Are you going to try the swedish tempur pedic they are different from the other foam mattresses and we have one and love it. We tried different foam mattresses before. Either way i always tell folks that it takes a week to get used to the tempur pedic and then you are hooked. I LOVE my mattress and will never go back to a regular one.

http://www.delishhh.com

You have to stay away from the foam mattresses. They contain too much pretrolium and fire retardent. NEVER buy a mattress with fire retardent on it. Go with natural 100% latex if you want the foam/memory feel.

Great info...love hearing your views on different mattresses!!

what's the little floor setup for at the bottom of the bed in the first image (with the sealy on one wall and another mattress on the other)?? yoga???

Thank you thank you for doing this piece. I need help, and I already got a lot of answers after reading what you've learned so far. I bought a combination mattress, with memory foam and springs--I think Simmons makes it or one of them--it's called NXG, or next generation, and it cost around $3,000.00 for a double (the only size that fits comfortably in my bedroom). OK, here goes:
The bed is extremely comfortable, ridiculously so, firm and cushiony at the same time, but it has one MAJOR DRAWBACK: HOT!!! So hot! They say they fixed the problem by including springs, which supposedly aerate the mattress, but they do not! It's unbearable, unless I open both windows, even in frigid temperatures. I sleep only with a cotton coverlet, so often I'm freezing on top, but it keeps the mattress cool enough. Otherwise, it's suffocatingly hot--really, like burning hot almost. So I thought I would get a bed with no foam, but what kind? And now you've informed me that most of them do have foam anyway, except for the pricey Hastens. I am used to the comfort, but I sure would like to sleep the way I used to--on a cool bed. Where can I find a comfortable, cool bed???
Thank you for any help, and that goes for anyone, posters included.

I will test one for you if your wife has had enough! Need a mattress but worried I will get wrong one!

@j_gig: It's a meditation cushion (the brown thing is a half-moon zafu and the white thing under it is a zabuton) with a shawl on top of it (the shawl is the peach-colored thing).

Looks like somebody jumped up to go answer the door....

Will there be reviews posted for all the beds? I'm only seeing a handful through the Year in Bed tag.

I've been sleeping with my box spring & mattress on the floor (no frame) for 3 years and it's been great. A friend gave me an Ikea bed w/slats and gave that a try with just my mattress for 2 weeks. I was not a happy camper and put my box spring back under my mattress and on top of the slats. My bed is now 3 feet tall, but at least I can sleep at night.

I have the Simmons Beautyrest NXG 250. It is warm but I wouldn't call it hot. Tempurpedic beds by comparison, are sweltering.

Thanks for putting up with the unavoidable aggravation of doing this research, which is yielding valuable information.

But the real question is have you tried an organic buckwheat hull filled mattress topper! http://www.etsy.com/listing/53060964/organic-buckwheat-hull-stuffed-mattress (read the reviews!)

@profkd
That's because the year isn't over yet.

For a good night's sleep I take Zyrtec (an over the counter antihistamine.) It naturally causes drowsiness (for me, but not necessarily for others) and I don't wake up with post-nasal drip! 2 birds dead and only 1 stone.

Whatever you do, do not try an Englander bed. Has to be (next to Spring Air) the two worse beds we have ever owned. Customer service with this company is a nightmare also. Bed dips so deep you can't roll over to the middle!!!!

Second that about NEVER sleeping on Spring Air. Even the new ones dip (had one in furnished apartment once - was so bad, they brought me a brand new one - was shockingly just as bad.)

I have a standard mattress and box spring (no pillowtop) for me, and have had Ikea foam and then American Leather's great no springs, no bar Comfort Sleeper sofa (they aren't made only in leather) for the guest room - all are really comfortable.

But yes, the foam (both Ikea and American Leather) smells as it outgasses for awhile - not sure if it is the foam, the fire retardants, or both, but it can't be good for us. And I wonder what is in my standard mattress.

I think, for calm sleep, there is nothing like a cotton futon. I think I will try an organic cotton one if I ever get a new bed (not just a new mattress, as my bedframe needs a box) again.

"Lesson 4: A Good Night's Sleep is Only Partially Due to The Bed"

I would turn it around to say:

"Lesson 4: Although a Good Night's Sleep is Only Partially Due to the Bed, if You Don't Have a Comfortable One, You are Not Going to Sleep Well".

The past 4 years on posting in Europe have taught us this extremely painful lesson.

We were not allowed to bring our bed with us; it was provided for us. However, we were allowed no input into what sort of bed we were to receive. The mattress assigned to us was random, with no thought given to comfort -- the mattresses are not graded for firmness (none are identified as soft, medium or firm), and they are chosen purely on the basis of cost -- whoever could supply the government with the cheapest mattresses when the tender was put out won the bid. Consequently, all of the mattresses people in our situation here have are either too soft, or too hard, as the mediums sell, and companies like to dispose of the mattresses that don't sell through these sorts of government tenders.

So for 4 years, the only decent night's sleep we have had is when we have travelled, and have lucked into a comfortable hotel bed (a rare event).

Our bed is so hard, that I literally cannot last in it more than 7 hours, although I need 8 hours in order to function. I am a side-sleeper, and every morning, my back and shoulders crack for a good half hour as they come unstuck. I have shoulder pain. I am now getting hip pain; a friend of mine had hip pain so bad, she was put on pain meds and sent for weekly physio by her doctor (the bed exacerbated an existing problem for her). With being woken by our kids, and woken by the discomfort of the bed, we are chronically sleep-deprived. Both my husband and I have gained weight because we both have started to eat for energy because we are exhausted. We have also caught A LOT of viruses (for the first ear or two in a new environment, your body catches the local bugs, but after that, it is supposed to be acclimatized).

We tried topping our bed with pads and toppers, but the bed the American sized, and everything here is Euro-sized. And it is still like sleeping on a wooden plank (which is better than the concrete feel we first had, but still extremely firm). Buying an American-size bed is complicated here, and of course, we would have to ship it back with us. It is made all the more difficult because of the severe budget restraints we are on here (we are down to half our salary because of course I am not working here)... So we are in a painful conundrum. (I am sitting at the breakfast table with an aching hip, which is why this is so long...).

So Maxwell, if there is one thing I have learned in the past 4 years, it is that without a comfortable mattress, you do not stand a hope of having a good night's sleep. (And if you do not get a good night's sleep, you cannot enjoy your life to the fullest.)

Enjoying your bed stories! We bought a Hästens bed about 6 years ago. It's the same color as the one you had, but a different (less expensive) style. With our bed, the horsehair-filled mattress sits directly on the bottom part, which contains the box springs. Although the mattress is king-size, the box springs are actually twin-sized, individual box springs. That way, each person can have the firmness they want. Of course, a new "twin" mattress would have to be acquired should we ever decide to have two beds instead of one. We've been really, really happy with the bed and consider it an excellent investment for a good night's sleep.

ohhhhhhh, I thought that might have been the bed for your dog. I'm always setting up little sleeping nooks for my Dog so she can always be near me!

i like this experiment. It's very funny to read and hopefully it will help me pick a new mattress! keep it going!