Buy Hastens, you can't go wrong! At least do yourself a favor and go into the store on Beverly Blvd and hear what they have to say. This way you can be more informaed on buying the right product for you!

Except a Hastens mattress will cost more then your car. Try Royal Pedic. Great mattress, eco friendly and affordable.

We recently purchased a natural latex and love it. I hate sleeping on an innerspring now.

My biggest question about "natural" or "green" mattresses is where can I buy one (or at least try it out) in person? Regular mattress stores don't seem to stock any of the ostensibly eco-friendly brands, and it takes some serious detective work to find a local brick-and-mortar store that sells them -- unless you've already picked a brand, and even then it can be a trial. Do any of you have suggestions on how to solve this problem? Or recommendations for stores in your town?

I'm allergic to dust mites so long ago I changed to an air mattress. The early ones were fine for me but my husband needed a topper so on went the dust cover. I've yet to wear one out. I know the PVC is not that green but think of the # of beds we have not consumed. We now have a sleep number which we purchased off CraigsList. This type of mattress doesn't have to be turned and doesn't need a box spring for support. It is very clean and if you look hard enough it can be recycled at the end of its useful life if you don't find any takers on Craigs or Freecycle. We'll never go back to a conventional mattress. If you move alot they are also wonderful.

If you're looking for an natural mattress, I would definitely check out Savvy Rest's organic mattresses. They have a great selection and each mattress is completely customizable as far as how hard/soft you'd like your mattress to be. They have an actual store in Charlottesville and several dealers if you want to go check out your mattress options in person. They have a huge knowledge base of all aspects that an organic mattress has to go though as well as several certifications.

Highly recommended, great product and great customer service. You should call them if you have any specific questions in your search.

I got a White Lotus mattress (the Dreamton) in January and it's been fantastic. It's cotton & wool, doesn't need a boxspring, and the cost was better than I had expected to spend on a mattress. I find it very comfortable. There are locations at which to test out the mattress, but I couldn't get to one in my area, so I ordered a sample (which earns a discount when purchasing an actual mattress) before I decided on the mattress. The Dreamton did look skinny, at first, compared to my old mattress, but it's been great to sleep on. No complaints.

When we were mattress shopping, we didn't want to spend a ton of money, but we wanted something at least somewhat green. We also wanted to be able to try out the mattresses since this was our first mattress purchase and we didn't really know what we liked.

We told the lady helping us at the furniture store what we wanted, and she directed us to a new line of Vera Wang "natural" mattresses for Serta. There were three different models on the floor. We ended up getting the Illustre, at a steal because we got to buy the floor model that was being replaced soon. So far we love the mattress. Very comfortable.

I don't have any illusions that a Vera Wang, Serta mattress is truly green, but if you're looking for something that at least has some green qualities that you can actually go to the store, try out, and have delivered to your home at a reasonable price, that's what I would recommend.

My husband and I bought a wool mattress and topper from Surround Ewe. The owner of Surround Ewe raises her own sheep and makes the mattresses with organic cotton. Shepherd's Dream also makes beautiful wool mattresses (and they use wool fabric to encase them). We've bought a travel topper from them and we intend to buy our guest room mattress from them sometime this year.

The wool mattress was a bit hard for us by itself (well, for me -- my husband thought it was perfect!), so we bought natural latex strips to go along the slats in our platform frame. Wool mattresses are the best, in my opinion. No chemicals whatsoever (wool is naturally flame retardant), and all of the source materials come from the US, so a smaller carbon footprint too.

I ended up making my own organic buckwheat hull mattress, seemed like the most economical way to go - thing is, I LOVE my new mattress and feel silly for even considering the $1500 model - I now sell the supplies and wish to help others who want to go the DIY route here: http://www.etsy.co/shop/openyoureyesbedding

I bought a Natural mattress
from the organic Store. I will never go back to a traditional mattress. The organic mattress has helped with my back pain and has greatly improved my sleep.