Bed

[naomikritzer]

I learned something useful while traveling: I need a new bed.

For quite some time, I've been getting up each morning with sore, aching hip joints. Most of the stiffness usually went away after fifteen minutes or so, so I didn't really worry about it, aside from grumbling about how I'm too young to feel this much like an old lady. The biggest problem was that the hip joint aches seemed to possibly be exacerbating the knee problems (which are a bigger problem), and in fact my knee was also usually sore when I got up, even if I slept with a straight right leg.

When I slept on the hotel bed (and the bed at Ed's uncle and aunt's house), I woke up pain-free and feeling much more perky.

So! New bed. As soon as can be arranged. Anyone know if I also need a new box spring, or if it's just a new mattress we should get? Would my physical complaints require a firm mattress, or a soft mattress, or simply a new mattress? Any thoughts on sleep-number beds, or other weird faddish sleeping equipment?

A futon is right out, FYI. Been there, done that, own the well-worn college t-shirts, thankyouverymuch.

Comments

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

There is a consumer reports from the last...year, maybe 6 months that goes into detail about mattresses--what you need, what the differences are between various mattresses, what things are worth spending more money on. If you can't get it through the library, it's probably worth spending the money for a month or two of online access: consumerreports.org, I think.

I can totally sympathize with you, re: pain from sleeping because I finally bought a memory foam mattress topper thing a couple of months ago, after being sooooo sore in the morning, and it was flat out amazing how much of a difference it made in my sleep.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_contingent_/]

I was a firm believer for years that I needed a firm futon on the floor after having back trouble sleeping on bad mattresses. I was so stubborn that I would sleep on the floor at hotels.

Then on a business trip I randomly ended up on the "concierge level" of a full hotel, where one of the advertised perks was a very nice mattress. I figured "what the heck, I don't have any early morning meetings," and had the same kind of conversion experience. Now we own a big ole bed.

The one thing I was told from every direction is that if you get a good mattress, firmness or softness are unrelated to proper support, so get a mattress as firm or soft as you personally prefer. I like rock hard, Reb likes pillow soft, so we compromised on something called "cushion firm".

[rebecca-m.livejournal.com]

As I keep on telling you, I like firm mattresses. You just can't tell the difference because they're not like rocks.

I am so happy with our new bed! We slept on the _same_ futon for 11 years - I used to look forward to sleeping better on trips, and now I'm finding I miss my mattress when I'm away from it.

Naomi, I hope you end up liking your (eventual) new mattress just as much!

I'm a memory foam advocate

[(Anonymous)]

We just switched to a memory foam mattress a week ago. My wife, Jackie (http://www.jackiegamber.com), who has hip and knee problems) said it's the best she's slept in ages. Not the usual morning pains.

[kerryp.livejournal.com]

I have a tempur-pedic bed and, other than having to air it out for a week BEFORE you sleep on it, it is fabulous!! All my aches, and all my partner's aches are gone. I lost aches I didn't even know I had. And the tempur-pedic bed (although expensive) doesn't require a box spring. Ours is on a plywood board on the bed frame. However, if you want to ease into it, you can try out a memory foam topper like those sold at overstock.com. They are made of the same sort of material as the tempur-pedic. But get the thickest one you can afford. See http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/flex-sign-in/026-1006104-0573219?%5Fencoding=UTF8&ss-order-filter=wheres-my-stuff&response=order-history-filtered&method=POST&opt=ab&return-url=order-history-filtered&page=help%2Fya-sign-in-secure.html

Good luck!

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

A firm one is what stopped my back from aching every morning; especially if the mattress is getting old, it's probably softening and that's why it's hurting you.

I don't know about the box spring; I'll bet you wouldn't need a new one, though. Aren't they just, um, boxes?