New Mattress

Sleep has not gone well for a few years.  Attempts at sleep hygiene falter.  I have improved the environment, keeping the temperature down in the summer, minimizing  distracting light, and discouraging though not eliminating those blue light emitting screens.  Since getting a big screen TV in My Space, I hardly ever watch TV in the bedroom.  Bedding needed to be changed.  I suspected that for a while, having bought a substantial mattress topper at Costco a number of years ago to salvage a sagging mattress.  It worked well for a long time but in recent  years I would again flop into bed.  My Space acquired a great recliner chair that proved more supportive and comfortable than my mattress with topper, as did every hotel mattress for a few years.

The mattress had to be replaced, so I included this among my semi-annual personal initiatives in the category of Major Purchase.  Now, not too big a purchase.  Since semi-annual goes from July through December, I started poking into furniture stores last summer.  Raymour & Flanigan, a major regional retailer, was rather helpful.  Prices seemed above what I wanted to spend and many options bumped up a box spring, which I didn't need.  At a trip to IKEA for dining chair replacement this summer, I casually looked at their mattresses.  The salespeople told me I could get mattress only, which brought the price to about what I wanted to spend.  Some brief sampling, then some higher end sampling at Boscov's.  IKEA won out.

I cannot just replace my mattress unilaterally.  My wife agreed to try out the IKEA offerings.  We settled on a firm option, a little above average in price, payed extra for delivery which saved us state sales tax and a small sum to review the old one.

It arrived on the specified date, brought in by two burly gentlemen from the Republic of Georgia with minimal English facility.  The men really struggled to get it upstairs, which surprised me since we have had bigger furniture that that placed in the bedrooms.  Eventually mission accomplished.  They took the old saggy mattress, leaving us with quite a lot of plastic and cardboard packing not included in the removal agreement to say nothing of scattered objects of whatever to clear the path that they needed to get the mattress upstairs.  My wife put on a protective pad, then made the bed and I flopped myself horizontal for a few minutes.  Easy to tell before and after.

IKEA allows a 100 night return policy.  At three nights it feels like a keeper.  I fall asleep more readily, feel more rested on awakening but the sleep pattern remains one of overnight awakening at about the same times as previously.  Have no idea where REM and non-REM sleep appear amid the usual three sessions of sleep.  I can now work on staying upright from the time of morning awakening until assigned bedtime, as cat-naps may be the barrier to a full night's sleep.  And I have the energy to do that after quite a long time of what is probably chronic sleep deprivation.  I'll know in a few weeks.