I am a big fan of my old fashioned McRoskey mattress. I don't know if the company has much of a national presence, though, so might not be able to try one out.

I adore our mattress. 100% talalay latex. I am a side and stomach sleeper and it is by far the best mattress I have owned. Ours is a local brand but I have never heard anyone complain about an all-latex mattress.

Oh, the organic talalay latex sounds intriguing! It looks like the McRoskey is mostly in SF, I need to check their policies...the mattresses look really well-made, though. Thanks, guys!

We've had a latex bed for 10+ years, and it still seems like it's brand new.

I suppose that you could take advantage of one of the many "try for 100 days" offers from all of the mattresses sold online.

I haven't read the article yet, but the Consumer Reports that I received in the mail today has mattress ratings. The headline is top picks from $245 to $1,500

I'm a side and stomach sleeper and love our Costco Novaform Pearl mattress, which I bought sight unseen online (and without being a Costco member), based on Consumer Report's recommendation several years ago, when I was about 50.

We'd had a mattress for about 20 years which we loved until its last few years. When it needed replacing, we went to the mattress store and tested mattresses all afternoon and decided on a Serta bamboo mattress. It was awful almost from the start. It bunched up on my husband's side and was too soft on mine, when he was on his side it would dip and I would roll toward him, and we each slept terribly on it. After about two years of increasingly lousy sleep and back pains, out of desperation I bought the Costco mattress, which was our first experience with mail order mattresses that magically expand : ) .

We've slept wonderfully ever since. With menopause, I've run warmer for the past 10 years but never felt hot with the mattress. Best of all, even with my husband tossing and turning, there's no motion transfer for the first time in our mattress-sharing lives : ) . And the price was right and it came by mail lol.

The only unexpected thing was the height of the mattress, about 14", which meant our boxspring was much too high. We ended up trading it in for a 4" bunkie board, and I had to get some new deep pocket fitted sheets.

Good luck!

nini, I somehow got on the email list for Winkbeds. They send emails non-stop. I've wondered about it myself. I'm currently looking to replace our Stearns & Foster. There are so many choices. I'll be following this thread and I'm sorry I'm of no help.

My experience is very similar to @beckysharp Reinstate SW Unconditionally. When we moved into the new house 6 years ago, I bought a Novaform mattress from Costco based on Consumer Reports rating it as the top mattress. As well as I can remember, this is the one we bought.

DH and the handy man wrestled it onto the bed frame (it weighs 125 lbs) and opened the packaging. We slept in the guest room for at least 3 nights, maybe a week, to allow the mattress to fully inflate and off-gas.

The Novaform mattress is pretty firm, which I like. After a lot of reading I chose not to put it on box springs. It is on this frame

If I had to do over, I’d get a more solid frame, perhaps the sort that is a series of very very close together wooden slats.

What I don’t like about it is its weight. I have to call the movers to come when I want to adjust the bedskirt. While DH and I can drag the mattress off the bed, it takes 4 men to pick it up and place it on the frame without disturbing the bedskirt.

The guest room at my sister’s house has a very soft mattress and the guest room at DD’s house has a Sleep Number. I can sleep on my sister’s guest bed for 2-3 nights with no problem. After that, the aches and pains start. (Hmmm...does she have this mattress in the guest room by design?)

The Sleep Number is okay and serves its purpose. DD’s guest room originally had my old mattress which was quite firm. DD’s MIL could not stand it so she bought the Sleep Number. Now when we each visit, we can have the firmness we want.

Our new mattress and topper should be here shortly. A few years ago we online ordered a Saatva after getting fed up with mattress shopping, they had good reviews. Instead of ordering their best seller Luxury Firm , I ordered the Soft Plush. At first husband loved it but over time it was just too soft for him.

We have slightly different wants but didn’t want a dual bed or a complete latex due to difficulty in moving the heavy weight and storing as there is a tiny chance we may list our home.

