Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bed

Loft beds for children under 10

humanfont — Sat, 04 May 2013 10:14:43 -0800

My daughters want loft beds for their room. However I'm a bit concerned about their ability to get down in the middle of the night, particularly the 5 year old, who is a bit short. I've looked into a DIY solution but I really don't have the time. Custom furniture is a bit out of the budget under $600. The Ikea models seem a bit wobbly and too tall.. Does anyone have any suggestions for ones that are lower height or preferably adjustable as the kids get taller?

How can I create a hotel bed from the Mandarin Oriental?

KimikoPi — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:29:36 -0800

Hello. I am a bed novice. I didn't know what a duvet or pillow sham was until I was like 25 (I grew up poor). Actually I'm still not sure what those are. But I recently stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas and fell into bed heaven. At first, I thought the bed was too soft because you can press down into it. But it actually gave tons of support. And the pillows were awesome. They were long and Euro? Anyway does anyone who supplies their bed stuff or how I can come close to recreating it without spending a million dollars?

Murphy bed advice?

ian1977 — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:12:08 -0800

Any advice on buying a Murphy bed? I'm considering a Murphy bed. But since what I am seeing online is fairly spendy I thought I'd better seek counsel.

so..Do you have one? Where did you get it? Would you buy it again? Any issues with the bed after installing?

Also, any experience with the hardware kits?

Thanks!

How much is too much sleep - for people who don't sleep much?

Thanquol180 — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:25:18 -0800

No work today. Last night I went to bed at 12:30. I woke up this morning (around 7) feeling fantabulous, and decided "Meh, I'm still below the 7-9 hour mark. Let's get a few more hours of beauty sleep in." I slept for two and a half extra hours, and woke up at about 9:30 feeling like donkey dung. I also had a nightmare. This has happened before (having nightmares when oversleeping). I would like to know if anyone has had any similar experiences. I would also like to ask if anyone gets below the 'average' amount of sleep and wakes up feeling great, but then goes back to sleep and wakes up feeling cruddy - even if they are not technically 'oversleeping'.

Looking for sofa bed

falsedmitri — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:17:11 -0800

I'm looking for a sofa bed to put in a small bedroom. This is ideal as far as functionality goes, but is way too expensive. Having no arms is good, allowing the full width of the bed to be that of the sofa. Other complications: I don't like futons or thermarest or memory foams. Can you recommend anything?

Adjustable bed for side/stomach sleeping

jewzilla — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:32:39 -0800

I need to sleep on a bed with an elevated head-end, while my wife needs to sleep on a bed with her feet elevated. I'd like to find an adjustable bed that lets us do this. Difficulty: I must sleep on my side or stomach, but all adjustable mattresses seem to fold in the middle (for example, like this), making sleeping on anything but your back uncomfortable or impossible. Surely there's a power-adjustable bed that keeps the mattress planar but tilted, allowing you to adjust the degree of tilt with the press of a button? If there is, I can't find it. I know I could butt two twin beds up next to each other and jack up the legs, but I'd really like to be able to level the beds out horizontally when they're not in use by pressing a button. The necessary elevation is 8 inches. Here is a terrible drawing of what I want.

Duvet covers for him

Mr Yak — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 10:14:13 -0800

Where can I find a bedspread appropriate for a guy in his mid-20s? I recently got a new, queen-size bed (hooray!) and am searching for a duvet cover. I'd like to find a nice, gender-neutral bed covering without floral prints/ruffles/shininess. An understated pattern could be good, preferably without lots of little things. I'm going for mature but not stodgy.

This seems to be an elusive combination. Can you recommend stores or point me to specific duvet covers/quilts?

West Elm Beds and Bedframes

frizz — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 14:39:36 -0800

I am looking for a new bed, and am interested in this one from West Elm. I've been reading horrible reviews of West Elm beds, and I'm wondering if people have similar experience or better recommendations. This post, for example, says that the metal piece down the middle starts to sag, that the slats aren't sturdy, that the pieces don't attach well, etc.

