In search of a good night’s sleep and a quality mattress--do they exist?

My husband and I just celebrated our 24th anniversary.  In those 24 years we have had 3 or 4 mattresses—so many I’ve lost count!  This doesn’t include the early Tempurpedic we tried and sent back within the month.  That means the mattresses lasted on average about 6 years, but each one started getting body impressions well within the first year.  They would get worse and worse, I’d live with it for a while, and then I’d finally get tired of the “rolling hills” of my mattress, sore back and neck, tossing and turning all night, and buy a new one.  Full disclosure—my husband could sleep on a rock, so every time I’d start complaining he would just roll his eyes.  None of the mattresses we bought were cheap, either.  All were in the $2000.-$2700. range, generally the innerspring, pillow-top variety.  Our last venture was an all-natural latex mattress.  While the concept of sleeping on a natural product that won’t off-gas bad chemicals was appealing to me, the fact that there were no springs was a big mistake.  This one lasted not quite 7 years, but again, my back has been bothering me for a while.  My research, experience, and knowledge of furniture (and now mattresses) led me to want a good quality innerspring mattress with a topper that could be added or replaced.  The company I found had a local showroom where I could go test all of their mattresses.  Their base models were pretty well rated in Consumer Reports, which is how I started looking at them.  All of their base mattresses are the same, and they just offer differently configured toppers.  All of the toppers are removable and replaceable.  Of course, the salesman recommended the most expensive one, which has two layers of smaller springs in the topper.  I laid on it for a while and it was very comfortable.  It evenly supported my back and was also comfortable lying on my side, more so than their other mattresses.  The coils in the base are supposedly stronger so hopefully, they’ll last longer.  All of the mattresses have a 25-year warranty—much higher than most.  They’re assembled in the US, and the materials are “natural” but I don’t think they are “organic”.  They use Talalay Latex in the topper (a product derived from the rubber plant).  The cost of this mattress was much less than the cost of comparable mattresses sold in department stores, which I also tried.  It is a thick mattress (15”) so it sits higher than what I’m used to.  I just slept on it for the first time last night, and definitely got a better night’s sleep.  All that tossing and turning meant that I wasn’t getting enough REM sleep, but last night I did.  I didn’t have to set my alarm this morning and was surprised that I woke up after 8:00.  Usually, I’m so uncomfortable that I wake up around 6 or 6:30 and have to get out of bed just to get comfortable and stretch my back.  I really hope this is the last mattress I’ll ever have to buy (or at least second-to-last).  The real test is whether or not it starts to sag after 3 years or so.  Let's hope not!  But, what makes me feel good about this purchase is not only the warranty (the usual 1-1/2” sag factor applies here, too) but the fact that the company is a smaller company that cares about their reputation and wants to please their customers.  If the topper becomes uncomfortable after so many years of use, I can get another one without replacing the entire mattress.  The takeaway from this: make sure you consider what position you like to sleep in, do your research (including laying on it for a while), and make sure you're not spending good money on a mattress that won't last more than 5 or 6 years.  Wishing you all a better night's sleep!!!Note: it is not my intention for this to be a promotional piece for this company which is why I omitted the name, but if you would like more information, please feel free to email me:  krista@mcgrathinteriors.com