You will never guess what I am sleeping on!!

[mayfly]

Well we bought our first mattress about 1 1/2 years ago. Before that we used one that had been a gift. We didn't know the first thing about mattresses, so when we found one for $300 I thought "pillow top, comfortable.... it will work" now I know better.

When ever my husband lays close to me we sink in the middle. So I am always sleeping slightly tipped. And we both are average/thin! My hubby got sick of it, and temporarily replaced it with a Coleman air mattress! We have our memory foam topper over the top of it.

I don't know where we are going to from here! It seems a good mattress is at least $1000, and I am worried we will buy that only to have the same problem.

[bestmidwest]

Oh no! I am sorry about that. We had the same issue with a mattress we bought from Sam's Club. Have you thought about going with a tempurpedic or a similar style mattress? There is a website where real people rate mattresses (can't remember the name) and almost every one who had gotten that type said they would not go back to regular mattresses. I know that they said Costco had a good deal on them. The only thing that people said about them is that they tend to get warm. I am a hot person so I don't think I could handle that. Oh good, I found the link. Thank those folks at That Home Site! They are the best researchers ever...helped me find my new washer and dryer.

[url]http://www.whatsthebest-mattress.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=wtb-mattress[/url]

My parents have had their mattress for about 20 years and it still feels amazing. I should ask them what brand it is. I do know that they paid over 1k for it back then, though. It seems like a lot, but I guess if you want something to last...

Whatever you do, don't buy those sleep number beds!! They break down really fast and I have heard so many complaints about them.

[mayfly]

you are such a sweetie! thanks for the link!

[mayfly]

well I have been searching like crazy. It seems that everyone is going to memory foam.
anyone have a suggestion for a good, firmish mattress? Or who has a good rep? what do you have? The air mattress is actually not too bad, but it keeps leaking-lol.

[kkentert]

I bought a mattress topper from Costco and had to return it. It came vacuum packed in a little box and the instructions said it would reagin its shape in a couple days. Well, almost 2 weeks went by and it was still out of shape, so I returned it. I ended up deciding to just buy a new mattress all together. I went with the 10" memory foam mattress from [URL="http://www.restonclouds.com"]http://www.restonclouds.com[/URL] and couldn't be happier. I have a bad back and it has helped SOOOOOO much. I love it!
Go Memory Foam!

[bestmidwest]

mayfly...did you ever find a new mattress? I am thinking about getting a memory foam topper for mine. I am a side sleeper and my hips are hurting lately. We have a firm (serta I think) with a featherbed topper, but it just doesn't seem to be doing the job. Are you still sleeping on the air mattress?

[rleer]

Have you tried a sleep number bed? We liked our first one so much, we bought a 2ed for the guest room. You can set the firmness for each side of the bed. They are also very light weight--no more turning a heavy matteress every few months! I have back and shoulder pain, so its the best solution for me, but hubby likes it too.:roll:

[whitequeen96]

Bestmidwest, what a coincidence that you brought up your hips hurting! I've just today said that I'm ready to go to a doctor about mine. They only hurt when I sleep on my side (which is every night!), but they seem to have gotten worse over the years. What causes this? I know it can't be that I'm so skinny that my bones are poking me (I'm "pleasingly plump!"), but that's what it feels like.

I have a memory foam topper on top of 2 feather beds, on top of my mattress. But I still have the pain! (So I don't know if it'll work for you.) I've coped with this by sleeping on the sofa, with my hip sort of stuck in the crack between sofa cushions, but now my cushions are flattened (after 4 years of doing that), and I want to sleep in my bed! Have you seen a doctor about this?

[Crazy~Feet]

[FONT="Fixedsys"]One of the only ways I have been able to deal with hip pain while trying to sleep is to keep a large, firm pillow between my knees. Drives DH nuts because it constantly bumps him in the butt but I need it!

We expect to buy a new mattress this summer sometime, so I am gonna have to keep a close eye on this thread![/FONT]

[kkentert]

I have bad hips too. (I'm a MESS. 25, already a bad back and bad hips....not great) Anyway, I sleep on my side, and the [URL="http://www.restonclouds.com"]RestOnClouds[/URL] mattress I bought is wonderful. I try not to sleep with my arm under my pillow anymore. When I sleep on my side, with my contour neck pillow on the 10" mattress, i wake up feeling great.

[whitequeen96]

Kkentert, why aren't we supposed to sleep with our arm under the pillow? Does that cause or aggravate hip pain?

And thanks for the tip about the special mattress!

[kkentert]

I'm not certain that sleeping with your arm under the pillow makes a difference. I find that with this new bed, I'm able to get comfy without my arm under it. It just seems more logical to me that you stay in better alignment without your arm there. Just my own crazy theory. If you look at TempurPedic, they show the perfect alignment on a woman with a memory foam mattress and a contour pillow without her arm under her head. you can see her spine is straight. It seems to me that you throw you alignment off by lifting your head to high with your arm. You need to see what's more comfy for you I suppose. There are still some nights that I do sleep with my arm under my pillow, but I find I feel even better in the morning when I don't. I really think the mattress is the MAIN thing, but the pillow and arm I think help a lot too.

[kkentert]

OH!!! how could I forget to mention this?!??!? The first step I took towards relieving both my back AND hip pain was to buy a body pillow! If you sleep on your side, put it between your legs to it keeps your knees a bit apart. I think you'll find that alone to be beneficial...but as I've said a few times...i'm still partial to memory foam! :0)
-If you do get a body pillow, try to find one that's not TOO thick. I got one from walmart that was overstuffed and don't care for it. For now, just try using a regular pillow for a night and see if it makes a difference.

[bestmidwest]

[QUOTE=whitequeen96]Bestmidwest, what a coincidence that you brought up your hips hurting! I've just today said that I'm ready to go to a doctor about mine. They only hurt when I sleep on my side (which is every night!), but they seem to have gotten worse over the years. What causes this? I know it can't be that I'm so skinny that my bones are poking me (I'm "pleasingly plump!"), but that's what it feels like.

I have a memory foam topper on top of 2 feather beds, on top of my mattress. But I still have the pain! (So I don't know if it'll work for you.) I've coped with this by sleeping on the sofa, with my hip sort of stuck in the crack between sofa cushions, but now my cushions are flattened (after 4 years of doing that), and I want to sleep in my bed! Have you seen a doctor about this?[/QUOTE]

I sleep on my left side with a pillow between my legs and hugging another pillow in my arms. I find that if I rock back just slightly so I'm more on the "cushion" ;) rather than directly on my hip bone, then that helps. But, of course, we can't help how we move during the night. I woke up this morning with pain in not only my hips but my lower back as well. No, I haven't seen a dr. about it. I am pretty bad about that. But at this point the pain isn't really bad. I'd say it's about a 1 or 2 on a 1-10 scale.

You know what's weird. I sleep the best on a sofa or on my futon. That futon has the most basic mattress. I'm wondering if maybe my hips hurt from too much cushion?? I'd love to sleep on my back like hubby but it just doesn't work for me.

[kkentert]

I've tried to sleep on my back and it doesn't work for me either. For years, it wa said that people with bad back/joints should look for a firm mattress. I don't find that to be true for me. I actually like something a bit softer. The sofa, however, kicks my *ss! If I sleep on a sofa I wake up in ubearable pain! When I'm at my parents house, I do what you said and rock off my hip a bit. When I'm at home on my restonclouds.com (or TempurPedic) mattress, I just sleep on my side normally and am fine. If you're not using the memory foam, rocking off your side should help...it works for me anyway.....but I really wish I could just sleep on my back!