And in that sleep of death what dreams may come

January 17, 2009 7:09 AM

Help me choose a bed.

Currently my SO and I sleep in a bed with a wooded-slatted frame with a latex mattress on it. Some vendors warned us, back in the day, that latex is bad for perspiration during sleep (it's basically rubber, so it doesn't breathe). Turns out they were right. On top of this, I suspect that, due to the sometimes high humidity in the bedroom, the wooden frame of the bed is mildewed. I occasionally smell it at night and I don't like it much.

So I want to buy a bed that
a) will not develop mildew in a relatively high humidity bedroom (can't do anything about this - caused by the house and the climate)
b) will not cause the sometimes considerable perspiration that latex beds do.

Should we look for a boxspring? A wooded-slatted bed with a so called pocket spring mattress? Should we shell out 12k for a Hastens bed with horse hair? Tell me your bedtime stories, AskMefi.

posted by NekulturnY to health & fitness (6 comments total)

I usually buy futons and then a memory foam topper- probably not what you are looking for, but, a colleague of mine has been raving about the mattresses at Hilton hotels. You can buy them here. They are, apparently, very reasonably priced for the quality.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 7:24 AM on January 17

Me and Mrs Fleebnork have a Simmons Beautyrest with the medium level of pillow top and LOVE it. It's about the right combination of firm and comfortable.

It's the one they show on TV where they drop the bowling ball and it doesn't disrupt the stack of glasses. Now... obviously that's marketing and it moves a little more than that, but really it's quite a good bed and we've been happy with it.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:25 AM on January 17

I have a good quality box spring (orthopedic firmness) and over that, between the mattress and the sheet, I have a duvet (comforter in the US). This gives me the lovely firmness of the mattress but with the softness of the comforter. Note - you MUST use a fitted sheet with this arrangement or the comforter will move all over the place.

The comforter can be washed every now and then, to keep everything nice and fresh.
posted by essexjan at 7:27 AM on January 17

Here's a previous post on the topic (numerous comments on latex here): Our bed is so bad we tend to roll together into the trough in the middle.

I bought a Tempurpedic bed early last year and it's changed my life dramatically.

The best advice I received for this type of shopping is to visit many shops and lay down on numerous mattresses --enough time to get the sense of how comfortable you'd be if falling asleep.
posted by ezekieldas at 7:28 AM on January 17

Seconding the Simmons beauty rest AND the pillowtop, and I live in Florida and do not find the humidity to be a problem with ours.
posted by misha at 8:12 AM on January 17

My wife and I got a Sealy Posturepedic TrueForm mattress for our wood slat bed from Ikea.

The bed is simple and let's plenty of air underneath the mattress (we vacuum under there regularly).

That combination works well for us, but we don't live in a high humidity area.

With a memory foam mattress, the box spring doesn't matter, so you can save some money there.

The memory foam mattress was a huge improvement to our sleep. My wife was happy day one. It took me a few weeks to get used to it, but now I am very happy with the memory foam and regular spring mattresses don't feel as good.

Good luck.
posted by Argyle at 9:03 AM on January 17