We have decided on a combo that may work for both (hopefully). I ordered another Saatva but in their best seller Luxury Firm. It’s a sort of hybrid with two layers of coils (one layer wrapped), firm duel support edge foam wrapped sides and other interior layers. I already know that there is good motion transfer which is very important to me. Husband is like a giant elephant when he turns over. Instead of the 14 1/2” thick of last order I went with the 11 1/2” thick . From another company I ordered a 100% natural organic 3” latex Talalay topper in medium with an organic cotton cover. I already have a good mattress cover with a wool top that will fit over all.

I hope this works.

Mattress shopping is the worse!!!

I agree with Justterrilyn! Mattress shopping IS the worst! Two weeks ago today, we had a new bed (adjustable base) and mattress delivered. We are supposed to wait 30 days before deciding if it's a keeper. At this point, I am not sure. We purchased a Sealy Turkanna cushion firm mattress. We had a sealy for years that we loved and wore well. Apparently we are that couple that prefers coils. We also prefer a firm mattress. But I get tight hip flexiors at times and because of that, the salesman suggested we go with the "cushion firm" which has memory foam layered over the coils - a hybrid mattress. Laying on the bed, away from the edge, it feels good. Getting up off the mattress, to me is a bit harder because I feel like I have sunk a bit into the foam. Husband has looked at me laying on it (and vice versa) and you don't really see much sinking, so maybe it's just the feel. Motion transfer is good. Mattress is 14 which I do like, but because I'm short, we had to lower the base, which is fine, and was very easy to do. There were two other mattresses we liked, both firm, coils with no memory foam. We knew going in that we did not like the "marshmallow" feeling - we really don't like foam mattresses, so I guess we should have gone with the firm without cushion. Whatever, we will keep this one for two more weeks and go from there. We did try the talalay (just in the store) but not for us. I don't think any kind of foam, latex, etc. is for us. A mattress is so very personal - it has to feel good to each person and everyone is different! It's hard!!!

The price range noted above - well we shopped around and that range is below what we found. Unless you do the mattress-in-a-box, and the store we purchased from did have those too. I think as you said, you need to be willing to pay for a mattress as it's one of the most important purchases in your home, and greatly affects your comfort/health. Good luck!!

My problem with foam mattresses is that they have no edge support. You need that more and more as you age. Casper has a new hybrid innerspring/ foam mattress that sounds intriguing. I belibethe Consumer Report article that Terosa mentions rates it highly. I will give it a try next time I’m at the mall. I have a Verlo mattress that I started out loving and now I do t like it. It’s too hard. I have memory foam mattress topper but it sleeps hot.

I looked at a S&F Hurston Cushion Firm. It was comfortable but what's keeping me from purchasing is that it has a layer or layers of memory foam which can sleep hot so they added ventilation holes on the sides of the mattress. Is that a sales gimmick or a true engineering detail that works? Not sure.

What Dead said! That's my complaint with this mattress - less edge support. It does not sleep hot though. Arapaho, did the S&F have good edge support?

Oh, it is all so difficult!! This might be helpful for some who are also shopping, www.myslumberyard.com

They go really in-depth about every mattress, from materials to edge support, to motion transfer, to goodness knows what! I guess it is really something that you can’t just say, “this is a great brand of mattress,” bc even if it is...it might not be the right one for a specific person.

JT...I am also looking at the Saatva Luxury Firm (in addition to the WinkBed.) I would love to hear your thoughts after you receive it. I don’t have to order mine immediately. Thankfully, it appears all online mattresses will take them back if you don‘t like them.

I’ll check back nini! It’s so frustrating deciding on a mattress. If my husband wasn’t getting impatient I would have did a bit more looking. I like almost everything the Saatva luxury firm has to offer but ideally I would like all that except the memory foam middle layer. I could be wrong but even companies claiming high quality memory foam have problems with some sagging over time. Memory foam tends to flatten out in areas you sleep. It may be more affected on the side a heavier person is. Since that layer looks rather thin in the middle of the Saatva‘s interiors photo’s I think it will be fine.

