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Saturday, August 20th, 2016 01:12 pm
continuing adventures in pre-moving
Dear internet (and ellixis): I bought a mattress online.
Just now, half of you flinched; I know. The problem is, a 512 G solid state Samsung PCIe hard drive went on sale for $99.00 and it was buy a damn mattress or resign myself to sleeping on a bed of old hard drives with an (awesome) upgraded server. Or possibly a new server: it needs refurbishing, now that I think about it.
This is my story.
After four nights on the mattress of online, I do not regret my purchasing decision (other than the painful lack of SSDs in my life) and also discovered I may have misjudged the quality of my former mattress, or rather, misidentified it as a mattress. It looked like one, sure, but looks can be deceiving. You would think all the hotels, condos, and beds I've visited over the years and noticeably did not wake up exhausted and sore after sleeping would have given me a clue, but no. As it turns out, it's not some weird quirk of travel; whatever mattress-shaped item I was sleeping on at home was apparently designed to make sleep miserable.
First off: I did actually research this first; my impulse decision came out of an existing shortlist because I get off on random research (ask me about the genome of the goddamn Savannah F1 and fifth century nuns. No, they're not related; it would actually be less weird if they were). What I learned from research and life to now is that how my waking body feels about any sleep-enabled object (bed, couch, chair, floor, rug, folding table, supine human body) does not in any way tell me how my sleeping body will feel. My awake body gives no shits provided it's not trying to kill me; my sleeping body is pretty goddamn picky.
My original research was for a spring, but my sister purchased Ghost (or Casper) and noticeably became less hostile (which trust me was weird), so I began contemplating foam. This went surprisingly; generally, the majority of people liked them except those who literally hated all things of foam period. I am not that committed to springs (also, the ones in my sure-that's-a-mattress were starting to make themselves known to me). So okay: I narrowed it down to foam and then checked prices and almost reconsidered the floor because holy shit.
(No, seriously, I did not realize that mattress shopping was up there with 'mortgage', 'buying a car', and 'major appliances' in purchases. Like, I knew, but not like this.)
As you may or may not know, reviews aren't useful except to wonder how many people are getting paid for them as opposed to got item as free or discount gift; mattress review sites had to be taken with a grain of salt, and those that weren't all loved mattresses for people in a far, far higher income bracket than me. Except one: as a means of throwing scrap to the lower classes, one site also had categorical budget reviews, and I tried not to feel condescended to by a textual medium. So I bookmarked all of them and started my online search.
I also found out that mattress companies are incestuous as fuck; all of them sold almost the exact same mattress under different brands and different names in different places at different prices. I did a materials search, then stared in horror at how I had no idea what that meant, then finally in an Amazon comment found one short review that told me the secret: foam ratios. This shit has an equation!
So I made my table of mattresses and discovered my bafflement between the six inch and twelve inch was not 'not much foam' but the percentage used for the base compared to the rest, and then what those specifically did. The magic ratio is high density base foam should be equal to or less than one half of the whole (obvious) which then led to what those other half made up. Too much memory foam, I'd sink like a ship (so like being in Smallville fandom) and too little I'd be laying on base foam with a thin layer of memory foam for plausible deniability. Also, memory foam holds heat like no one's business. Then there was gel infused foam, responsive foam (not memory foam, but something else that goes on top of it), comfort foam, high density support foam, high density airflow foam, and I started wondering how one becomes a foam salesman because this racket was nice just on sheer confusion.
So now my ratio was three part: what part memory foam, what part base foam, and what went between them. Okay then. I narrowed down nine mattresses I coudl easily research (if they left out explanations of anything, I threw them off my list) and started on the reviews.
I know.
Here is my method: fives are all bullshit, zeros are all bitter, so check the twos, threes, and fours for proportion. Threes are best bets: most people are in the resigned stage and it's just good enough not to bother sending back for a refund (and considering Amazon's excellent return policy, that says a lot) and read their problems. I like a minimum of ten percent on anything personal for threes; that's just human variability in experience, ten to fifteen percent by rights should not find any given thing awesome period. I read all of them for nine mattresses (by three fucking companies with differnet names) and found the one I wanted from the utterly practical threes.
