The importance of a good bed

Some facts

The average person will spend approximately 17 years of their life sleeping or resting in a bed. That equates to between one quarter and one fifth of their entire life. It therefore makes sense to place a lot of importance, and even some significant expenditure, on owning and sleeping on a good bed.

Unfortunately people rarely think of a bed and mattress in the right terms. We are all prepared to spend many thousands of pounds or dollars on purchasing a car, but when it comes to a bed, "cheap and cheerful" is the buying approach that many people take. Those same people then wonder why they have back ache, stiff necks and often much more serious back disorders in later life.

If you have never given any serious thought to the importance of a bed with regard to your health, then do so now. Also think about the cost in days, hours or minutes of use over the lifespan of a bed (e.g. 10 years of use and ownership). When you look at it in that light, even the most expensive bed will start to look like good value.

How long will a good bed last?

The manufacturers of many high quality (and also fairly high priced) beds will include a guarantee, a warranty, or both. Some of these warranties can even extend to 10 years although there will be conditions and, in the case of some fault characteristics like deflection, acceptable and unacceptable parameters. As an example, my own bed (costing £1750 (UK) or about $2500 (US)) had a 2 year money back guarantee and a 5 year repair or replacement warranty. Obviously, you hope that neither will be required, but they do offer some of peace of mind along with manufacturer confidence in the product.

How long a bed will last is dependant on the quality of the bed, the price of the bed and the amount and harshness of use. If the bed is in a spare room and used only occasionally it will last longer than a bed that is used daily by someone weighing 250 pounds. Even so, as a rough guide, most beds will start to see their performance drop after about 10 years.

Orthopedic versus standard

The term "orthopedic bed" is of course just that – a term. There is no definitive specification of what an orthopedic bed or mattress actually is, however this term is generally applied to higher quality beds where performance rather than budget is the determining factor. For this reason a bed described as orthopedic will normally be well made, cleverly designed and probably more expensive than non orthopedic beds.

Modern orthopedic beds can be firm beds, however these days they tend to have mattresses that adapt their shape to the body of the person sleeping on them. Many of these beds are made of visco elastic memory foam, latex foam, or pocket springs (with a high spring count). Some of the bed manufacturers also have beds that mix the different materials and constructions to produce clever composite beds that have a mattress that combines a base of pocket springs with a layer (or multiple layers) of memory or latex foam. Other materials like gel can be included in this multi-layer of sleep supporting materials.

So how do you choose the right bed?

All the guides (including this one) will tell you that the best and right way to do this is to try a bed out. In other words go to a store and lie down on a bed for at least 45 minutes and ideally considerably longer. By doing this you will get some idea of how the bed will really feel. Practically this is of course more of a challenge than it sounds. No bed company will object to you doing this (at least with an expensive bed), however you will start to feel like a bit of fool after 10 minutes or so. I speak from experience. The other problem is that you need to try out lots of beds and that means lots of time and lots of feeling like an idiot.

The reality is that by using a site like this you can educate yourself and narrow down the options. Maybe check out a memory foam bed versus a spring bed.

Does the memory foam bed feel snug and engulfing? or just restrictive and hot?

You will get an idea fairly quickly. This may enable you to dismiss one option, or to decide to explore a particular bed type further.

Ultimately, your final decision will be a bit of a gamble, but then again that is also the case when you buy a car, a TV or a book a holiday. However, as with all three of those items, if you opt for quality rather than budget you are far less likely to end up disappointed.