Right after I graduated from college I splurged and bought a brand new mattress during the big Labor Day Sale. I spent three hundred dollars on it and at the time it was a huge purchase… I felt like such a grown up buying something as functional as a mattress!
It was a great mattress but after 8 years of myself and the hubby sleeping on it the poor thing is fairly worn out. I could probably get a few more years out of it but our last rental had a terrible flea problem. Yuck! Even with the sprays and the potions keeping fleas off our animals was a nightmare… and I just don’t have the heart to keep them off the bed.
Which means fleas in our mattress… double yuck. So it has to go. Now that I’m moving into a new house I don’t want to take the fleas from the old house into the new house… so new bed time!
UPDATE: since this sleep number bed has an adjustable base it’s the perfect companion for my antique cast iron bed frame… so I’ve update the frame for my new house! Check out the full tutorial here!
I was looking at another $300 mattress when my Mom suggested I check out Sleep Number. I’ve heard of them before (who hasn’t) but never really thought about purchasing one… they’re a tad bit expensive for my taste.
Of course, after injuring several nerves in my back during my cheerleading days I haven’t had a single morning where I didn’t wake up in pain. So spending a bit of money for a restful nights sleep seemed appropriate. Plus ever since my hubby passed away I have had a horrible time sleeping and my Mom’s hard as a rock guest bed wasn’t helping.
Someone gave it to her back in the 90’s… and it was given to them. Yikes.
So we hit the Sleep Number Store.
Kip (the store manager) walked us through a delightful little demonstration… it was very interesting and helped us (my Mom and I) find our sleep numbers. You can see on the little display how it reads your pressure points. The left side of the display is with the bed at a 100… basically a typical bed.
Of course, reading it like a topographic map the red parts are the areas of my body that receive the most pressure… and typically hurt like hell in the morning. I was laying on my back for these readings so you can see exactly how big the readings make my butt look. Score!
Once Kip started lowering the sleep number you could see the red turn to orange and then disappear into the yellow color that means there were no longer any pressure points. Unfortunately my butt is still the same size.
Darn.
We played around with the sleep number until we decided I was somewhere around a 35 and Mom was somewhere around a 70… she likes a harder mattress while I want to sleep on a cloud! While the number in the store felt great I’ve been told that it’s typically a good starting point and your real number will probably be about 10 points higher or lower.
I’ve settled at a 25 since I purchased my bed and so far I LOVE IT! I was not compensated for this post in any way shape or form… and I paid for my mattress all on my own (thank you very much!) so when I say I LOVE IT… I really mean it. I haven’t woken up in pain for the last month and a half so I am absolutely thrilled!
Of course, Mom still hasn’t pulled the trigger to buy her own sleep number bed but I think she will one day. She’s been seen sneaking into my room to lay on my bed in the meantime… just like the animals.
BSN (before sleep number) my yorkie Bitty and my older cat Lily would often lay on the bed while I worked but ever since I had the sleep number installed Mom’s dogs Peach and Daisy have been joining them for long snoozes. If you can’t find any of the animals just check my room… they’re probably on the bed.
I mean look at them!
Don’t worry y’all, I did remember to snap a picture of Kip… just in case any of you in the Dothan area decide you need a sleep number bed!
If you’re not in Dothan you can order a bed online. Of course, you don’t get the laying-on-all-the-beds-trying-all-the-things experience but convenience is half the battle! I decided to go with the p6 model with the 3rd tier base.
Which basically means my mattress isn’t the lowest (c1) or the highest model (i10) and my base comes with the frame (tier 1) raises the head (tier 2) and raises the foot (tier 3). I chose to forego the fantasy sweet and stay in my individual room… without the headed foot panel which is tier 4.
Alright so here’s the best part… getting rid of that nasty old guest room mattress to replace it with my pretty new mattress! This poor mattress only lasted about 3 hours before it was swept away to torture someone else… those poor people. Of course, when you don’t have a mattress a free bed is still a free bed!
My new mattress was delivered by two sleep number guys who were absolutely a hoot. They kept asking questions about the blog and did not understand that I am a blogger and not a photographer! Maybe my cameras being out confused them? Or that I was taking pictures??
I’m not sure why a professional photographer would take pictures of two dudes installing a bed though. They usually take beautiful portraits or landscapes… cute kids playing with lambs not dudes installing beds!
Bitty and Daisy were locked away behind the hallway door (so that they didn’t get underfoot) and these girls were absolutely fascinated by the whole process. It didn’t help that they were putting air into the two air chambers right in front of the door!
Not to get all technical but Kip explained that this bed has 18 chambers filled with air and it changes your sleep number by filling or releasing air from those chambers. Even after you select your sleep number it responds to changes in your movement (like switching from your side to your back) and changes accordingly to relieve pressure points.
But it still doesn’t make my butt any smaller… the person who invents a bed with that little feature will get all my money.
The overall process of putting the bed together was not quick but it was fairly simple. Mom and I learned all the fun steps when we put my new bed skirt on so I’ll be sharing a step by step process of putting this baby together and taking it apart in the near future.
It’s not half as scary as it seemed when the dudes were putting it together.
And that’s it! The bed was installed about a month, month and a half ago and I absolutely love it! I sleep with the top of the bed up a bit so that I can use less pillows (I don’t like to sleep absolutely flat and as you can see… I already have a lot of pillows!). I like to put the foot of the bed up in the evenings for about half an hour and that helps my ankles from getting so swollen and upset with me.
Overall I love love love my bed and totally recommend it for anyone looking for a new mattress.
Sleep well my friends, sleep well.