Problems include being probably too firm when the expectations were soft (my fear was the 'sinking' issue, so okay), the lifespan (I did the division between claimed couples and singles and found five years, which worked for the price really well), edges not being firm enough to sit on (then I won't sit on the edge of my bed) and the heat issue (which this specific mattress was supposed to alleviate). I moved to the twos (same complaints, but people who refunded) then went to the ones, sieved out the trolls, and matched the same complaints but from angry people who wanted refunds and to burn the company down (so, people).
Then I was ready for the fours and fives: take one third paid revies, one third reduced price/free, one third split between sincere-optimistic, naive, easy to please, and genuine. Not terribly useful, but at least entertaining, and focused on threaded commentary and questions. Then I updated my spreadsheet, narrowed it to three, and SSDs went on sale.
Zinus Memory Foam Green Tea Mattress, 12-Inch, Queen
My notes: my expectations were very low (not the thing on my bed that called itself a mattress), so that definitely is a factor here.
1.) I was already inclined to it when Child and I dragged it in all compressed, shoved it on the bed, cut the plastic, and jumped back to watch the magic of expansion. It was awesome, so for sheer fun, it gets a five. That was great; if you need help with your compressed mattress, call me! I will help!
2.) Once fully expanded, I climbed on to crawl around like a four year old under the 'lets see the firmness' and it rated for lots of crawling. It doesn't bounce, no, but it is weird and surreal and fun. I recommend the crawling test. Using my full weight did sink in, but I never felt the base foam at all, and the cover is very soft and nice. Walking on it was freaking weird, like a floor tyring to eat you feet, but that was kind of a plus.
3.) For place to sit and read before bed, it's without flaw. I had no sinking problems, just a gentle settling, and no squeaking, and I cannot say enough how awesome it is not to have springs trying to kill you. I'd really like a couch made of this, is what I'm saying.
4.) It is firm, not medium firm but firm. However it is not hard. I'm a side sleeper by preference, but in the spirit of trying new things, I tried back as well. There is no sinking, but it does conform well; you will not be enveloped in blob-foam.
Now, more specific:
It's too early to be truly empirical yet, but while I did wake up a couple of times, I wasn't sore in the morning or as tired. Also--in general--for me, waking up at least once or twice has pretty much always been a thing since college. So that said.
Here's the thing: I wanted a firm mattress because that could be fixed with a topper, whereas too soft-sinking would be harder to adjust. When I got into bed for first night, I recognized too-firm but not uncomfortable (I was comfortable), and resigned myself to looking into toppers at some point but I can't emphasize this enough: so much better than whatever the hell I was sleeping on before. But while I felt comfortable, I didn't feel particularly sleep comfortable. At least not while I was awake.
Here's where the difference between my waking body and sleeping body became apparent.
I have insomnia, which means I have hard crashes every so often, and one of those will tell me more (I also have hypothyroidism), but the vaguely drugged first thirty minutes after getting up really was a lot less. I actually didn't expect that, and I felt much better my first hour of work. This has been true every night, even when my insomnia really kicked in the other night and I was at under four hours. The placebo effect is at play, yes, but I didn't expect to actually get much of an improvement. In fact, I really didn't notice it at first until at lunch, I was hungry. I was hungry because I hadn't compensated for shitty sleep with a five hour entry drink two and a half hours before and a Monster punch.
My readings have confirmed there's a week to a month long adjustment period, as well as you know, whether the mattress blows up after thirty days or whatever with low-priced mattresses, but--provided all the three to bitter as shit zero reviews are accurate, the mattress will never actually be less firm (in fact, the bitterness came from teh expectation of more softness). The only possible drawback is teh memory foam becomes weird and flat, which actually can be compensated by a topper eventually, or as someone very practical in comments pointed out, while you can't flip these mattresses, you can rotate them, and I have no side of the bed preference, so my current plan is when I move to set the head of the bed against the wall and equidistant from the other two walls (or at least enough for walking room on either side) and switch off to avoid memory foam fatigue or whatever fancy word.
It's definitely not changing my lead-in to sleep (at least, not noticeably, I need more data, but considering that's more a brain issue than a comfort issue, it's irrelevant) but it does seem to be affecting how well I sleep while I'm sleeping. And I am not sore or stiff at all, which is definitely new.
I went to bed at three-thirty this morning (tossed a bit so minus an hour as usual), woke up at ten thirty, brushed my teeth, and proceeded to immediately go searching for boxes for packing (and even contemplated actual packing! Really!) without feeling fuzzy or a little thick. And I'm writing long DW entries, which is both combination of motivation, time, and also my work schedule now at the resigned stage of this is going to hell and its' only a week until release, only a miracle could save this one so breathe.
