Sleep vibrations
I've slept on water beds,
futons, hamocks, air matresses, park benchs and the backseat of a car.
I even remember a bed at a Holiday Inn when I was a kid that had a box
on the night table with a slot for a coin. You put a quarter in and the
bed vibrated for 10 minutes...which I could never figure out why folks
would want the bed to vibrate when they went to sleep, and then I grew
up and figured it out.
Anyway....I decided to
recently try one of those new fangled memory foam mattresses I kept
hearing about. It came by mail in 4 medium sized boxes.
It's hands down the most
comfortable bed I've ever encountered so far and I wouldn't trade it
for 10 vibrating beds.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Mark, I have had a memory foam mattress topper for several years and I would not trade it for any other mattress. I love it! I also have it on two of the three guest beds here at the Friends Wilderness Center.
S
Mark did a bit of research and decided to get it from Overstock.com. Here's the info: Item # Product Name Shipping Quantity Total Price 12066833 13-inch Queen-size Accu-Gold Memory Foam RV Bed Component Sleep System Ground 1 $329.99 Subtotal: $329.99 Shipping: $2.95 Total: $332.94
Apparently, it had good reviews (and the ultra-low shipping was a bonus.)
What I wonder about is how long it will last? Most low density foams have a usable lifetime of about ten years. After that you should really get a new matress. Your back will thank you for it.
Polyurethane foams (like memory foam) are usually made with the help of a physical blowing agent. Usually a kind of solvent with a very low boiling point that evaporates due to the heat generated when the polyurethane cures. If you notice a chemical smell coming from the matress, it might be a good idea to air it for a while before using it. While the CFC's (freon) that were traditionally used in foams are generally banned these days, their replacements are often flammable and can be irritants.
A decade is a pretty long time, in my opinion. Granted, we got our previous mattress lightly used, but it only lasted five years before the springs popped out....
The off-gassing is the one thing that seems to worry folks about memory foam. We left it to air for a few days before using it, and the smell is mostly gone.