how are you deciding the final "rankings" of the mattresses? You gave this mattress good, fair and fair for the three categories. Ikea got fair, excellent and excellent, so you'd think overall it would get a higher ranking, but it's actually lower.

I'm loving this series. We moved into a new house in the summer with an actual guest bedroom though still without a guest bed and so I'm following your reviews with great interest. Of course the lack of guest bed hasn't stopped my parents from visiting because of course we give up the bed for them and sleep on the couch/couch cushions! We did get a Twilight Sleep Sofa that arrived last week for my home office, which will make our sleep more comfortable when they visit, but it's not quite up to the level of comfort that would be suitable for the nearly 70 year-olds. Judging by this month's review, I don't think they'll go for the memory foam either so I'll be waiting to see what next month brings!

Are you going to test the beds from Overnightmattress.com? I made the switch to memory foam over a year ago and bought my bed from them. Have the 9" Cool Max and think it's great. Also, they were considerably less expensive then other brands.

I would like to see more focus or reviews on organic mattresses. I have researched a few that are made locally and only use organic materials and not made in China.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/buying-guide/mattresses

I would like to see more focus or reviews on organic mattresses. I have researched a few that are made locally and only use organic materials and not made in China.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/buying-guide/mattresses

I'm sleeping on a tempurpedic and waking up feeling hot as you say here... all along I thought I was experiencing menopause!

fwiw, my husband and I just bought the Doctor's Choice, Firm mattress from Denver Mattress (about $800.) and quite like it. (I should add that together we weigh about 300 lbs. I suppose lighter couples might find it too firm.) We were very pleased with their customer service as well. We first tried a Madison Plush and exchanged it after two weeks when we decided it was too soft. They didn't bat an eye when we made this request. The only added cost to us was a second delivery fee.

@AJH - good question. The final goal of this year is to decide which bed we want to buy or find the perfect bed (if it exists). While each bed has it's assets (the Ikea is a case in point), the real final rankings for me are what I'd sleep on first and last - so sleep experience is going to weight very highly here.

I"ll add a few words to make this clear.

To recap: the "rankings" come from my reviews, and stand for the order in which I'd choose these beds for my own home.

what do you do with the used mattresses?

I know people have asked before, but I'd love for you to try a McRoskey mattress from San Francisco.

They are quite expensive, but natural and handmade, and I'd like to know what you think.

Great experiment!

No to memory foam if you don't like to sleep warm!

If they had a European Sleepworks on the East Coast, I'd highly recommend them. Made from natural fibers, their cotton and wool mattress is one of the best investments I've made...and have slept better since I bought one four years ago. They are also spendy too but well worth it if you're going to be in it for part of the 1/3 of life we sleep away.

Good article.

who's next? do you have a future line up of mattresses for your schedule yet? wondering if the tempurpedic is on your list.

Been sleeping on tempurpedic memory foam for years and never really found it to be exceedingly warm and never hot.

I have to wonder how different your ratings would be if the super ridiculously expensive bed hadn't been the first.

i love these pillows! where are they from?

i am loving reading the year in bed series!
unfortunately we purchased our new bed before this began. we bought a kingsdown emerald crown mattress which enabled us to select the firmness number that felt right to each for us. the sales person told me that lighter people should choose a lower number but the floor model was a 4 which felt right for me. my husband loves the bed but i find it too firm.
interestingly, we both wake up feeling hot throughout the night. after reading your post today i pulled out the label from my mattress and saw that it was 35% urethane foam. i wonder if that is the reason we feel hot.
a year ago, i bought a mattress for our condo in california that was the most comfortable bed we've ever had. it was a spring air four seasons mattress and everyone who sleeps on it raves about it. but spring air is no longer in business. if anyone is living in los angeles, i recommend purchasing a mattress from pj's sleep company. they have 47 rave reviews and i can't overstate how wonderful they were to deal with!

My husband and I just bought a memory foam mattress from Essentia. The company claims that it's free of the chemicals that offgas from most mattresses (especially synthetic foams), and it's actually manufactured in North America! I've been sleeping amazingly well since it arrived. It's expensive, but totally worth it.

a natural latex bed is awesome. that is what my next mattress purchase will be.

forget the mattress, i want that linen down comforter!!

i have a kingsdown mattress/boxspring for a year now and I love it.