Just now, half of you flinched; I know. The problem is, a 512 G solid state Samsung PCIe hard drive went on sale for $99.00 and it was buy a damn mattress or resign myself to sleeping on a bed of old hard drives with an (awesome) upgraded server. Or possibly a new server: it needs refurbishing, now that I think about it.
This is my story.
After four nights on the mattress of online, I do not regret my purchasing decision (other than the painful lack of SSDs in my life) and also discovered I may have misjudged the quality of my former mattress, or rather, misidentified it as a mattress. It looked like one, sure, but looks can be deceiving. You would think all the hotels, condos, and beds I've visited over the years and noticeably did not wake up exhausted and sore after sleeping would have given me a clue, but no. As it turns out, it's not some weird quirk of travel; whatever mattress-shaped item I was sleeping on at home was apparently designed to make sleep miserable.
First off: I did actually research this first; my impulse decision came out of an existing shortlist because I get off on random research (ask me about the genome of the goddamn Savannah F1 and fifth century nuns. No, they're not related; it would actually be less weird if they were). What I learned from research and life to now is that how my waking body feels about any sleep-enabled object (bed, couch, chair, floor, rug, folding table, supine human body) does not in any way tell me how my sleeping body will feel. My awake body gives no shits provided it's not trying to kill me; my sleeping body is pretty goddamn picky.
My original research was for a spring, but my sister purchased Ghost (or Casper) and noticeably became less hostile (which trust me was weird), so I began contemplating foam. This went surprisingly; generally, the majority of people liked them except those who literally hated all things of foam period. I am not that committed to springs (also, the ones in my sure-that's-a-mattress were starting to make themselves known to me). So okay: I narrowed it down to foam and then checked prices and almost reconsidered the floor because holy shit.
(No, seriously, I did not realize that mattress shopping was up there with 'mortgage', 'buying a car', and 'major appliances' in purchases. Like, I knew, but not like this.)
As you may or may not know, reviews aren't useful except to wonder how many people are getting paid for them as opposed to got item as free or discount gift; mattress review sites had to be taken with a grain of salt, and those that weren't all loved mattresses for people in a far, far higher income bracket than me. Except one: as a means of throwing scrap to the lower classes, one site also had categorical budget reviews, and I tried not to feel condescended to by a textual medium. So I bookmarked all of them and started my online search.
I also found out that mattress companies are incestuous as fuck; all of them sold almost the exact same mattress under different brands and different names in different places at different prices. I did a materials search, then stared in horror at how I had no idea what that meant, then finally in an Amazon comment found one short review that told me the secret: foam ratios. This shit has an equation!
So I made my table of mattresses and discovered my bafflement between the six inch and twelve inch was not 'not much foam' but the percentage used for the base compared to the rest, and then what those specifically did. The magic ratio is high density base foam should be equal to or less than one half of the whole (obvious) which then led to what those other half made up. Too much memory foam, I'd sink like a ship (so like being in Smallville fandom) and too little I'd be laying on base foam with a thin layer of memory foam for plausible deniability. Also, memory foam holds heat like no one's business. Then there was gel infused foam, responsive foam (not memory foam, but something else that goes on top of it), comfort foam, high density support foam, high density airflow foam, and I started wondering how one becomes a foam salesman because this racket was nice just on sheer confusion.
So now my ratio was three part: what part memory foam, what part base foam, and what went between them. Okay then. I narrowed down nine mattresses I coudl easily research (if they left out explanations of anything, I threw them off my list) and started on the reviews.
I know.
Here is my method: fives are all bullshit, zeros are all bitter, so check the twos, threes, and fours for proportion. Threes are best bets: most people are in the resigned stage and it's just good enough not to bother sending back for a refund (and considering Amazon's excellent return policy, that says a lot) and read their problems. I like a minimum of ten percent on anything personal for threes; that's just human variability in experience, ten to fifteen percent by rights should not find any given thing awesome period. I read all of them for nine mattresses (by three fucking companies with differnet names) and found the one I wanted from the utterly practical threes.
