#bed talk

Yeah, explicitly asking is very recommended. Most people won’t try to talk you out of one, their job is to make everything sound good and my prejudice is not universal.

Thank you for the bed advice in your FAQ!

I was wondering how to tell if a mattress is a "bed in a box" or not? Under the assumption that most mattresses will compact/roll for transport, so that doesn't seem like a feasible way to check, but not sure what else it'd be.

I'm in the UK so it may also just be a different term over here.

Thanks!

Okay so that is an incorrect assumption, if it rolls up, it’s a bed in a box. A non boxed bed physically cannot roll up, and they’re transported fully mattress sized in plastic bags.

I have just discovered that my existing one broke, probably a few months ago if the state of it is any indication, and I only bought it a year ago. So now I've had to buy a new one (not an ideal expense when I'll be getting an entirely new bed in three months when moving for university) and I don't want it to break quite so soon.

That’s Not Normal, and fun fact: Boxsprings almost all have warranties like beds do. They’re supposed to last like ten years. So it may be too late but I’d try to see about recouping some of the cost if you still have it to take pictures of.

I followed your guide and went to a mattress store instead of getting another box bed. And I fell in love with a cooling tempurpedic mattress and adjustable base. But now I'm worried I got upsold and fell for the hype?

I do deal with chronic insomnia, hot flashes, and pain so it seems like a good choice (the other one we were looking at is a Purple?)

Do you have thoughts on that set up? I feel like the reviews for tempurpedic are so varied online and I'm doubting myself now. Will the cooling still work after sheets are on? Do they really last as long as they say they will?

I have two days before I have to commit or lose the sale price.

https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-mattress-got-worse-on-purpose

So I just read this. Most of it is true-ish. Mattress retailers do change names of mattresses, and manufacturers have gotten really vague about coil gauge, coil density, and pound per square inch density of foam. However the examples they use for their confusion? It's a funny mistake to make because I literally have a High Point, Brenham, and Albany on my floor. Those are all the same name everywhere. And their comparison between High Point and Brenham is silly because those are two completely different bed constructions, hybrid versus innerspring.

Ultimately, this kind of bullshit is why I emphasize not doing what this person did. They literally said they had twenty tabs open and were trying to compare minutiae when they never say they went and laid on the beds. What's inside the bed is smoke and mirrors. How a bed feels under you is very real.

But the monopoly stuff? Oh yeah. There's some mega bullshit on that front and while I don't share my company for privacy reasons I'm definitely aware of allll the mattress drama.

What this article doesn't address, and I don't talk about, is that that's not the only way mattresses are getting worse. Like everything else we're being sold shittier products year over year. Since I started twelve years ago there's a definite shift in actual quality of materials versus ten years ago. Coil counts have gone down, foam quality is worse, and mattresses genuinely don't last as long as they used to.

The main beef I have with that article? All the beds they're touting instead. This person clearly has a hard on for latex but "natural" beds are just doing a different kind of marketing and their list is full of online-only bed-in-a-box. (I suspect someone is being paid to list those particular brands)

Which brings me to my last point. They got so caught up in the juicy monopoly story that they completely skipped over the way mattresses are actually worse that they were before and it's the fucking compression. Bed in a boxes have a laughable lifespan, it just benefits companies to sell them to you because they're easier to ship and you have to replace them so much more often.