Personally, I love my Sleep Innovations Sure Temp memory foam mattress. I'm not too sure how you and your husband feel about memory foam, however. It took me a couple of nights to get used to... but now I love it!

I am fortunate to have a local company, who makes mattresses locally.
We have gotten a few mattresses with them over the years, for us, the kids, and guests.
We each now know EXACTLY what we like - so replacing is a breeze.

Good luck with your search.

Don't get stressed. You have a matress to sleep on so take a deep breath and calm down.
Mattress shopping is so personal. Even if we all told you our mattresses, I don't think it would help you.
You need to just keep doing what you are doing. Since you are a better sleeper than your husband you need to cater the bed to what he likes. I did this with my husband and let him pick the bed. I of course could veto if necessary.
You seemed to have created a custom bed with add on pad, so you might have to do this again.
Does he like a firmer mattress, medium, or soft? Start there.
You know what you do not want. I would ask the saleman what is the best seller in each price range so he doesn't direct you to the most expensive.
I do believe that with a mattress you do get what you pay for.

Well at least you can take a car out on a test drive for comfort and performance but a mattress, it's hard to tell really how comfortable it will be until you actually sleep on it.

Good luck in your mattress shopping.

I saw this thread ( 08 to 2012) discussing mattresses on the furniture forum, you might get some insight from it.

We have a latex topper on a coil mattress and we love it, we always buy firm.

Here is a link that might be useful: mattress discussion

I am currently shopping for a car. I'd rather be shopping for a mattress.

TheFurnishingsStore, would you like some eggs with your spam?

Lynn,

I just went through this, and it is not a fun shopping experience.

What I gathered:

* Stay away from pillow-tops as that is the component that breaks down first and/or causes body impressions.
* Buy a firm (or med-firm) mattress and add toppers that give you the comfort you need for your pressure points. You can always replace the topper instead of the entire mattress.
* Apparently, natural latex toppers hold up better than other toppers and people seem mostly happy with theirs. They do not have the heat issue.
* Mattresses of the same make/model have different names at different stores. Look online and write down the names so you can more easily compare in person. Store A might call it "Heidi" and store B might call it "Beth." There are web sites that tell you the various names...... It will help you narrow down what your actual choices are.

Good luck!

the topper you add needs to be latex, not memory foam. Memory foam is what is hot.

We bought a mattress that feels like a slab of cement, with the intent of adding the topper. Haven't gotten there yet. (I'm kinda dying, it is so hard!)

I am posting a link to a very helpful website. This guy has so much information, cross references which mattresses are the same from store to store. You can email him, or call him if you have questions. He is in the business of selling mattresses, but will help you anyway, even if you are not buying from him. This was the most informative place I found. (this guy even talks about adding the latex topper, I will probably end up buying it from him)

Here is a link that might be useful: blog about mattresses

Lat night, while watching a Sex and the City marathon with my daughters, I saw an ad for a new memory foam mattresss that had a gel layer that kept it cool. I think it was Sealy but I can't remember the name of it. We sleep on Tempurpedic and I find it's a bit warm but not intolerable. However, I was intrigued by this new one with the gel. May be worth looking into.

lolauren is right...we tried and returned 2 mattresses. After looking at them standing on their sides we realized that the " guts " are not what they used to be. ( I think we had this talk before ???) Any who....so get a FIRM mattress and place whatever plush topper you want..I love the ones from TJMaxx. If you want to spend about 3K then the Latex mattress thread is the way to go...although there was a link to an online place that makes them for way less. Just do this one thing...get a FIRM mattress...good luck ! ( we nearly pulled our hair out it was so unreal ...used to be so easy to buy a mattress :) ) c

Like olychick, I feel like a broken record! We just got a new NATURAL (not synthetic) latex mattress this year and DH and I probably spent a month researching online before we purchased our mattress set. There is so much enlightening information at your fingertips, but it does take time to read and sort it out. We do love our new set and DH has no more back complaints. Not only are they wonderful to sleep on, but they last many years. We choose a Savvy Rest, but there are a number of reputable companies that make Natural latex mattresses. The big name "S" companies aren't where to look. Do go to the thread olychick linked to and then go to the link she has in that thread-lots to learn. Good luck on your search!

We found it was hard to find firmer mattresses. Most places carry lots of plush or pillowtop but few firm.

We do have a firm memory foam. I sometimes get warm, but DH is the rare man who is cold when he sleeps.

