extra deep pillowtop, so very soft. too soft for us, honestly.

firm with coconut coir base

super soft pillow top!

I have a firm mattress - they tend to last a little longer, and I can always add a memory foam topping if necessary.

I never thought it mattered, but I had terrible back pain for weeks until I slept in a mattress at a Hyatt hotel and woke up feeling reborn. It costs a fortune but I am thinking of buying one.

firm with a thin pillowtop. I find that it's too hot on softer mattresses where you sink into it.

I actually have been revisiting my idea of an appropriate bed for my lifestyle. I'm beginning to do massage out of my one bedroom apartment and am recalling when I traveled in eastern europe and how the beds were smaller and had very simple mattress pads.

My firm, queen-sized mattress is on the chopping block.

Our mattress has developed body impressions, giving us both terrible pain. I'm having a new natural latex mattress delivered as I type. I plan to use a memory foam topper to make it a bit softer as well. Generally speaking I think it's better to get a mattress on the firmer side. Pillow top innerspring mattresses can feel great at first, but they break down quickly.

My husband prefers firm - like hard as a rock firm! I had a pillowtop when we got married and that's what we use now. It's time for a replacement so it will be interesting to see what happens when we start shopping....

firm - but it's a little hard, so I've added a thick mattress pad - that helps. I do need to replace my guest room mattress, so I may swap this one out to there and get a new mattress for the master.

temperpedic, which is awesome! Also we bought it on overstockdotcom Its great

I have a pillow top and I have a feather bed on top of it. I can't sleep on a hard bed.

I love a firm matress. I am a back sleeper and I think what position you sleep in makes a difference.

I sleep on the floor, despite having a perfectly good queen sized bed. After travelling Japan I just fell in love with sleeping on those thin futons.

Finding a Japanese futon is impossible, though, so I just sewed up an old comfortor and sleep on that. I get amazing sleep. I'll never spend a fortune on a bed again.

so soft i have to kick people off it regularly. my old mattress was a thick, wool-wrapped futon mattress. it was fine on the futon, but once i brought in a platform bed with 1x6 slats, the old mattress sank enough btw the slats that i could feel every one of them. that went on for a couple of years until i was insane with back pain.

finally went to macy's and tested for hours. i bought the floor model of this - Sealy PurEmbrace April Meadow Cushion Firm - which was on clearance. it's latex with (possibly) a polyfoam core. no springs and no pillow top. it is about a foot thick, and light & easy to maneuver. took a bit of getting used to for my... left disc? but now it is great. no warranty, but a great buy for under $600 (again, clearance floor model).

Extra firm, to accomodate my H's back. We have a hotel mattress and it's been the best thing.

My great-great-grandparents raised dairy cows and had 13 kids. I'm not doing that either, so I don't really feel the need to base my mattress choices on theirs.

Back pain has more to do with what you do when not in bed. People who sit for prolong periods of time have back pain. People who are standing, walking etc. most of the time have less back pain. There is an article in the 08-23-11 issue of New York Times Science section where the evolution origins of back pain are discussed.

Firm for the back. There was talk some years ago, about sleeping on hard, flat surface to improve circulation. Who knows.

Your back can end up hurting from years of lying on your mattress = Body impressions.

Supposedly you should rotate/flip your mattress (this is in accordance with the warranty). Which helps combat body impressions.

Always make sure you keep the tag on your matt! And some mattresses like mine, Spring Air, come with a 10 year warrenty. You can get them renewed if you bring them to the place that you bought it from.
-The only thing that sucks is waiting for your mattress to come home!

oh, and keep your mattress clean! stains void the warranty.

Yeah but when you get that pillow top you can't flip it. I'm 5'1" about 112lbs. I have had my mattress for 4 years and there's a sink hole in the middle?! Whenever I get a new mattress I'm going much more firm.

I just bought a new mattress. It was a discounted floor model and I am really digging it. It's coir core, latex on both sides of that, and a thin layer of cotton on top. Technically a futon, but more springy, without the springs. Very firm but not what I would call "rock hard".

when I was testing, I noticed that all spring mattresses seem to feel bouncy. I HATE that. I also recall how when my man would roll over on our spring mattress, I would bounce up and down from some kind of displacement...blech. Never again.

If I can ever afford a firm, full latex mattress I'll go for it, but for now, I like this mixed material futon a lot.

I preferred sleeping on the floor in Korea and Japan, and honestly those futon mattresses aren't as hard as you might think, depending on how thick you make it. And if the floor is still too hard, you can just add another layer of blanket!

I think for a bed, though, I prefer it medium...too soft, and it's hot and not very supportive, and too hard is hard on your back.

The only thing which is making our move bearable is that we splurged on new mattresses for everyone.

Our mattresses in Switzerland (North American products courtesy of taxpayers) were cheap and hard. Every morning, it took two hours for my shoulders to unkink and stop cracking. I couldn't last more than 6 hours in the bed, whether I was rested or not.

Now, we have a Vi-Spring Classic Supreme (Superb?) in a medium tension (although, strangely, it feels softer than our children's bedstead mattress which is a soft tension).

It is divine. I go to bed and feel like I am floating; there are no pressure points. When I lay on my back, it is fully supported, neither too soft nor too hard.

when I was over 300 lbs, I needed and got an extra-, extra-firm mattress. Now I've lost quite a lot of weight, and am going to need to add a topper to get less resistance.