I'm in love with the aesthetic of West Elm, and I have a feeling that it's too good to be true when thinking about a quality piece of furniture. What are your experiences?

Save my marital bed from the plague of snoring?

sixtyten — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 14:05:47 -0800

My husband snores incredibly loudly. It makes sleeping next to him very difficult. Are there any unconventional recommendations - i.e. beyond drugstore earplugs and a white noise machine - to tolerate it? This is starting to really fray our marriage. The long version: we had a baby a year ago. As an exclusively breastfeeding mother, I began co-sleeping with the babe from early on, not so much out of ideological preference as an attempt to get sleep by any means necessary. My husband did not join us due to his snoring. Did I mention it's very loud?

Now it's a year later. The baby stays in the crib for half the night, sometimes longer if I let him fuss it out a bit. My husband and I are still not sharing a bed together. Frankly, I am dreading it, and the snoring is the only reason why. Before the baby, I slept well enough with my husband, but still required earplugs and a wall of white noise. Post-baby, I sleep super lightly - waking up hourly, even if I am by myself. I'm afraid it's going to be a disaster if I introduce his arrhythmic, spastic snoring into my current light-sleeping mix.

I am desperate for any ideas, save sleeping pills for myself (still breastfeeding and also sensitive to taking meds in general). Custom-fit earplugs? Those crazy $400 in-ear white noise plugs? He says he is depressed due in large part to my absence from our bed (we still have sex about once a week - sometimes less, sometimes more, so the bed-sharing closeness is a factor in and of itself... although I know he'd like to have sex more often). I am super freaked out about reverting to a chronic state of extreme sleep deprivation. Not to mention resentful that this is all on me - dealing with his snoring while managing to not go crazy from inability to sleep.

Stretches in bed?

JJkiss — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:08:22 -0800

What are the best stretches I can do or device I can buy in order to stretch while I'm bed ridden for a week? I have upcoming facial surgery which will not effect my body and I'd like to at least use this time to do extreme stretch and get closer to splits etc. It isn't feasible to be in the splits postion for extended periods of time as it's very strenuous to hold yourself up in that postion. I'm interested in other stretches as well. I'm happy to buy bars, bands or anything to make this process easier.

Comfortable, cool, allergy-friendly bed setup?

moira — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:14:56 -0800

Our bed has reached the end of its life. Best foam bed setup for side-sleeper comfort, cool sleeping, and allergy symptom reduction? We're considering latex. Doc thinks the allergies are due to dust mites, and has suggested covers for our mattress and pillows. We already sleep hot on a memory foam topper, and it was worse with a protective cover, so that's one of our main concerns.

The other concern is a need for soft support for hip, shoulder and back pain. We were sleeping really well on a medium-firm spring mattress with a softish 3" memory foam topper.

I've been reading that latex is a good alternative to memory foam in terms of comfort and heat. Everybody touts how it is "dust mite resistant," but I can't find any good sources to back that claim up.

I'm pretty much over spring mattresses. Right now, I'm thinking my best bet is to find cheap but durable foam as a base, wrap it with plastic, stick a latex topper on it, and put dust mite covers on the pillows. I've also considered the Sleep Innovations mattress that everybody raves about, but it looks like it's probably too firm, and it would need a cover, which brings me round the the sleeping-hot issue again. I want to be sure I've considered all our best options.

Some specific questions:

1. Are there non-crinkly/noisy dust mite covers for pillows?
2. Are there mattress dust mite covers that don't sleep hot? If not,
3. Would a latex topper really truly be a good choice for allergy-sufferers?
4. Any suggestions for how you would set this whole thing up, particularly on a tight budget? Any personal experiences?

Thanks.

