In Search of the Right Mattress
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Last April, as we were finishing up our latest round of home improvements, we decided it was time to upgrade our mattress. Our old mattress was into its ninth year, and on most nights we found that we weren’t sleeping well because of backaches or hip and shoulder discomfort. Much of this was due, no doubt, to our advancing ages, but surely a new mattress would help. And as long as we were shopping for a new mattress, we also decided to upgrade from our old full size mattress to a queen size.
There are literally dozens of online mattress companies, and almost all allow a trial period ranging from 90 to 120 days – and some for up to a year. They will deliver the new mattress for free, and if you aren’t happy with it, they will pick it up for a small fee, or in most cases, at no charge. They do insist that you keep it for at least 30 days to allow the mattress to break-in and for your body to get accustomed to it. How could we lose?
In the hopes of finding the perfect mattress the first time, I did tons of research. The first decision was what type of mattress should we get? A memory foam, an inner spring or a hybrid, which is a mattress that is a cross between an innerspring and memory foam mattress, with a layer of memory foam over a layer of innerspring coils. A hybrid seemed the best answer.
Then, being the nerd I am, I checked the reviews of the many hybrid mattresses: Wirecutter, Consumer Reports, Forbes, Good Housekeeping, Sleepopolis, NapLab, Mattress Nerd and Amazon. I checked all the latest sales in the hopes of finding a bargain. In the end, we decided on a Leesa Sephora hybrid mattress. Part of the decision was based on its great reviews, partly because we’ve been moderately happy with the memory foam Leesa we have in the van, and partly because it was on sale.
Leesa Sephora
It arrived promptly a few days later, compressed and rolled up inside a large box. It was quite heavy – 103 pounds to be exact, not to mention very unwieldy, so getting it out of the box, onto the bed frame and out of its 200 yards (or so it seemed) of plastic shrink wrap was somewhat challenging for us septuagenarians, but we managed.
The Leesa and the Box it Came in
We were quite optimistic as we climbed into bed that night, but, alas, we both suffered the same problems as with the mattress we just replaced - backaches and hip/shoulder discomfort. Don’t worry, customer support said. It’ll be much better after a few weeks as the mattress loosens up and we get used to the new technology. After a month, however, nothing improved and we decided to send it back. Surprisingly, there was no hassle or hard sell – Leesa arranged to have it picked up by Sharetown, a company that specializes in finding new homes for slightly used mattresses, and two days later it was gone. (The pick-up people said the used mattresses go to homeless shelters, which I hoped was true). We got a credit on our charge card the same day as the pick-up.
Sharetown Hauling the Leesa MaTTRESS AWAY
DreamCloud Premier Rest Hybrid
Back to the internet and more research. This time, we decided to try a Dreamcloud Premier Rest Hybrid mattress... despite it costing considerably more than the Leesa. It also got great reviews, had a 365 day home trial period, and a “forever” warranty. Just like the Leesa, it arrived compressed inside a large box, but now that we were starting to get the hang of it, we had it unwrapped and in place in short order. This mattress was much more comfortable than the Leesa, but it had no edge support. If either of us made the mistake of rolling over to within a foot of the side, it was necessary to grab onto the nightstand or headboard to keep from falling out of bed. Likewise, trying to sit on the edge of the bed to put on my shoes and socks required bracing myself to keep from sliding off. Off it went to another homeless shelter.
The Dreamcloud was great except for poor edge support
WinkBed Luxury Firm
Next to try was a Winkbed Luxury Firm hybrid mattress. Ditto the above – great reviews, etc. and only slightly more than the Dreamcloud. We did not like this one at all – much too firm, generating all the discomfort of the Leesa. We couldn’t wait for the 30 days to elapse.
WinkBed v2.0
For only $50, WinkBed would replace the Luxury Firm mattress with a softer, plusher version, the Luxury Soft. We gave this one a try, but our old bodies didn’t like it any better. By now, were beginning to know all the Sharetown folks by their first names.