Good luck.

FWIW, we decided on the latex block mattress from Escondido Mattress. I was very tempted by going with a soft side waterbed (I so miss my waterbed!!), but decided on the move-ability of a non-waterbed. Now we just have to wait for the electrician to do his thing and the bamboo flooring to come in and then "acclimate" to our climate. Meanwhile, at least I no longer wake up every 90 minutes on the hard mattress in the guest room. I asked my kids and they say they like it just fine. Takes all kinds.

If you are purchasing from somewhere like Macy's, it might be a good idea to buy in the next couple of weeks presuming you're ready. Macy's has some on sale now, but will evidently have even better prices for their Labor Day sale. That's probably true at a lot of the major department stores. We did consider their latex mattresses, but they have layers of latex interspersed with other things and we prefer the all latex option.

Timely discussion for me... I am in a major dispute with Raymour & Flanigan - big furniture and mattress chain in the northeast. I am 60, the hips are getting sore, my old mattress was old so I decided to buy new. Went to all the "mattress" chains, hoping not to spend more than $600ish. Went to Raymour and I walked out with a $1300 mattress.

Almost immediately the mattress started to shift each night so that when I woke in the AM I had to be carefull not to fall of the edge on my bum (which I had done a few times). I thought maybe it was the risers, so I took those out. Thought maybe the sheets were too large. I Bought about 5 different styles of sheets - no change. So they send a service guy and he tells me I need to buy something to put between the boxspring and mattress. Told him I needed to talk with someone higher up, quickly.

Regional office calls, they said all twins will shift. Said maybe I was to "big" for a twin, even after I explained I had been sleeping on a twin for over 20 years. If fact I gave my old mattress to my adult boy and he has been sleeping on it just fine. My main argument of course, was that if "all twins will shift" as she stated, I should have been told this at point of sale.

So now I am talking to people on the corporate level. Waiting to see what they say. Will keep you informed. What I will say is that you really should listen to your friends as to what they do or don't like about their beds. Do research online, and when you do go to choose don't just lay on the bed for 5 min and say "okay, this is great" - and look at this like buying a car. Awful but necessary.

BTW they were also trying to sell me on the gel bed. Too new on the market for me.

Do you recall seeing in the news about 2 years ago that families in China make the Ikea store a destination, like going to the park or zoo? Evidently whole families will go just to hang out for the afternoon. According to my son who was living there, it isn't unusual at Ikea to find Grandma having a nap on one of the beds and Pop snoozing in a comfy chair while the kids run around doing what kids do. Maybe that's what we need to do on the bed front - go take a nap to be sure you like the mattress you choose.

Thank you all so much for the great input. DH and I are heading off tomorrow morning to look at mattresses. I've been unexpectedly on hold the past couple of days as our son let us know that he's now out of Afghanistan and heading back stateside. This means he'll be home here on leave soon. Wonderful news for us!
Lynn

We purchased a mattress three years ago. We didn't want to spend on anything top of the line, and I sort of knew we were cheaping out. In the store I remember hitting the top of the mattress and it seemed like there was a separation (like a puff of air) that separated the very top inch or so of the mattress from the rest, like there was a foam layer that wasn't attached to the rest of the mattress...but we figured we were being too fussy and this was a good price and the bed was comfy, maybe a new one one that wasn't hanging around a showroom would be different? Well, guess what. The top layer of our mattress now has wrinkles in it. Drives me absolutely nuts. Nothing we can do to fix it. AND we can't turn the mattress over! I didn't even think to see if we could turn it over! The bottom is just a filmy material over the guts of the mattress. I am beyond mad, and we signed something that says the mattress is not returnable once they delivered it. This won't happen to me again. Ever.

Lynn - congratulations on your son returning home! Such a good feeling. To make him feel really at home, be sure to plan some home reno activities for him to help out with: painting walls, moving furniture, tearing something down or putting something up, you know the stuff. Our son once told me, "Every time I come home Dad's building something he needs help with." LOL.

I posted on the thread that olychick linked too, also about latex mattresses. Another great thing about latex is that you can customize each side of the bed. You can go with a firm medium and soft and your DH could go firm ,firm Medium., depending on what he wants. Shawn at sleepez will talk with you and can give you an idea of what is best for each of you.
Flobeds and savvy rest are the same way.

Be careful if you try waterbeds :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Trying mattresses?