Duvet or not duvet?

lovedbymarylane — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:57:17 -0800

Recommend me your favourite stores for cute, quirky bedspreads! I'm in the market for a bedspread (doona cover / duvet cover), but I know very little about house-y stuff and have no idea what brands to search for! I love the style of stores like larkmade.com.au and castleandthings.com.au - colourful, modern and quirky, maybe a little bit hipster. I quite like this doona cover from Urban Outfitters, but reviewers say the fabric is not the best, so the search continues! I'm looking for recommendations for brands, online stores that deliver to Australia or even Etsy stores that have the same sort of aesthetic as the links above... thanks hivemind!

Help me find a black metal footboard?

merocet — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:51:50 -0800

We have the Sanford metal headboard featured in this set. We would like to have the footboard (as featured in the product picture) too but an afternoon in the company of Mr Google turns up nothing. Any ideas where I can get this or a similar black metal footboard without buying a whole new headboard and footboard set? Thanks!

If this doesn't work, can I trade her in for a kid who sleeps through the night? sigh

zarq — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:45:45 -0800

Please help me keep our 4.5 year old insomniac daughter from crawling into her parents bed in the middle of the night before I lose what's left of my mind from sleep fatigue. My daughter comes into our room nearly every night at some time between 1 and 5 in the morning. We don't want her there.

If we are awake enough to notice her, we'll walk her back to bed while she whines, cries and kicks up a huge fuss. Invariably, this wakes her twin brother, with whom she shares a room. She then waits until we're asleep and tries to sneak back in. It's driving us nuts.

We've tried taking toys away, threats, scowls, yelling, bribes of stickers when she's stayed in her bed, etc. Nothing has worked. She may stay in her bed for a night or two and promise us she won't come into ours, but that doesn't last. We've spoken to her to try and find out if there's something she doesn't like about her own bed or room, but she seems happy with it. Same with pre-K. She seems happy otherwise.

My wife is convinced she's being clingy, it's a phase and will pass. My daughter has always been pretty attached to me, but that seems to have intensified the last few months.

She goes to sleep every night between 7:30 and 8, and falls asleep by 8:15-8:45. But at some point she apparently wakes up and comes to us.

I could really use some constructive advice -- especially if you're a parent who have been through this and solved it successfully.

Here's what we won't do:

* Give up and just let her sleep with us. Most of the time, she kicks and pushes in a constant attempt to claim space and make herself comfortable. This keeps us up (and is incidentally killing my back.) Plus her brother would move in too and the bed ain't big enough for all of us to sleep comfortably.

* Locking them in their room, or locking our door. We're afraid of being unable to get in or out in an emergency.

* Spanking / Hitting her. (We don't do that.)

Many thanks in advance!

3d spacer textile/fabric mattress recommendations

Infernarl — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:02:34 -0800

I am interested in buying a spacer textile mattress. Anyone out there who has used one or knows where to buy one?

Unwelcome bed partners

amerrydance — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:46:22 -0800

What is this dried bug in my bed? I've now found three of these little dried bugs in my bed. I don't think they look much like bed bug skins (I found an example pic of these here) but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.

They look to me like whole (shrimp-shaped?) bugs that have been flattened on their sides and dried out. I can see tiny black eyes (on the right end of the bug in the photo) and also a thin black line down the back that looks like an intestinal tract. The left end seems to be a slightly curled around tail. They also look to have lots of little legs, some of which crumbled off this one before I took the photo. The whole bugs are probably about the width of a fingernail in length.

I've searched my sheets and mattress, including seams, but can see no live bugs anywhere. There are some tiny black specks on my sheets (hard and flickable, not stains) that I've now become paranoid are bug faeces, but could just be dust/dirt. I've changed my sheets since I found the first bug, and just found another on my fresh sheets.

Anyone have any ideas? When I try to search for anything related to 'bug found in my bed', all I can find are bed bug horror stories. I'm in London, England if that helps at all.

