Get a Waterbed and you'll never go back.

Novaform foam mattress around 400 bucks at Cotsto. LOVE it My mom and grandma took my advice and love them too !

The memory foam mattresses are definitely the best. We got an off-brand and it has been great going on 8 years now.

Around 1990 in my area of NY, Sealy was making specific mattresses for individual stores, and Sealy mattress names could never be compared between stores, because they all differed. In the 1990s we had back aches from it inspite of spending more than $1,000., went with a local brand Englander, all fine now. Before that we had a foam mattress which did cost much less, and we always slept well, then the Sealy fiasco began.
You could search at the bogleheads.org financial forum, they had good threads about mattresses, I believe foam won.
Good luck and be aware of marketing scams!
Bernd

After 20+ years of a waterbed, we went to the memory foam. Very, very pleased.

googled the costco reference above.. and came up with the link.. go figure.. its been covered on GW ... lol

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I could add something to what McT said. I had a waterbed for over 30 years,and it's a great bed. But,if you ever have to travel anywhere,you will not like the motel beds,and believe me nobody has waterbeds in motels. Your back will be in pain all night. Also,if you have a bad back,a waterbed will make it worse,if your back ever "goes out",because your spine tries to bend the other way,in the warmth of the waterbed. Been there done that. Right now we are sleeping on a foam latex mattress,and it's OK,but after awhile,it develops holes where your body lies. Sleep Number beds work well,because you can adjust the firmness.and you never have to flip it! I don't know about Tempur-pedic memory foam mattresses. Whatever you decide,one thing I have noticed,there's no such thing as a cheap mattress any more! If you ever looked at the price of Tempur-pedic beds,you'll know what I'm talkin' about. Phil

I've slept on a water bed for over forty years. When I do sleep on another bed my back always kills me. I've had my back go out for one reason or another but the waterbed seems to allow it to go back into place and has never made it worse. My sister buys expensive mattresses up to $4000 or more. She has tried most of those you've mentioned and none of them have lasted very long. I got a new water bed a year or so ago for $350. It will last me 10 + years. I think if you put enough water in it you will have the correct support. The biggest drawback I can see is that you can't move the furniture around the room. It has to stay where it is without a lot of hassle.

I hear that,Myrle! Many years ago,I had really bad back problems. So bad that when I had to get out of my waterbed,my wife had to push me out onto the floor,where I had to crawl on my hands and knees,to get to the bathroom. It was the most pain I had ever felt! On the brighter side,I agree that waterbeds are great to sleep on! We are going to try to get another Sleep Number bed again. We had one and gave it away,thinking this king size foam latex mattress was the answer. If you have ever tried to flip a king size foam latex matress over,you'll understand what I am talking about. It must weigh 200 lbs of dead weight! Just a few more thoughts to ponder. Phil

Deanna,
I worked in a furniture store for several years and sold lots of different mattresses during that time. I don't have any personal experience with the Sleep Number beds but I have checked them out in the past and know it is a good quality mattress. If you decide to go with the air bed product, theirs would be the brand to go with. I would shy away from Sealy Posturpedic and recommend you look into a high quality Serta instead. Serta will be comparable in price and each has a ten year warranty. Both companies stand behind their warranty. Just make sure you are buying from a store that you trust to be around for 10 years and that has a good customer service department and keep up with your paperwork just in case you need it. In the eight years I was in the business (until 2007) Serta had a much lower return rate than Sealy and a lower rate of customer service issues over all. What I noticed about Sealy was that the more expensive mattresses had the most spring related problems.
One thing I like about the spring construction of the Sertas is that they tie their springs together with a helical wire that runs head to toe on the mattress. Sealy ties theirs together running side to side on the bed. What the head to toe direction does is it helps distribute the weight on top of the mattress from head to toe which helps prevent roll together when you have 2 people sleeping together. They also have a patented layer in the top of all their better mattresses that uses convoluted foam (like egg crate foam) with the point sides up which keeps more air loft in the top layer. This helps prevent some of the body impression in the top of the mattress although all premium mattresses will develop body impressions to some degree. They patented this construction so no other company can use the convoluted foam point up in the topmost layer of the mattress under the fabric cover. The convoluted foam was designed to be used point side up and was originally developed for use in hospitals for patients that were on long term bed rest to help prevent bed sores. I have slept on a Serta for years and also bought one for my mother and we have been very happy with them.
Don't skimp when it comes to buying a mattress but if you compare the specs on different models within the same brand you will usually find that you don't need their most expensive model either. The very top price points usually will just have more layers of the most expensive materials (such as memory foam) that are buried so deep in the mattress layers that they really don't affect the comfort level, just the price. But you definitely want to go with a premium product....you won't regret it.

