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we got our memory foam mattress on sale at DWR - i can't say enough good things about it.

your body sinks into the foams and it feels like you have a comfy mold around you. AND, when your partner gets into bed, you can barely feel it.

i highly recommend them - super comfy!

I have one from Isoform. It was $150 and makes all the difference in the world.

Mine is from Target! I love it!

i got mine over a year ago from overstock. definately *spring* for the 3". my partner and i were forever waking up with horrible back aches. as soon as we got ours in the mail we have had nothing but great sleep. i can tell the difference, def waking up in the morning and not being all crickety! i can't say enough. . .

got one for a couple as a gift - they didn't like it at all and said it was really uncomfortable...

talalay is the thing to get, it's a more natural type of foam and very comfortable. i did a lot of research and memoryfoam.com is a good place to go.

I've heard that they don't breathe very well at all, which means in the warmer months you can end up drenched in your own sweat.

I had a 2" memory foam pad from overstock.com, but my wife didn't like it since it was too warm. I also noticed the extra warmth, but for me it wasn't that bad. We eventually got rid of it.

We bought a memory foam pad from Bed, Bath and Beyond that is wrapped in goose down and it has made sleeping such a treat. It was pricey at $300, but find one of those handy 20% coupons they put in the paper or in magazines to make it affordable. We love it and we've never found it to be too warm.

I LOVE my memory foam mattress pad from Kohls. I like a firm mattress but the pad softens it up just enough to make for a super comfortable sleep experience. Only issue would be the Queen size does not go all the way to the edge, perhaps shop for an exact size to fit your mattress. They do smell a bit chemical at first but it went away rapidly.

I have a 2" from BB&B. Works great, but my bed is seriously slumping. Time to get a new mattress.

Be careful about the inches you choose. Sounds crude, but it does have an impact on your sex life. If you just want to sleep, go for the 3' deep pad. If you want to have sex, get something that doesn't make the bed feel like a marshmellow (I recommend the 1' or 1'5).

Memory foam is not all it's cracked up to be. Totally synthetic, made with nasty chemicals, some of which it emits throughout its life (and your sleep) -- albeit in very small quantities.

From the point of view of your body, memory foam ends up making your flesh carry the weight of your body. That's not what flesh is supposed to do -- that's why we have bones.

Latex foam, on the other hand (tanalay, as susiq suggested, is a kind of latex) doesn't form to your body like memory foam. That's a plus -- it means that your bones will actually carry your weight down to the mattress.

My 2.5 inch model from Overstock made an unbearable firm mattress verrrry comfortable. However, you should learn from my mistake: the sizes on O'stock are cut WAY too small for an average mattress. I got a King for my Queen and it was still several inches too short. Highly recommend ordering the California King and cutting it down to size with an Xacto.

I'd love to get one but don't want anything that's going to make the bed warm/hot. In the Thermalpedic mattress thread it was stated several times that the bed retains a lot of heat. Would a thinner pad retain less heat?

Just to confirm, it's talalay, not tanalay. :-) I think it's well worthwhile to look it up. There's a whole lot of amazing info on the site connected to my name.

SaraB, I ordered the premium 4" from O'stock 2 days for my queen mattress. Think I should just return for a larger size without even tyring it out?

oops! I meant to type Sara(h)B.

As a general rule, memory foam is a fine intermediate step if you don't have a specific physical or medical need for a new mattress...but I can tell you from personal experience that if you are suffering from any sort of arthritis or back pain, a talalay mattress is the way to go. Google Peter Cancelli (he does the ask the expert column on philly.com) and you will find an expert who is fair, and sells everything at the best possible price.

susiq, thanks for giving us the links to the matress forums - that's going to be a big help. I could really use a new mattress, but selecting one is daunting and pricey.

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I ended up buying one of these in my old apartment because I was waiting to buy a new bed until I moved. It was great - I used it for about two years, bought it at Overstock.

They take some getting used to, but I got much better sleep once I started using one.

GZ: I'd like to think it was an aberration, but there were other comments on the Overstock site containing complaints about the sizing. It doesn't make a difference to how it feels--it just looks crummy. (And mine was only 2.5 inches thick.) If you are going to return, just don't open the box--it comes compressed, and you'll /never/ get it back in.

GZ, On my queen-size mattress, the queen-size memory foam pad that I bought from overstock was definitely small, leaving about an inch or two on each side. I was surprised and disappointed how poorly it fit on my mattress. But this is now moot since, as I mentioned above, I no longer use it since my wife says it makes the bed too warm.