Renting bedding in New England

cider — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 05:51:29 -0800

Is it possible to rent sheets, towels, blankets, and pillows for about 150 people? Has anyone done this before, and if so, can you point me toward a good service in New England? I'm hosting a big event at a summer camp, and I'm stuck on the question of how to provide bedding for everyone. I know (or think) that there are companies that rent bed linens; is there a way to also rent pillows and blankets?

If renting isn't possible, I'd also be happy to buy pillows and blankets in bulk (and then donate them to a homeless shelter or some such) if it can be done relatively cheaply (say $30/pp for everything?) and efficiently.

(For the purposes of this question, let's say that I can't ask everyone to bring their own.)

Featherbed in Vietnam? Good idea?

p1nkdaisy — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:34:15 -0800

Should I get a feather bed mattress topper? Twist: Vietnam. Recently, my company opened an office in Ho Chi Minh city. For the first few business trips that we took over there we stayed at a nearby hotel but as the trips got longer and more frequent, it made more financial sense to get a corporate apartment.

I haven't been there since they got the apartment, but my boyfriend (we work at the same company) said that the bed is hard (as beds typically are in Asia). I'm wondering if it makes sense to bring a featherbed topper with me on my next trip over and keep it there.

So here's my questions:

How is a featherbed going to fare with humidity?
Today its at 80% humidity. There's air conditioning indoors, but its only on when people are home (about 10 - 12 hours a day) I don't want mold to become a problem.

Am I going to be able to travel with a featherbed? I'll need to get on a plane with it. Is it possible?

Does sleeping on a featherbed make it warmer than not sleeping on one? Again, back to the weather...

Should I just buy it in Vietnam? Would I be able to find it at a reasonable price?
In my experience, I had trouble finding things that I otherwise thought would be easy to find (contact lens fluid) or they're really expensive (iPhone 5 is $1,000! Okay, that's an extreme)

Are there alternatives to featherbeds that I should consider?

Thanks for reading and your comments!

How to pick a good memory foam mattress.

modoriculous — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:33:37 -0800

Anyone still recommend the Sleep Innovation Memory Foam Mattress after owning it for awhile? Just discovered what I think is mold on the underside of my two year old mattress. So back to the drawing board I've been doing some research and people here and other places have recommended the Sleep Innovation Memory Foam Mattress available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Innovations-12-inch-Memory-Mattress/dp/B003CT37L0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

My question is, for those who have bought this do you still like it? I would be purchasing a queen for my girlfriend and I.

Also, as a bonus question: Those of you that have a platform bed, what do you put in between the plywood planks and your mattress? We just put a sheet there but it seems weird. Maybe we just got a cheap platform.

Thanks in advance. Any other recommendations are also welcome. I also have a Costco membership but their website has so many mattresses I don't even know where to begin.

Seeking simple four-poster beds

Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:17:55 -0800

My wife and I really love this simple, wooden four-poster bed from the design showroom SUITE New York. Unfortunately, it costs over $8,000, which is a good bit more than we'd like to pay. Can you recommend any cheaper beds in a similar style, or stores/designers which might carry something like this? (We live in NYC.) Thanks!

Found a bedbug in a library book - what now?

rednikki — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 18:22:16 -0800

I was reading a library book when a bug crawled out. It was paper thin, and was moving incredibly slowly. My partner captured it and killed it, and then put it between two pieces of tape. We've looked online and, yep, probably a bedbug. What do we do now? Watchful vigilance? Fumigate our entire apartment (which may not be affordable at this time)? Somewhere in between? Details inside, if you want more... More details: got the library book out on Saturday. The bedbug crawled out on Monday, about an hour after I started reading it. Hardback book (Charlaine Harris' "Dead Reckoning," not that it matters.) I'd been keeping it on the table beside the bed (yikes), but I was reading it in the living room when I saw the bug. It crawled out during daylight hours, which I understand is abnormal for the critters. I've put the book in a Ziploc bag and slipped a note in with it explaining the situation.