We purchased a Tempur-Pedic mattress with the Advanced Ergo Adjustable base in October when a local furniture company went out of business. We got it for 60% off. If I had to do it again, I would skip the adjustable base as the mattress is so comfortable, we rarely use the adjustable base. We were really lucky in that we also were able to purchase their pillows for about 80% off retail.

I have had back problems since the birth of my second child in 1982 and can tell you that since sleeping on the Tempur-Pedic, I have not had a single back problem (4 months).

I am amazed at how comfortable this bed is. The combination of the mattress and the pillows is amazing!!!! It is so amazing that every single night since I've had this bed, I am still surprised at how comfortable it is and how fast I am able to fall asleep.

I can say, without a doubt, that the matress and pillows was the best single purchase I have ever made in my entire life.

If I had to do again, I would pay full retail!

Sleep Number. I don't know how this doesn't make sense. You can adjust each side of the bed to the firmness that is most comfortable for each person, and you can change the firmness is seconds. I will make mine firmer than usual after extraordinary days of yard work, or extended bicycle rides of 30 miles or more. THE DW AND I LOVE OURS, and you can actually pick the whole thing up if you ever needed to.

Hubby and I just tried a Sleep Number bed, adjustable! OH MY WORD!!! Never been on anything so comfortable in my life
and we have had a very expensive Stearns and Foster mattress for 5 years and have been rather disappointed in it, unfortunately!

But, at the tune of $8,000 for a split-king adjustable Sleep Number--we'll just have to sleep less comfortably, I guess! Sigh!

The Gel infused memory foam mattress gets as hard as a rock in the cooler months. VERY firm support that it makes my body ache all over

Our FloBed natural (Talalay) latex mattress had been great, up until the last few months, so it has lasted 10 years, a somewhat shorter time than we'd hoped when we first bought it. We never expected it would go 30 years, but we had hoped for 15 - 20. The thing about latex, apparently, is that you can't see them wear out - you just start waking up a little sore, or you have trouble getting comfortable, but maybe that's just soreness from exercise, or something. It kind of sneaks up on you. You do get little valleys where you sleep pretty early on, but that didn't affect its comfort - until now, I guess. At $3k-$4k for 10 years use, we won't be buying another one to replace this when a standard bed can be expected to go seven years for much less money.

You should choose latex mattress, you can get it at very low price and the quality of this mattress is amazing.

I received a list once titled "You know you are having a bad day if--"

The one that made me laugh the most was:
"you wake up in the morning and put your bra on backwards, and realize it looks better that way"

The next was:
"you wake up in the morning with a leak in your waterbed, and then realize you don't have a waterbed."

Sorry! The Devil made me submit this reply. I wish I could find a copy. Maybe Don has one!

Les

Hi...
In my opinion, go for a foam mattress. These are very soft s well as extremely relaxing to body and back. I am using these from the past 2 years and are very satisfied. Give it a try to foam mattress.

Do NOT get a pillowtop if someone of menopausal age will be sleeping on it. They are hot hot HOT. It's like sinking into a featherbed. Plus it really made my back hurt. I need support, not sinkage.

Dave/Bragu swears by sleeping hanging upside down. Like a bat.

Here To Help,
Don B.

Hi,
You can buy memory foam mattresses which are better option for back pain and spine problems.

Memory foam mattresses gives good night's sleep for longer time. Now it is available at affordable prices in market.

Memory foam mattresses are popular mattresses now than other mattresses.It gives complete support to your body for longer time.