Our Two Winkbed Mattresses Awaiting Sharetown
Heavenly Bed Mattress by Westin
Our oldest son, Brennan, told us that the best mattress he’d ever slept on was the mattress used by the Westin Hotels. We researched it and found out that Westin does, indeed, sell their mattresses, the Heavenly Bed Mattress, to consumers, and our local Pottery Barn store had one in stock if we wanted to lie down on one. We made the trip, and discovered that the mattress was part of a sales display, showcasing bedding, a comforter, a sham, and half a dozen throw pillows, but the salesperson had no qualms about tossing all the bedding on the floor so that we could lie down on it. We did feel a little weird, however, being stretched out on the bed in the middle of a Pottery Barn with other shoppers having to step around the pile of bedding we’d thrown off. The mattress did seem quite comfortable, and I think we would have gone with it except for two itsy, bitsy problems. First, even with it being on sale, by the time the shipping and sales tax were added, the mattress cost was around $3400! Gulp. And if we did bite the bullet and decide to give it a try, there would be no returns – neither Pottery Barn nor Westin allows returns on mattresses. We decided it was too risky to spend that much money on a mattress we’d spent five minutes trying out.
The HEavenly Bed by Westin
Stearns and Foster
We were avoiding brick-and-mortar mattress stores because, in our experience, as with the Pottery Barn, once you tried lying on it in the store and bought it, it was yours – no returns or refunds. We were surprised to discover that, in order to compete with online mattress companies, most mattress stores now provide home trial periods and generous return policies.
Giving the Stearns and Foster a try
We visited three different mattress stores and liked the Mattress Firm best. After lying on a dozen or so mattresses, we found the Stearns and Foster Lux Estate Elite 16” Euro Pillow Top Mattress to be quite comfortable. Not too firm, not too soft, and quite plush. Plus, with a name that long, it had to be good, right?
With tax, it had a list price of $4300 – a ridiculous amount to pay for a mattress, but with the sale price, combined with a veteran’s discount, another 10% discount to match the online price, a little arm-twisting, and two discussions with the regional manager, we got the price down to just over $3000. This was about triple what we had originally planned to spend on a mattress, but if it gave us both a good night’s sleep, we were willing to splurge.
A couple of days later, two young men from the Mattress Firm delivered it, carried it in and set it up for us. For $3000+, we were expecting a great mattress, and we were quite optimistic that this would be the one. Alas, it wasn’t to be. It was a good mattress – better than most of the rest we tried, but certainly not great. Same old backache, same old hip and shoulder discomfort. The sales rep at Mattress Firm assured us that it would get better – give it a month or two. After six weeks, it was better, but still not $3000 great, and we returned it.
The Final Solution?
We’d come to the conclusion that if after trying 5 different mattresses ranging from $1000 to $3000, we couldn’t find one that gave us a good night’s sleep, it must be part of the aging process, not the mattress, and we just needed to cope. We’d probably do just as well with a less expensive mattress and a good mattress topper. So, we bought a Sealy Posturepedic Pro Highland Manor 13" mattress from Costco on sale for $600. Since Costco allows returns on mattresses, we could bring it back if it wasn’t to our liking. Then we found a really plush mattress topper – the Coop Original Mattress Topper, a 5” memory foam/microfiber combination that feels like soft, thick down, and which comes with a 120 day trial.
This combination was great from the moment we tried it. We have an occasional mild backache in the morning, but we’ve been sleeping better than on any of the far more expensive options.
One last thought:
Most Expensive Mattress
We could have continued upward in price in our quest for the perfect mattress until we got to what may be the world’s most expensive mattress – the Vispring Los Angeles Diamond Majesty mattress at a mere $78,400 for a queen. From the company’s website:
“Three layer hand-nested calico pocket spring
Featuring 3,162 springs in the 150 x 200cm size (5ft x 6ft 6in)
Crafted exclusively from natural fillings: British wool, hand-opened Austrian Moosburger® horsetail, Shetland wool blended with cashmere and silk, bamboo and lavish Vicuña fleece wool, Shetland fleece wool and organic cotton
Encased in high-quality ticking for durability and breathability
Hand-tufted with woollen tufts and twine to ensure long-lasting structure and support”
They had me at “hand-opened Austrian Moosburger® horsetail”. And for only another $2380, you can get their mattress topper as well.
The world’s Most Expensive MAttress?
See you next time...