We also had about ten people over Saturday night, so in theory it could have come from one of them and crawled into the book from the coffee table, but that seems unlikely.

Neither of us have had any signs of bedbug bites.

I have tried reading Bedbugger's forums, but the message I've taken away is "Don't ride public transit, don't go to libraries, don't go to restaurants, don't go to movies, don't go to other people's houses. Strip naked the moment you enter your house from outside and wash everything you own in hot water, and anything that can't be washed, super-heat in a Pactite for 8 hours." Is that excessive or should we be at that level of decontamination at this point?

Ikea bed and mattress suggestions

ocherdraco — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:20:25 -0800

Our bedframe is broken beyond repair. Perhaps this would be a good time to get a bed that is larger than a full. Our budget is Ikea level—so I have two questions: 1) Will their queen size beds comfortably support our combined weight of 500-550 lbs? 2) Are there any Ikea beds or mattresses that you particularly like?

Am I sleep-spilling?

three_red_balloons — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 04:28:24 -0800

What caused this mysterious wet spot on my bed? No, I didn't wet the bed, and it's not sweat. I went to sleep around 11:30 last night, and woke up at 2:30 to discover that part of my left arm was soaking wet. There was a giant wet spot on the fitted sheet, and the top sheet was also soaking wet in one spot. Other than the elbow of my long-sleeve t-shirt, the rest of me was perfectly dry.

I was sleeping on the right-hand side of a queen-sized bed. There was a glass of water on the table behind me, but it didn't seem to be disturbed, and the wet spot was in front of me in the middle of the bed. No color, no odor. I have not pets and was sleeping alone. The only thing I can imagine is that I somehow picked up the glass of water in my sleep and spilled it, but it seems so unlikely. Any other ideas?

I'm so tired of being itchy...

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:27:57 -0800

Bedbug treatment and cats - Should I board the cat after treatment of my apartment, and for how long? Hi there, this is me . As predicted, the bedbugs have not gone away. With treatment (Imidacloprid, diatomaceous earth and pyrethrin + everything through the dryer), they will stay away for a few months, but they always come back. It really, really sucks. Long story short, we're going to move, but that's not possible for 4-6 months.

We're smack dab in the middle of another buggy flare up, but this time we have a new complication: we rescued the most awesome 2 year old indoor-only kitty. Googling has brought back mixed results in terms of complications with pets...seems like those 3 treatments are actually used on pets to control fleas. However, I'm still worried just based on all the variables of strength of the poisons, etc.

Extra challenge - I cant just tell my property managers to tell the pest control guy to use pet-safe methods because we're kinda sorta not really supposed to have a cat. Building's full of pets but for some reason we got denied.

Would boarding the cat be overkill? How long would I need to board the poor guy? Thanks!

Recommend a good, cheap, platform-style bed frame

aka burlap — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:19:53 -0800

Help me find the right platform bed frame! I want something cheap and of reasonable quality, for a queen-sized mattress. This shouldn't be this hard, but BED SHOPPING IS OVERWHELMING! Please help. I'm looking for recommendations for queen-sized bed frames. I want a platform rather than a metal frame+box spring set-up, because queen sized box springs won't fit up the stairs in my house.

But which platform frame to get? I've heard both good and bad reviews of models from Ikea and Target. Can you recommend (or recommend against) any specific platform frames?

Specifications:
- Queen-size
- Not too expensive; ideally under $200
- No headboard or footboard
- Needs to be fairly easy to assemble and dis-assemble. If a box spring won't fit up or down the stairs I'm assuming a fully-assembled platform bed frame won't either.
- Ideally off the ground and has a foot or more of storage space underneath.
- Style-wise, simpler is better.

Extra credit: if you happen to have an especially enthusiastic mattress recommendation, I'll take those as well (I prefer firmer mattresses). But mostly I'm trying to figure out the frame question first.

There are some old AskMe questions about this, but I'd like more recent recommendations. Thanks!