Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A Good Night's Sleep

One of the things I've learned from watching GET IT SOLD is that kitchens and bathrooms sell homes, but beautiful bedding doesn't hurt.

I must admit, I love looking at catalogs that have sumptuous bedding.  But where do people put all those pillows at night?

I've been on a quest for a decent night sleep, and it's anything but beautiful.  I've got GERD--yup, acid reflux, and I've been in search of a good night's sleep for quite a while.  One of the suggestions is to elevate the head of the bed.  It worked for me.  For Mr. L--not so much.  In fact, it lasted two nights and down came the lifters.  (I suppose if we'd had a foot board it might've worked for him.  He kept sliding down the bed.)  So I bought a wedge pillow.  Worked for the GERD, but sleeping on that steep an angle put a lot of pressure on my hips.  (I sleep on my side(s).)

Next came the memory foam mattress topper.  My aunt told me she and my uncle get a good nights sleep since they bought a memory foam topper for their bed.  I was at my wit's end because it was to the point where I was sleeping in the leather chair with the weather channel on in the background and it was NOT working.

So I ordered a memory foam mattress topper.  First of all, it took three weeks to come.  When it came, the instructions said, "there will be a slight odor" and that you should unroll it and let it sit for several hours to dissipate.  Slight odor?  P.U.!!!  We let it sit for about five days before we could stand to be near it.  But finally I put it on the bed.  That sucker was HEAVY.  I needed help.

Our bed wasn't low to begin with, but once the topper was on it looked like a Princess and a Pea were likely to show up.  Our cat Chester started having jumping issues (which, seem to have cleared up) and we were worried he wouldn't make it onto the bed.

Commercials for memory foam mattresses show a glass of wine on one side of the bed and a kid jumping on the other and nothing disturbs the wineglass.  And it's true.  The only problem is, even with a couple of layers of bedding on the top, it's extremely difficult to turn over.  Therefore, you end up in one position for most of the night and -- guess what?  The very thing I bought it for (to relieve pressure on my hip) came right back.  (And the thing still had that "slight" odor, too.)

We lasted about three weeks with the topper and last night, even as supper was nearly done cooking, I decided it HAD to come off.  I went in there and wrenched the sheets, duvet and pillows off the bed and stripped it.  We tied the thing up and tossed it into our enclosed porch.

Goodbye Mr. $327 mistake.

Well, not really.  Our bed at our summer cottage is the lowest, most uncomfortable bed in the universe.  We're going to take Mr. Bed Topper there and see if it can live happily.  (Otherwise a new bed was on the shopping list anyway.)  If not . . . Well, trash pick up is on Tuesdays around here.

Meanwhile, last night I had the best night's sleep I had in a long, long, time.  I'm looking forward to tonight and hope to repeat it.

How about you?  What's your bed like?