Request for advice, please! I…

Request for advice, please!

I had a hugely expensive, cotton covered Hypnos bed: the mattress was like sleeping on the floor and it aggravated by chronic back problem, so I got rid of it. I have a Sealy mattress: the mattress started off well for about a year, but now dips at hip level, plus it’s hot. I have a King Sized bed for just me, and sleep on the left half, (I spreadeagle when hot, hence such a big bed!) so a no-turn mattress just ends up with two dips, one per rotation, ie diagonally opposite each other. A turnable mattress would give 4 areas to convert into dips, therefore doubling the life of the mattress, but would be difficult to turn alone. The Sealy mattress has a memory foam pad on top, which is very hot. My physio says I should go for medium/firm. The foam part of my Sealy is too hot. As with many ‘ladies of a certain age’, being boiling hot at night is a problem!

I have a chronic lower back problem – both soft and hard mattresses aggravate it. I’d also want one with good hand holds – not bare sides. I have a spare single bed with a Flexcell 700 mattress and found it really comfortable when I tried it for a few nights, but that quite surprised me. I also used to have a futon sofabed and swore it was the most comfortable thing I’d ever slept on – pretty solid, not much give, but it seemed to support everything wonderfully. It was the ‘old’ kind – just seemed to be filled with shredded woolly material and paper layers!

It was seriously heavy, though, and I wouldn’t be able to move one like that now on my own, even if they were still made. Finally, I have a fitted king size electric blanket and opinion seems to be divided 50:50 about whether you can use an electric blanket with a memory, or indeed any, foam mattress. I like to get into a warm bed, but then switch it off. I wonder if you can recommend my perfect mattress?

I’ve spent so much money on expensive ones, that I’m wary now of parting with my money. I’ve made two huge mistakes and want to be really sure before I try for a third time. By the way, trying a mattress in a shop is no use for me: I need to sleep on it all night to see whether I wake up in the morning with a ‘good’ back or a ‘bad’ back. All the different websites offer such convincing advice. As you change from reading one to reading another, you end up totally confused. .