I sleep on a washable futon from muji (thinner than the spiffy ones), on top of tatami. My couch is also v. comfy, and actually the size of a cot mattress. Am trying to decide, when I move, if I want to keep sleeping on my tatami bed or if I should use it as a "tea room" like I imagined I would when I bought it? :)

We have a queen mattress that is actually pretty firm, but we have a memory foam topper and a mattress pad to help me get the soft, cushy feeling. Somehow, it's prefect for both me and my husband... though it is getting close to when we should flip it.

Mine is too firm for my size (130 pounds) and I wake up with sore hips. It's actually more comfortable to sleep on my foam couch with my hips right at the cushion break. But I've ordered a memory foam topper as well as a wool mattress pad and I hope they'll make a difference.

Great article! it's so important to have a mattress that is right for you. Unfortunately it's one of the more over looked topics while being one of the most important as well. I have a Simmons mattres atop an Ergomotion Adjustable Base which is an absolute dream.

Tempurpedic is life changing.

Bob-o-pedic. (Bob's Furniture version of a Tempurpedic.) Memory foam, so mostly soft. But I have all kinds of back defects (scoliosis, spina bifida occulta, etc.) so I have learned there IS no "straight spine" position for me no matter what I sleep on, and I get various kinds of kinks and muscle pains no matter what. (I seem to rest best on the sofa chaise section where the padded wooden arm serves as a pillow -- maybe I need that kind of elevation for my head or something.)

For memory foam I recommend checking Bed-In-A-Box online. My old bed was a full size (now I have Queen) and for the full I got a 4 inch memory foam mattress from BIAB for WAAAY cheaper than any other source I have seen. I used it on a slat based platform bed and it was great. They ultra compress and roll the mattress into a bag, pack in a box, and ship to your door. Once it springs to life out of the bag, you will NEVER get it back in, so they take returns (when necessary) unfolded -- although I believe you have to figure out how to pack it! Just an endoresement for those looking for toppers or a less expensive memory foam option.

I have a little scoliosis and I swear by hard mattresses. Imho they don't compare to anything softer, and you know the moment you wake up :) (For sure, it shouldn't be as hard as floor, but definitely not on the soft side.)

I dont know whether it's considered soft, hard, firm, cushy or whatever...
...all I know is that I spent a couple hours in the store testing out a variety of mattresses that were in my pricerange and selected the one that best suited me and my needs.

After a bad bike accident I bought a super firm mattress - the thinking at the time was that they are less comfortable, so they make you move more in your sleep, which keeps joints loose. It has lasted forever but two years ago I bought a 3" Sealy memory foam topper on overstock which I love, love, love. I get support but no more aching hips. And a Tempurpedic pillow with a built in neck roll.

Firm! Perhaps I should get a topper; I like the idea of a little softness on the firm

We splurged on natural latex in 2007 and haven't regretted it for a minute. Doesn't show any wear or have any body depressions, even after four years of use. Supportive yet soft. Absolutely no transfer of movement, so when your mate rolls over, gets up, sits down, etc you don't notice a change on your side. Good for allergies. When we let our guests stay over in our bedroom (we take the futon) they rave about our mattress. Sure, it was expensive but it's supposed to last for at least 30 years. Oh, and it weighs a ton and is awkward if/when you move, but I'll never, ever go back to a spring mattress.

we bought a new mattress less than a year ago, and i can't quite pinpoint what's wrong with it, but my back and neck are a mess every morning. i feel like my whole upper body is being squished together and i can't straighten out.

Tempurpedic firm.

For the past 6-7 years we have been sleeping on a back-breaker mattress. Finally we said enough is enough and the mattress shopping began! I agree that there are too many conflicting opinions on which mattress is best and I think it's all a scam too.

When we decided to buy a bed we agreed that we would only shop at a store that offered a no-hassle comfort guarantee. For us, that store is Ikea because they offer a 45 day full refund, or if you miss the 45 day window, you can still exchange your bed twice within 90 days. Unfortunately, any returned mattress is discarded, but after so many years of poor sleeps, my back can't afford to worry about where that used mattress is going to end up.

As of Monday, we are now on our 3rd mattress. The first one was a firm bed with a combo of latex, spring and foam...my husband loved it and I woke up with a broken back every day for 2 weeks. For the next option I tried to imitate a Japanese bed as best I could. So we tried a high-resilience foam mattress. At first we both liked it, but sometimes felt like we could feel the wooden slats under the mattress. We decided to purchase a memory foam topper for added comfort. That was a bad idea as we each woke with that pins and needles feeling throughout our bodies. I had the idea to then take the memory topper and put it under the foam mattress. I slept great for 2 weeks, but husband never slept a wink :( So the other night we came home with our third bed, this time a plush with a combo of latex, spring and foam. We've been adjusting to it for the past 2 nights so I can't comment just yet on its success or failure.

If all else fails, we are seriously contemplating twin beds so we can each have the comfort level we like !!! Maybe AT should do a feature on couples who opt for twin beds...it worked in the 40s and 50s, why not now LOL

tatami bed with natural latex mattress on top

8" individually wrapped coil futon mattress. It's the perfect balance for me, not too soft or firm.

I used to adore super soft mattress but after getting back pain and stiff neck I change to a firmer ones...

Believe it or not, a box spring. O.o Right now, I live in a one-bedroom apartment, and sleep on the trundle under my daughter's day bed. I used to sleep on the day bed when my daughter was at her dad's, but realized that I woke up with less back pain on the days I slept on the trundle with the box spring instead of the mattress.

This leads me to believe that when I (finally!!) splurge on a bed of my own, I should get a really firm mattress.

I stumbled upon this comfort guide at http://www.jensbeds.com/catalog/comfort-guide.html that I thought was helpful.