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Our expensive orthopaedic mattress has had it after 7 years - it's saggy and lumpy and causing me a lot of aches and pains. We tried to revive it with a lovely feather mattress-topper but sadly it seems it's beyond reviving.

Seems to me modern sprung mattresses are highly over-engineered, overpriced, and probably use a whole lot more energy and resources than they should, and I'd rather not buy a polyurethane foam one either. Our feather mattress is not thick enough to be comfortable on its own (on a board), and thicker ones get seriously expensive. Surely I should be able to get a good (green) night's sleep for less than a few hundred pounds! Any ideas?

No ideas other than spend a fortune sadly but I will watch this space with interest!

I do think it is worth paying the money for a really good quality mattress (and correct bed base to go with mattress, even more important!*) though - life with backache is no fun and a good night's sleep is so important.

* We made the mistake of buying a new mattress for an old bed base once and it stuffed the mattress in no time at all, so that was a load of money down the drain and a mistake we will not make again!

Maybe something like this could help squeeze a few more months out of your old mattress?

http://www.amazon.com/Mattress-Saving-R ... B000HHMASQ

HTH Kate

I worked in a bed shop years ago and we were sent to factories to see them made.

If I could afford it I would buy a Vispring or Relyon bed.
Mainly hand made with lots of natural materials. At the Vispring factory I still remember now seeing craftsmen sewing with a kneedle and thread.

It is not true, in my opinion, that for a bad back you need a hard bed. A lot of the cheap, really rubbish mattresses have the word 'ortho' on the labels but there is no correct usage of this term and the cheaper beds abuse it.

I'd go for a pocket sprung bed always, and would even buy second hand if the above makes were available.

Thanks guys.

I'm not sure that 'mattress medic' would help my particular problem, but it does give me another idea: how about a good quality airbed? 90% is air - can't get much greener than that! It uses a minimal amount of material (mostly heavy duty PVC), and an airbed would never sag or get lumpy, right? So as long as we don't do anything stupid like burst it, it could presumably last for a VERY long time.

The state-of-the-art airbeds here http://www.aerobed.co.uk/pages/product. ... e=Platinum have a five year guarantee and are tested up to 50 years continuous use! And for £140 (kingsize), they're pretty economical too.

What do you think?

Have camped on airbeds many a time and found them pretty comfortable.

Only thing is that they get a bit sweaty. A couple of thick cotton undersheets would help but basically there is nowhere for the perspiration to go and we sweat a lot during the night apparently. Can't remember how much.

Aboiut a pint per night, for a normal adult (who's normal? Hands up... )

MW

I think the problem in the UK is that even if you buy an organic mattress it will still have been sprayed with flame retardants, which are deeply nasty indeed for the environment and yourself. I'd love to be proven wrong about this as I'm leaving my Spanish Ikea organic mattress here when I move and will have to buy another, in the UK (even companies like Ikea who sell the same products everywhere have to treat mattresses according to a particular country´s law, so my Spanish one is unsprayed buying the same thing in the UK will be covered in chemicals). I guess you could try finding something secondhand but little used, at least it will have done some of the off-gassing.

http://www.graigfarm.co.uk/organic_bedd ... Mattresses

This might interest both of you.