Memory Foam: Hot or Not

[Dubversion]

we're in the market for a new mattress - the onset of Pie Face's middle age and associated collapsing spine means ours is no longer suitable (that, and the springs that stick in your eye when you try to sleep).

We've been looking at memory foam or memory foam / spring combinations but I was reliably informed on Saturday by fieryjack that memory foam is very very hot to sleep on. As someone who gets too hot at night anyway, the last thing I want to do is make this worse.

So - anecdotal / personal opinions wanted, please

 

[geminisnake]

Our mates got one a while ago and have mentioned it is heat retaining, the cat loves it apparently.

Might be worth asking the manufacturers what can be done to counteract this??
Or you could try and insulating sheet to stop the heat building up??

 

[vipper]

Never tried it myself, however my mad mother-in-law splashed out over a grand on a tempur mattress a couple of years ago and gave up after a few weeks of no sleep.

But don't let that put you off. She is (a) mad and (b) a closet insomniac. I think tempur do a free trial before they cut off your right arm as payment.

 

[quimcunx]

I got the Tempur 2000 'NASA Technology' mattress about 7 years ago. I was deliberating between that and a high spec Hypnos mattress. I would'nt say it is hot to sleep on. In fact as winter bedrooms are considerably cooler than shop showrooms, I sometimes find the first few seconds it's like a mortuary board til your body warms it and it yields underneath. I've no doubt it is a good mattress, but *looks around shiftily* If I was making the choice again I'd maybe go for a high spec sprung mattress. The Hypnos one I'd slept on once in a hotel. When I sat on the bed I thought 'jesus this mattress is shit, I've sunk right down' but when I lay on it was fabulous. So many springs. I had the most delightful nights sleep. Tempur is expensive but you don't get the feeling of luxury that you might hope for from spending soo much money.

 

[sheothebudworths]

We recently got a £350 memory foam/pocket spring combination - without ever having tried out MF - and it is absolutely not hot (and I have a tendency towards getting very overheated too) although it IS pleasantly and reassuringly warm (very, very different from too hot though - in fact, thinking about it, I've not once felt too hot since we got it!).

However....although heo loves it and I find it very comfortable to lie on, I appear to have near enough completely stopped moving all night which probably indicates that I'm actually sleeping very well, but which I can't help finding slightly alarming and wrong.

Sort of feel like I'm not taking the opportunity to stretch out quite as often as I should or something .......a bit hard to explain.

Anyway, definitely NOT HOT but I reckon, knowing what I know now, I'd maybe just have gone for a decent firm pocket sprung one and knocked the MF on the head, although there's still a certain something about it that I really like.

 

[sheothebudworths]

Fuck me - that was possibly my least helpful post, ever.

 

[Dubversion]

no, it was fine. i'm inclined towards a higher-end spring mattress myself.. and that foam stuff is ODD.

i fear it may be voodoo

 

[sheothebudworths]

Maybe that's it!
Bad juju!!!

 

[quimcunx]

I appear to have near enough completely stopped moving all night which probably indicates that I'm actually sleeping very well, but which I can't help finding slightly alarming and wrong.

I remember in the blurb before I bought my mattress that they get used on operating table these days because of something to do with blood flow when lying still for 18 hours or whatever. So it probably does mean you're sleeping well.

 

[vipper]

A chicken dies to make each one.

 

[quimcunx]

no, it was fine. i'm inclined towards a higher-end spring mattress myself.. and that foam stuff is ODD.

i fear it may be voodoo

When I first got it I found the slow sinking a very odd sensation. Don't notice it now.

The moulded pillows are no use unless you sleep on your back all the time, IMO. I gave up on mine, but my flatmate borrowed one and loves it.

 

[Piers Gibbon]

I have no experience with mattresses made of memory foam but I do have a memfoamy pillow and love it...and sheo - my head doesn't move either! It is kind of weird but definitely good I reckon...good price from fabric 205 in dulwich 02086939295

 

[sheothebudworths]

So it probably does mean you're sleeping well.

Yep most likely, but then I feel a bit stiff when I wake up - but a strange stiff, cos it's stiffness from a good nights sleep rather than a bad one iyswim.

Maybe I still just have to get used to it (we've only had it for 3 months max).