@crayfish, we slept on a Tempurpedic for 5 weeks house-sitting back in the summer and crashed at another friend's house in early fall, and spent ~3 weeks on her Tempurpedic off and on. We really enjoyed sleeping on them.

When we finally settled down a month ago, we got a Sleep Innovations foam mattress on sale from Amazon. So far so good (but my wife did track down a mattress cover to "cool" it down). It's still early days but I think it's as comfy as my friend's Tempurpedic, for a lot less money. Plus it's made in the US. And the outgassing wasn't bad at all.

I'm pretty sure this is the same company that makes foam beds for Costco. For the price, we figured we could dump it in our empty guest room, but it's working out well for us too.

Octavia82 we have an Essentia as well and we love it.

I just don't understand it. I read all the time about people being hot in their memory foam mattresses. I've had mine for 10 years now and it is the most comfortable bed imaginable for me. The temperature seems to adjust magically, never too hot, never too cold. I am sorry that others don't have the same wonderful experience. Now when I sleep in mattresses that have springs it's as if I feel every single spring under my poor body. Long live memory foam!

Background: I was born with deformations in my skeleton, endured many painful medical procedures the first several years of my life. Also- I've been in several car accidents (not once was I at fault) spanning all the way from one that included a back injury when I was in kindergarten (you could say Mom opted out of MADD) and the last accident being in 2008 when Arthur just blazed through a red light in his SUV and totaled the old, wee car I was in.

All of that is to say that to get a night's sleep without pain is near impossible.

I scrimped, saved & went without to get:

1) a profoundly high quality mattress for the pain and 2) maybe a base akin to a hospital bed as I grew angry and impatient at how often the pain would make it such an effort to get up at all. If you're under 45 and can imagine spending sometimes 30-50 minutes struggling to rise in the morning- often in tears- I commend your vivid imagination for I hope you aren't in the actual know.

So now I own a bed frame that mechanically lifts me and on what I thought for months was a Tempurpedic.

Which I have since been told that a Tempurpedic can not do: be manipulated on a bedframe such as this... *sigh

But the mattress w/the mechanical base was mixed in and surrounded by Tempurpedics, the exposed parts look exactly like one (that foam yellow stuff, etc) & when I referred to it bluntly as one, as what I wanted- the sales fellow replied in what I now see was vague terms and said that it was the latest version which has a layer of latex atop that dealt with the 'over heating' issue I'd heard so much about. I have issues with overheating due to other medical issues so I was overjoyed to hear this. What a sap.

Well? In the end, I won't slander a whole company based on one young man looking to make his commission- I don't think that is fair at all especially since I was a return customer who has had great service and good luck throughout the years.

Yet considering the pain I woke in today I wish I'd had this resource to use exhaustively. I truly thought I was looking forward to at minimum a great lessening of my morning pain -which follows me throughout the day- well, it's slightly better, but- I had my heart set for so long on waking on the big T - and certainly not in a shivery cold sweat (in a house without central heat, that aggravates me to no end). For months I thought Tempurpedic was a boondoggle or just a way for healthy people to 'roll over and not wake their partner' or joyously jump up and down without spilling their wine. (corny TV ad)

Well turns out the boondoggle was on me & I wonder how many people that hobble in on canes or in enter in wheelchairs are marks to the callous?

I'd urge everyone to do research before they buy, and most of all to get the sales guy to truly earn his money: strip it, flip it, name it, discuss pedigree and so on. Maybe all those car accidents that also whacked my skull made it easier to fast talk confound me- but I advise people, especially pain patients, to treat it like buying a car: test it, leave and -if you can? Sleep on it.

Thank You for this post.
It is beyond priceless, and I shall study it at length and share it as well.

Pain can make me crazy desperate and even now that I spent my thousands on this one darn bed, if someone -reliable!- were to point me toward a way to make this one even better? I think I'd have to, I think years and years of pain have stripped me of my free will in this regard. I sincerely hope that no one reading this ever has to endure a life of serious chronic pain, nor witness it in a loved one.

I read that you were going to review the Keetsa beds, and I am anxious to hear your opinion. I need to buy something soon! I like the comfort and the price but their website is total greenwashing. Their "eco-beds" are imported from CHina and made with 80% petroleum based memory foam, which off gases so their literature is totally misleading. Their VOC report is from someone in Korea and what is a their added "non-toxic" flame retardant anyway, why not tell us? I can't wait for your take on this company.