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Tips for Buying a Mattress
On average a normal adult will have slept seven and a half years of his/her life. That said, you will want to make sure that whatever it is you are spending those seven-plus years on is actually helping and not hurting you. Mattresses come in a variety of support levels and cushioning as well as size. The size will ultimately be up to you and what you needs and desires are, as well as your available space.
The support is what is most important however, and often gets over-looks. Some people may say that they prefer a soft or a firm mattress, but rarely do they know what they actually need. Here is an easy test to find out. When testing out mattresses lie down on each bare mattress and feel under the small of your back. Is there space there, or is the mattress up against your back? If there is space, that mattress isn't good for you. If that mattress is up against your back all the way down, you are all set.
Innerspring mattresses are by far the most common version of mattresses and have the insides that most of us envision when thinking of a mattress. Basically this mattress is a box filled with a bunch of steel springs that compress and recoil when pressure is added or removed. Almost every mattress company will have versions of mattresses similar to this style and each will be slightly different. But for the most part each will be a solid, one-piece system of spring and coils.
Individual coil mattresses are similar to the innerspring mattresses, but with one very important difference: the coils are are independent of each other. This means that they are not all a part of one big system and can compress and recoil independent of the spring next to it. Simmons Beautyrest made this a popular style of mattress and it has been a solid choice. The individual springs are wrapped in fabric and will drastically reduce transferred motion. This means that when someone next to you moves, you feel less of their movement. The only downside to this type of mattress, and it was only found in lower quality versions, is if the mattress is bent at all the springs and interlock with each other and make the mattress stiff and useless.
Foam mattresses have stormed on to the scene thanks to Tempurpedic and other brands bragging the use of “space age materials” used by NASA. The foam mattress is nothing other than a foam block or several layers of foam wrapped inside a mattress cover. The foam used is generally all, or in part, Visco foam which is memory foam and what the previously mentioned ads are talking about. This foam has the least amount of energy transfer involved in it, meaning no matter what else is going on in the bed, you will remain still. While this has been a huge perk for many people, some have found the foam to be too much like clay, where they feel like they are sinking or trapped in the mattress.
Air mattresses have been made popular by the recent Sleep Number beds by Select Comfort. The air mattress is really nothing more than a bladder or pocket of air encased inside the mattress. The more air that is pumped into that pocket, the firmer the mattress becomes while the more you let out, the softer it will be. When Select Comfort talks about your “sleep number” it is really just a random number they use to show how much air is inside that bladder. While this style of bed offers a great range of support and cushion, many people have commented that the two different air pockets create a ridge in the middle of the bed.
Obviously once you have your type of mattress picked out, you can look for your particular size. Your size will depend on your room size and your needs. There are of course the standard mattress sizes like twin (which is generally about thirty-nine by seventy-six inches) is normally for children. The queen mattress (sixty by eighty inches) is about one and half times as wide full size mattress (fifty-four by seventy-six inches). And the kind mattress is the largest mattress you can find (seventy-six by eighty inches). This mattress is going to be as long as queen while being as wide as almost two twin mattresses pushed together. No matter what mattress you choose from always make sure that you have the space to put it and room to move around once the mattress is in the room.
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