Problems include being probably too firm when the expectations were soft (my fear was the 'sinking' issue, so okay), the lifespan (I did the division between claimed couples and singles and found five years, which worked for the price really well), edges not being firm enough to sit on (then I won't sit on the edge of my bed) and the heat issue (which this specific mattress was supposed to alleviate). I moved to the twos (same complaints, but people who refunded) then went to the ones, sieved out the trolls, and matched the same complaints but from angry people who wanted refunds and to burn the company down (so, people).
Then I was ready for the fours and fives: take one third paid revies, one third reduced price/free, one third split between sincere-optimistic, naive, easy to please, and genuine. Not terribly useful, but at least entertaining, and focused on threaded commentary and questions. Then I updated my spreadsheet, narrowed it to three, and SSDs went on sale.
Zinus Memory Foam Green Tea Mattress, 12-Inch, Queen
My notes: my expectations were very low (not the thing on my bed that called itself a mattress), so that definitely is a factor here.
1.) I was already inclined to it when Child and I dragged it in all compressed, shoved it on the bed, cut the plastic, and jumped back to watch the magic of expansion. It was awesome, so for sheer fun, it gets a five. That was great; if you need help with your compressed mattress, call me! I will help!
2.) Once fully expanded, I climbed on to crawl around like a four year old under the 'lets see the firmness' and it rated for lots of crawling. It doesn't bounce, no, but it is weird and surreal and fun. I recommend the crawling test. Using my full weight did sink in, but I never felt the base foam at all, and the cover is very soft and nice. Walking on it was freaking weird, like a floor tyring to eat you feet, but that was kind of a plus.
3.) For place to sit and read before bed, it's without flaw. I had no sinking problems, just a gentle settling, and no squeaking, and I cannot say enough how awesome it is not to have springs trying to kill you. I'd really like a couch made of this, is what I'm saying.
4.) It is firm, not medium firm but firm. However it is not hard. I'm a side sleeper by preference, but in the spirit of trying new things, I tried back as well. There is no sinking, but it does conform well; you will not be enveloped in blob-foam.
Now, more specific:
It's too early to be truly empirical yet, but while I did wake up a couple of times, I wasn't sore in the morning or as tired. Also--in general--for me, waking up at least once or twice has pretty much always been a thing since college. So that said.
Here's the thing: I wanted a firm mattress because that could be fixed with a topper, whereas too soft-sinking would be harder to adjust. When I got into bed for first night, I recognized too-firm but not uncomfortable (I was comfortable), and resigned myself to looking into toppers at some point but I can't emphasize this enough: so much better than whatever the hell I was sleeping on before. But while I felt comfortable, I didn't feel particularly sleep comfortable. At least not while I was awake.
Here's where the difference between my waking body and sleeping body became apparent.
I have insomnia, which means I have hard crashes every so often, and one of those will tell me more (I also have hypothyroidism), but the vaguely drugged first thirty minutes after getting up really was a lot less. I actually didn't expect that, and I felt much better my first hour of work. This has been true every night, even when my insomnia really kicked in the other night and I was at under four hours. The placebo effect is at play, yes, but I didn't expect to actually get much of an improvement. In fact, I really didn't notice it at first until at lunch, I was hungry. I was hungry because I hadn't compensated for shitty sleep with a five hour entry drink two and a half hours before and a Monster punch.
My readings have confirmed there's a week to a month long adjustment period, as well as you know, whether the mattress blows up after thirty days or whatever with low-priced mattresses, but--provided all the three to bitter as shit zero reviews are accurate, the mattress will never actually be less firm (in fact, the bitterness came from teh expectation of more softness). The only possible drawback is teh memory foam becomes weird and flat, which actually can be compensated by a topper eventually, or as someone very practical in comments pointed out, while you can't flip these mattresses, you can rotate them, and I have no side of the bed preference, so my current plan is when I move to set the head of the bed against the wall and equidistant from the other two walls (or at least enough for walking room on either side) and switch off to avoid memory foam fatigue or whatever fancy word.
It's definitely not changing my lead-in to sleep (at least, not noticeably, I need more data, but considering that's more a brain issue than a comfort issue, it's irrelevant) but it does seem to be affecting how well I sleep while I'm sleeping. And I am not sore or stiff at all, which is definitely new.