 

[Orang Utan]

My mum has this stuff on her wheelchair and it's very comfortable

 

[Throbbing Angel]

I think the heat retention issue of the foam differs brand by brand

we got a bed from ikea with a foam mattress and we've had to bin the fucking thing about a year after getting it (the mattress)

there were noticeable depressions in the foam after a few months use which just got more hammock like and uncomfortable as time passed - ended up getting a sprung mattress to replace it

oh, and you couldn't turn the mattress over to try and even it out - it had a sleeping and a non sleeping side so you just rotated it (head becomes feet) every now and then, but yer big fat arse is in roughly the same place so it achieves, err, nowt as far as I can see

PM me if you wanna know which bed and mattress combi it was Dub (from ikea)

 

[Dubversion]

My mum has this stuff on her wheelchair and it's very comfortable

have you been playing on it again?

 

[Orang Utan]

Yeah! Wouldn't you play on an electric wheelchair if you had the chance?

 

[Gromit]

I inherited my mother's kingsized bed when she moved to Spain.

Its Tempur and cost a small fortune. I'd never spend all that on a bed.

It felt a bit wierd at first but I have to say that its done wonders for my back compared with cheap matresses I've had before.

If heat is a problem, get a lighter quilt.

 

[story]

I did some research into the memory foam stuff and found some reports of the memory foam giving off gasses and chemicals.

I couldn't find anything definite - just anecdotal stuff and reported reports. But it seems logical to me that it might give off gasses etc, and it put me off.

Pocket sprung for me, I think.

 

[moose]

If you go to a good bed shop when they've got a sale on, you may find stupendous reductions on really tip-top sprung mattresses, whilst the Tempur ones rarely get reduced much. I went with the intention of trying out Tempur, but spotted a sprung mattress reduced from £1200 to £600. It's worked wonders for mr moose's chronic bad back.

 

[jæd]

Another advantage of Tempur mattress is that it can be transported very easily. (They fold) When mine was delivered I lived on the 5th floor and managed to move it all the way by putting it in the lift.

With a regular mattress I would've spent an afternoon shifting it with a mate...

 

[Dubversion]

If heat is a problem, get a lighter quilt.

doesn't work like that, does it? I can get one side of my head hot against a pillow even a cold night and have to keep turning the pillow over.

 

[tuesday's child]

have you seen the memory foam mattress toppers? Might be a cheaper way to try it out without going the whole hog? You can get them on Overstock.com for about $30 for a 1-inch topper, or about $100 for a 4-inch topper (not entirely sure whether O.com ship to the UK though... ).

I've just ordered a 2-inch MF topper for our bed.

 

[geminisnake]

have you seen the memory foam mattress toppers? Might be a cheaper way to try it out without going the whole hog?

You can get them here, just can't remember where. We had the eggbox ones a couple of times. I'd forgotten about them

 

[crustychick]

just wikipedia'd it having never heard of memory foam

this is my favourite:

Beds are not always only for sleeping. It is important to consider that moving around on hands or knees on a memory-foam mattress is different from more standard mattresses. Knees will sink a lot deeper making bedroom activities difficult.

worth bearing in mind

 

[Gromit]

Some people will make any excuse… even going as far to edit wiki to back up their excuse when partner challenges it.

I personally have edited Wiki myself to back up that dressing up as Mike Batt creator of the Wombles isn’t unusual or deviant at all but very popular in British bedrooms.

Although to be honest, speaking from experience, they are right. Memory foam does make certain positions more challenging. Wasn’t an issue with my ex as she preferred other places to my bed (like other men’s beds, not really just kidding), which was just as well I guess.

 

[Pieface]

I mentioned that on the last thread where it came up. It sounds rubbish for shagging.

 

[baldrick]

they are a bit rubbish for shagging, though i spose you'd get used to compensating for the squishyness of it.

 

[jæd]

I mentioned that on the last thread where it came up. It sounds rubbish for shagging.

Nope, its fine... Another advantage is that since limbs "sink" into the foam you can put your arms around someone without getting "dead" arms/legs...

Although I did have to get a better alarm clock when I first got mine. They're pricey but worth every penny...!

 

[moonsi til]

I have a orthpeadic memory foam mattress which took me a long while to get used to and enjoy sleeping on...but if I were to choose again I would plump for the best sprung mattress my money would buy....a big bouncy hotel bed is what I really want...with crisp white sheets...