The last time I bought a mattress for myself was about 11 years ago. I bought a fairly new full-sized one off a coworker. Four moves and a decade later, we’ve decided it’s time to replace it with an adult (and sometimes an extra toddler)-sized bed. When we started looking, I was shocked at the prices. $3000 for a mattress? What the heck are these things made of? Knowing very little, we went shopping for a mattress and other things on a Saturday morning. The first place, we stopped, Sleepy’s, seemed nice enough. We laid on a few and honed in on the one that we both felt most comfortable in. Meanwhile, Audrey discovered the fun of letting herself fall backwards onto mattresses and did it all over the store. She was giggling and the whole store couldn’t help but look and smile at her. Unfortunately, we soon stopped smiling. When we found something we liked, the seemingly helpful salesman started to get more aggressive. He asked how much we were looking at paying and I made up a number on the spot, something way below the listed price on the bed.
The said he would “talk with his manager” and see if he could get us that price. Then he started asking us if we could commit and have it delivered tomorrow. Anne had walked outside to give Audrey a break by that point, so I said I had to go out and talk with her about it. We talked about it for a bit, then decided we didn’t like the high-pressure sales pitch, so we got ready to leave. I had the car started up when the salesman came out and approached the car window. He then said that he had “talked to his manager” and he could give us the price we wanted AND a free “platinum package”. I said we would talk about it and let him know. We again decided this was sketchy, but to make good on my promise, I went in and gave him my phone number and left. Later that day we went to Jordan’s Furniture, generally known to be a reputable place with reasonable places. The salespeople there were nice and NOT high-pressure. Prices were generally lower, but strangely, we couldn’t find the mattress we found at Sleepy’s.
They had Sertas, but not the one we liked. Being indecisive, we left with a couple new names of ones we liked. Later, we went to Mattress Discounters. The woman there was not pushy and told us about the BBB complaints that Sleepy’s (a 700-store chain) had gotten. We decided to think some more and head home. At home, I did some research online and I found something strange – I couldn’t find much of anything on the mattresses we saw that we liked. I found some mattresses, many of the same brand, but not the same models. I later came to find out that this was completely intentional. The mattress industry is one big scam. There is no way to make an objective decision on a mattress using actual facts. Here’s a few things that the mattress industry does to get you: 1. They mark up their prices 100% to 200%!! No wonder the first guy was able to get his “manager” to give me such a steep discount. They were probably still going to make hundreds of dollars of profits on it.
2. They give the same mattresses different names in different stores or they set up exclusivity agreements by mattress line in certain stores. This makes it impossible to comparison shop because… 3. They make it really had to get actual facts about the mattresses. Stuff like coil counts, materials, overall construction are shrouded in secrecy. But that doesn’t really matter because… 4. There’s no objective measure of mattress quality. Consumer Reports won’t rate them because they can’t get the data and there’s no testing that actually says higher coil counts are better or the number of wires in the coils makes a difference in any way. You’re left to deciding how much you believe the marketing. Is a pillow top made of alpaca hair any better than one made of cotton? Your guess is as good as mine. 5. There’s very little online reviews of mattresses, probably because the model names are so fractured. The ones I did find looked more like content-free sites designed to attract referral credits.
With some more research, I found out that it was somewhat possible to compare mattresses models from different places. It turns out that they really only make one hardness variation in each line. So you can assume that a Plush Firm mattress in the “Classic” line, is the same as another Plush Firm in the Classic line, even if they have different names. was very helpful in figuring this out. We were able to understand which mattresses we saw and how they related to each other. For example, the mattress we liked at Jordan’s was a product line better than the one we saw at Mattress Discounters, even though they came out to the same price! Clearly Jordan’s had the better deal, but US-Mattress had an even better deal. So I did something I never thought I could do, buy a mattress over the internet. I’m pretty sure it’s the same one we saw in the store and the free delivery and frame were a good deal. I’m sure that even if I’m getting it at half the price I saw it listed at elsewhere, they’re still making a decent profit on it.
Anne and I agree that buying a mattress is worse than buying a car. While both have sketchy salespeople, when you buy a car, you can compare them on MPG, size, features, etc. Multiple dealers have the same models so you can compare prices and make an informed decision based on their invoice prices. There’s none of that when buying a mattress. Our mattress should arrive in a few weeks. Hopefully we’ll just find it comfortable enough to have to avoid going through buying a mattress again for at least another 11 years. UPDATE: The mattress arrived quickly and in good condition. We’ve been sleeping on it for several nights and while it feels comfy, I’ve had some upper back soreness which seems to be related to the new mattress. Hopefully it will go away. Otherwise, we’ll have to find another one and do a $100 exchange I guess.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.