders can rest on a soft surface while their low back presses against a firm one, for instance. In addition, these DreamCell™ foam springs can be easily reconfigured at any time (we’re talking under 20 minutes) to respond to any changing sleep needs. The individual natural latex cells also allow for different firmness levels on each side of the bed, meaning back sleepers and side sleepers can rest side-by-side, each with the support he or she needs. Now we can’t speak for Goldilocks, but that sounds “just right” to us. What: Shares of Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:MFRM) were down 21% as of 1:30 p.m. Friday after the mattress retail chain reported weaker-than-expected fiscal-second-quarter results and mixed forward guidance. So what: Quarterly revenue climbed 61.2% year over year to $661.1 million, bolstered by a combination of comparable-store sales growth of 2.8%, and incremental sales from acquired and new locations.
Meanwhile, adjusted net income rose a much more modest 13.1% year over year to $23.8 million, or $0.67 per share. For perspective on the top line, Mattress firm opened 71 new locations and closed 11 during the quarter, bringing its total to 2,223. And in September 2014, Mattress Firm completed its $64.5 million acquisition of the 131 retail locations including the Back to Bed and Bedding Experts retail stores in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, as well as Bedding Experts and Mattress Barn retail stores in Florida. Unfortunately, analysts were anticipating higher revenue and earnings of $663.6 million and $0.72 per share, respectively. "Despite a solid Labor Day and recent positive sales trends," explained Mattress Firm CEO Steve Stagner, "we still expect volatility in the oil-affected markets and have adjusted our guidance to reflect that. We continue to see results from our Relative Market Share model, and believe we can create long-term value for our shareholders as we integrate our acquisitions and execute our growth strategies."
Now what: On one hand, Mattress Firm updated its revenue guidance for the full fiscal year to a range of $2.53 million to $2.55 million, an increase from its previous range of $2.485 million to $2.535 million. On the other hand, that's expected to translate to adjusted net income per share of $2.30 to $2.45, down from previous expectations for EPS in the range of $2.50 to $2.70. Analysts' consensus estimates were predicting lower-full-year revenue of $2.50 billion, but significantly higher earnings of $2.59 per share. To be fair, the volatility Mattress firm is experiencing in oil-affected markets should ultimately prove temporary. But for now, considering revenue guidance was effectively the only item to exceed expectations as the rest of the results fell short, it's no surprise the market is bidding down Mattress Firm stock today. Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.