Just to clear this up, Talalay refers to a specific manufacturing process, not foam type. The Talalay process produces a mattress that has a consistent open pore structure that improves breathablity and support. There are both synthetic and natural latex mattresses that use this more expensive process. It also adds to the life span of the mattress. And as for toppers, wool is far superior to any foam. In addition to cradling the body (as does foam), it also ,due to it's unique thermal qualities, helps regulate body temperature. Fluctuations in body temps during the night can interupt sleep cycles. Sleeping on wool reduces those fluctations and a better night's sleep is the result.

Thanks for the tip! I will just send it back WITHOUT opening it in exchange for a CAL king. I recently bought their queen size memory foam pillows and have used it for the past two days--the chemical smell is quite strong. How long does it take to completely air out?

GZgoingmod,
It takes about a week to air out and not smell chemically. I have the pillows and the 4" mattress pad from Overstock. I had to leave the mattress pad in my studio after unwrapping it so it could expand to size. This took 3 days. It was like living with The Blob. Every time I checked on it, it had grown more. But alas, comfortable as it may be, it is too short for our queen sized bed.

One more thing regarding wool toppers: no off gassing, no chemical smells...

We have a latex bed which is just wonderful. It was a bit too firm so we added a 2" foam pad from Overstock. It's a great combo for us. The firm latex bed is great for my allergies and lower back problems. The foam pad adds a bit more soft cushion.

Lori,
So much for instant gratification...I'll wait a week for the pad to 'blob' out and hopefully by then the smell will also dissipate.

The nice thing about bad, bad artificial man-made products as opposed to wool toppers is that they're supposed to be better if you have dust allergies. Natural fabrics like cotton and wool are much more hospitable to dust mites. From what I've read, the mites don't live very well in non-natural fabrics. Makes sense. For that reason I've been considering a foam topper, but I've yet to try one. This posting has almost convinced me-- thanks A/T!

Bought a 1" memory/thermal foam topper for my waterbed - $30 plus shipping from Amazon. Not only do I now sleep in one place instead of sprawling all over the bed at night, but in addition to sleeping better I'm saving on my electric bill. I can comfortably set my waterbed at 72 degrees, down from 82 to 84 degrees before the foam topper.

I'll definitely be looking at a memory foam mattress when I replace the waterbed.

We tried a thin topper from Kohl's. We both liked the feel of it but neither of us liked it's very annoying habit of refusing to stay put. It consistently moved about 1" towards my side of the bed during the night.

I noticed there was a texture difference between the top and the bottom so I flipped it over--and it proceeded to move about 1" towards her side of the bed during the night. We ended up returning it.

The list of pros versus cons has latex running laps
around memory foam.
Latex will last forever. Memory Foam 1-5 years as the visco loses the slow recovery properties.
It is a plastic. Just polyurethane. Known as "solid gasoline" by firefighters.
Latex is from the rubber tree
•Biodegradable & Environmentally Friendly
•No harmful chemicals are produced in manufacturing,
•Dust mite resistant.

same conforming qualities without the side effects like sleeping warm. The cooler your house the firmer you memory foam is. Latex springs back when you move instead of having a sink hole while it recovers. The mosre expensive the foam, the longer the recovery.Latex is by far the better of the two, just not as well known and never had the NASA story.

I read your mention of firefighters referring to the memory foam as "solid gasoline".Does this mean that you are more at risk during a housefire where you are still asleep in bed. And is latex also a danger.Please someone........Do tell.

Natural memory foam does exist...we make it ;-)

Essentia's memory foam is made with latex, essential oils, plant extracts and water so it's 80% more breathable than all the other memory foams and odorless.

check us at out at: www.EssentiaDirect.com

Hey I recently purchased a memory foam mattress from www.cushysofa.co.uk they supply and manufacture all types of memory foam products , including memory foam sofas, memory foam mattresses , memory foam toppers and memory foam pillows, I purchased the orthomedic plus mattress, it was a very good price and it arrived the next day and it had pyramids on the mattress something to do with letting it breath as well as a spacer fabric cover which helps disperse moisture so if you sweat allot your not sleeping on it. they can also manufacture any size sofa , mattress or topper,they also supply a vast range of divans and mattresses, id highly recomend them

Here's data from hundreds of actual memory foam pad owners. It seems off gassing is a pretty big issue, indeed.

http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/memory-foam-toppers-home.html