Hello maycookies. I am just wandering in from the Tree Forum. Sorry for the slow response. It is VERY DIFFICULT even for someone in the industry to buy a mattress online. Where I work we sell various models of memory foam and they all feel different! Driftaway just might be a great company. Thing is you are buying a feel item. Go to a local store and lay on some mattresses. Not all memory foam feels the same. Too many variables for a several hundred dollar purchase.

The same thing happened to me yesterday. Similar gap at the foot of the bed. When I rang the store they tried to bully me into accepting that this was standard and that the doona (some call it a duvet, it's doona in Australia) would hang over and fill the gap. Well, for the doona to do this on the 35 cm thick mattress, it would have to be 2.2 metres long and standard doonas are barely two metres long. One kind salesperson suggested that their handyman could shorten the rails for me, which I originally thought would solve the problem, but then I was told by someone else that that sort of work is not in his duty statement and legal action could arise if anything happened when he was doing a job he was not supposed to. Tomorrow I will spend an hour dissembling the bed, shortening the side rails, shifting the connecting brackets along a couple of centimetres each end and then reassembling. A fairly simple job but the shop refused to take any responsibility. The man I spoke with even went so far as to try and tell me that he was doing me a big favour if he took the bed back and refunded me my money because I HAD CHANGED MY MIND!! What a bully! None of my friends will be going to "40 Winks" after this.

Tempurpedic, we have the model with dual air channels so it doesn't get hot (we tried the classic first and found it too hot). We also moved up to a king size so we have more space and that helps keep us cooler - our 3 cats like to share our bed too and its amazing how much warmth a little creature can produce! On traditional mattresses I used to wake up in pain - my hips were always bad, and often I'd have an arm asleep or something in the middle of the night. With this mattress I am comfortable the instant I get in bed and I wake up feeling good. I also love the fact that it doesn't transmit any movement, if DH fidgets or tosses and turns it doesn't bounce on my side. There is nothing to break down or sag - I have heard so many people unhappy with their pillow top after less than a year they get body impressions and feel like they are sleeping in a rut. So if you go traditional, it's better to get a separate mattress and topper so you can replace the topper more often.

Originally, it was the sleep number bed that I was interested in. My daughter and I stopped by their show room to check them out. I love shopping for big ticket items with her because she's great at seeing things that I don't. We both agreed that laying on it was ok, but it's basically an air mattress and at the end of the day, it felt like an air mattress. They aren't cheap and neither of us felt the price justified the means. Also a lot of the reviews I read were complaints about air leaking from the individual cylinders. I think we finally bought our mattress sight unseen out of desperation, understandably, it's not something everyone is willing to do. I would like to clarify that if you and your DH have the same sleep preferences and buy 3 or 4 layers without the cut down the middle, you will never be the wiser that there are layers. They're enclosed in a really wonderful zip up cover. When I strip the bed, it looks like any other non-pillow top mattress, you can't even see the zipper. On the other hand, if you buy one that has the layers cut down the middle (for individual customizing) it does slip a bit down the center. It doesn't happen all the time and we don't feel it when it does. Occasionally, when the bed is stripped, we'll unzip the cover and fix it. It's takes all of about 3 minutes to do and is not a big deal. Also, as people age, our bodies and needs change. I like having a variety of firmnesses for that reason. Just this morning, my DH was saying he thinks the configuration he has now is too firm, so we're going to switch the layers around tonight so it's less firm for him. Takes 10 minutes tops to do (including remaking the bed)...problem solved. Lastly, and it's just a thought, if you have a place that sells foam, you may want to call and see if they carry latex. If they do, they may have a sample out that you could try laying on. Our local foam store does because a lot of people in our area like to make their own latex beds, they even sell (cheap) covers for them. Here is the link to the store by us Foam Factory. They have 6 inch layers which is good. At the very least, they may be able to answer some general questions for you about the different foams and latex.