Don‘t even get me started on all the research involved in choosing a quality Talalay 100% natural organic latex topper. I almost went with one company that claimed there were zero chemicals used and was a hundred & seventy five more. Come to find out, even with certified mattresses they are not a 100% free of chems but close at over 96%. While the mattress/topper is natural, they have to be treated somewhat for shipping.

Anyway, my poor husband has to put up with me doing my best. I need support and a supported edge but my tail bone was broken twice as a kid so need some relief there, and there‘s also other issues like fibromyalgia, arthritis and some new undiagnosed things going on. Those are bad days, the rest of the time I’m dandy : )

tina, yes I think it had some good edge support. It was a nice mattress, Just not sure about the memory foam being hot and no guarantee not to sag either. I like seeing a cutout of what's inside and not all sites show that. I was in a furniture store (large retailer) and asked the salesman what gauge the coils were in the above mattress. He ran off to make a phone call. Didn't know I could hear his conversation ... must have been talking with his manager. He said,

" I'll just tell her 9 gauge ". It was like pulling a number out of a hat.

I haven’t heard of Winkbed. I shopped a long time and was ready to purchase either a Saatva or something else I can’t remember online, but DH wouldn’t hear of buying a mattress he couldn’t try out before buying. Even with a 90-day tryout period, he just would not do it, and thought it was way too much trouble if we had to get someone to come back and pick it up. I somewhat agreed with him, but we really needed a new mattress pronto.

We ended up with a Tempur-pedic, the one with the cool breeze technology. We got the adjustable bed frame which we really like too. I have to say it is not hot (our mattress topper was hot) and so far a year later, we still love it. My back and hips like it. It was expensive, but DH didn't care he was so happy with it.

"motion transfer" - that's the phrase I couldn't come up with, thank you : ) . No motion transfer at all, no sagging or other movement of the contents, after three or so years. And our mattress (Costco Novaform Pearl) has been good for my husband who likes a softer mattress and for me, who prefers a firmer one.

I am leery of any "newish" company which inundates with advertising, because I feel like if they have a quality product the customers will find them pretty quickly. I sometimes feel the flood of advertising is to sell as many things as possible before the word gets out that the product is not as good as advertised.

I mail ordered a mattress for my guest room that has gotten good reviews from everyone who has slept on it - Zenhaven.

It's latex, made in USA, delivered and they haul your old mattress away, which really helped me out. The first queen they delivered was undersized; they cheerfully replaced it. I was very happy with customer service and the mattress.

I'll never buy anything but natural latex. You have to research though, because there's lots of companies scamming about what that means. I would not buy anything memory foam because of the off-gassing and toxins used to create it. And it's going to be toxic going into the landfill eventually.

Tried some Caspers at the mall today and they are thumbs down for me. Even the hybrids are too mushy with no edge support at all. They’re also more expensive than I thought. Next I’ll try tempurpedic. I slept on one at my brother’s house and it was comfy. I had a latex mattress as a kid and it was so nice, so I’ll have to look for those to try. I think I tried one at Bloomingdales when I was on my last mattress search. I’d also consider a latex topper for my current too hard mattress.

Someone just told me about this from the TODAY show:

4-ways-to-get-the-best-mattress-for-your-money

Some of those bed-n-abox aren’t half bad. I’m not sure about a king size but the smaller sizes are a great bang for your buck.

When we sold our last house we moved into my sons townhome while looking for the next purchase. Before we came he was renting out rooms and I didn’t want the existing mattress. I bought the one below and it’s still there in good condition. Reading some of the reviews though...there does not seem to be consistency. Guess we got a good one.

Nini, I said I would check back on my mattress and topper purchase up thread. It’s been several nights and so far so good. I can’t of course comment on longevity. It does seem to work well for both our needs though. We are both back and side sleepers with me needing a bit of give for bone sticky outy’s.