I went to bed at three-thirty this morning (tossed a bit so minus an hour as usual), woke up at ten thirty, brushed my teeth, and proceeded to immediately go searching for boxes for packing (and even contemplated actual packing! Really!) without feeling fuzzy or a little thick. And I'm writing long DW entries, which is both combination of motivation, time, and also my work schedule now at the resigned stage of this is going to hell and its' only a week until release, only a miracle could save this one so breathe.
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From:I feel liek putting up the table for people and then letting anyone who wanders by define a few of them. I am still really lost on some of the so-called foam distinctions.
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From:My mum, on the other hand? 100% latex mattress, which just feels too cushioned for me. Like, it's fine for being awake in, reading or chatting or whatever, but sleeping? Nope.
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From:I mean, on half a week data, I don't have enough to work with on why, but it does now occur to me that when you relax into sleep and are still, there's a different body dynamic going on, and it's not something awake I can quantify, just guess. However, assumign this mattress does not collapse or whatever and performance stays relatively the same, it may be a similar dynamic to good waterbeds or air mattresses in that its' less like springs pushing you up at all times beneath plush or pillow-tops, but instead layers that slow your rate of descent downward. I feel weirdly philosophical about it.
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From:What I can't get over is how I feel rested, though. Even with teh wake ups and average sixish hours, I"m tiredish but not the 'motivate me to breathe' level. That's five nights running and yesterday, I went for a nap, it was also a Saturday and muggy and pre-menstrual, so--yeah I don't know.
I will say if you're hooking up to anything (my dad had a machine for apnea) this does not interfere with easy movement at all. For me, the settle/conform doesn't start until I've settled down adn even then, there's no sink (apparently memory foam reacts to body heat). I can move easily. (I read so many differnet stories on this that sounded like Blob Mattress Eats You, God)
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From:Yeah, I use a CPAP (who knew I could hold my breath for three minutes?) as well as something euphemistically called a "Circulatory Pump" because lymphadema. (OTOH, it means I get caught up on my TV watching...)
This sounds very promising so far. I shall look forward to further updates.
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From:Both my shredded memory foam pillows have bamboo covers.
It's funny; I bought both because sale and why not, I was curious, and it really brought home the weirdness of memory foam. One is a breath from hard (it looks kind of like bread dough in its case), and will conform if I punch it. It's not sleep-good, but absolutely perfect for reclining/reading in bed against the headboard. The other is a semi-marshmallow that's fantastic but I have a plain pillow behind for just a bit more support.
I just boggle at how we live in the future.
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From:http://beardedhanger.com/collections/hammocks/products/the-5-oclock-shadow
(Actually, exactly like that one, except mine is 11' long.)
I don't think it's even possible to fall out of a hammock like mine.
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From:That's what I was worried about myself. My mom tried mine and my sisters' and was very not impressed.
Congrats on your mattress happiness!
I guess they've come a long way in 15 years.
Dude, I know. It's just surreal.
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From:I've slept on foam beds in hotels and nearly slid out of them from sweating, so they're probably not a great bet for radiators like me. I'm glad it's working for you! :)
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From:I impulse-bought a Casper after getting frustrated with research and after my husband said "some of my coworkers have caspers, and they like them". A hahahah so good best impulse buy ever. I have damage to one of my hips that was so bad before that I could barely walk in the mornings and now? Now it's fine. Fine. Not all the way better -- that is never happening in this lifetime -- but it feels ok every morning! It doesn't actively cause me pain while sleeping badly enough to wake me!
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From:I ordered it online and it turned up at my door. I don't have any specific memories of the process at all because it wasn't an interesting or unusual process. Like, about the same as at any online store where you don't have a pre-existing account, I guess.
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From:my husband and I had promised ourselves a new bed (our old one was...well, old). and then we failed to manage it for months on end, caught up in "well, we should research....".
i eventually got angry with us on our own behalf, and one day broke out the tape measure, determined that an innerspring king mattress would NOT fit up the stairs, demanded to know if anyone we knew had a foam mattress they liked, and bought the one with the most friends-who-owned-one-and-liked it.
the same day, I selected my top 3 fav. platform bedframes (which apparently foam mattresses need those? idek that's what i was told and i refused to look it up, I just said OH FINE and ran with it) in our price range from a vendor we have used before and asked my husband to pick one. I then purchased it, and two sets of sheets, and two comforters.
basically i did not research because I'd spent too long researching and driving myself around in circles. i just moved to the fuckits. the fuckits have comfy mattresses..... which I'm gonna go sleep on because it's getting late. :)
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