I'm not a big Amazon reviewer, but I spent so much time reading mattress reviews before I bought the Sleep Innovations 12" Queen mattress that I felt I should contribute to the discussion as there seems to be a disproportionate number of wholly positive reviews on here. I am trying, hope against hope, to fall in love with this mattress, but it's hard. It's hard as in difficult and it's hard as in I have nicknamed the mattress "The Marble Slab" because this thing is more a morgue table than it is a bed. Background I had the same, crapsterella, full-size, basic spring mattress from Serta for 16 years. That's way too long to keep a bed. I know this. I purchased a $200 mattress topper from Bed, Bath & Beyond in order to "extend the life of it" (really, it should have been put out of its misery a decade ago). The topper did make the bed heavenly soft, but I also found myself sleeping at the bottom of a crevasse and having to claw my way out--the topper had no support. I threw my back out after a lifetime of not a single backache (It can happen to you! Stretch! I'm young and active and one day it just went and oh my goodness). Climbing out of the mattress topper was horrible for my back and I decided it was time to buy a new bed. Since I hadn't bought a bed since the Clinton administration, I was delighted to find bed technology had made some technological strides for the better. I had stayed at a friend's home for a month and never slept better; he informed me that his bed was "one of those memory foam ones" and I went on my quest. I went to a midtown NYC Sleepy's and risked catching a social disease lying on their filthy Tempurpedics and latex/foam combos and foam/spring melanges and determined that yes I loved the foam and no I could not pay $2000+ for a new mattress. I turned to Amazon and the overwhelming number of great reviews for Sleep Innovations finally got me (I also explored Bobopedic, Angel Beds, etc.). I had the thing delivered to my NYC apartment. As others have said a million times, the box is small, the thing weighs about 100 lbs., there is no way on earth you are going to get this upstairs if you are a weak-limbed girl with a back problem. My gym-buffed 6'3" friend pushed it up the one flight with difficulty. Unpacking it was a breeze, there was really no smell, I was psyched to have invested in perhaps the World's Most Praised Mattress. Onward to sleeping. PROS If you've been sleeping on a busted old mattress with a busted old boxspring and a ridiculous memory foam topper that only makes things worse, things are looking up when you first lie on the Sleep Innovations mattress. It's flat. It's firm. -You are not going to roll around a lot. Which is a good thing, because you do sleep more soundly. So soundly you are going to maybe wake up in a little pool of your own drool because you haven't moved a muscle. -It's firm. If you need back support, which I do, you aren't going to worry that you're sleeping on too soft a pillow-top or you're doing bad things for your spine. This thing is supportive. -It's high. I like a high bed. I have it on a boxspring (that weird one people say to get on here that you put together yourself is really a decent boxspring, I've clearly been listening to Amazon reviews) and so it's about 20" high from the ground with a bed frame. This is good for getting up with your bad back, as there are no springs to launch you out of bed. -You can sit on the edge and put your shoes on. I've heard there are foam mattresses that have no edge support. With a mattress this hard, that's no problem. -There are occasional nights of good, maybe great, sleep. You will go to your brother's house and sleep on a normal mattress, one you have slept on for years and used to think was a little hard, and think "This is too soft! Beds are not supposed to be this soft and springy, this is not good for my back." You are probably right, but it's a matter of degrees. CONS OK, listen to me. I'm a picky sleeper, but not that picky. As in I sleep well in most hotel beds that pride themselves on comfort (W, Westin, etc.). I like a firm bed. I also thought, before I got this mattress, that I slept cold. -Listen to the people who say this mattress is hard. They are not kidding. They may be a tiny chorus that you're ignoring, as I did, needing to believe that this mattress is amazing and those people were a freakish minority, since every other review says this mattress is just right. I've given it time to get used to, and I am still kind of shocked each night at how hard this thing is. There is no burrowing down into your bed. There is no "oh my god my bed is so comfortable and cozy". There's a lot of "what the hell, I might as well be sleeping on the wood floor". -You won't toss and turn, it's true, but if you TRY to turn, good luck. You can't roll around on this mattress. If you need to roll over, you're going to have to push yourself up on your arm and physically flip yourself over. There's no give. There's no help from the mattress to roll over. If you like to turn to get to the cool side of the pillow, you're better off turning the pillow. Or getting over your need to get to the cool side, because there is no such thing as a cool side in this bed. Which brings me to... -I am not menopausal, but I believe I have now experienced the discomfiting experience of hot flashes, thanks to the blazing oven that is the Sleep Innovations mattress. Imagine a pizza stone in a wood-burning oven. You are the pizza. HOT! Hot bed! I turn the heat off and still roast away in this bed. I did research to find what on earth was going on since, as mentioned earlier, I tend to be cold when I sleep. I read that a wool mattress cover is going to turn down the heat on a hot foam mattress. Not true. It does give a scratchy, horsehair sort of feel to the bed, which is not pleasant, but it's not cooling it down. People say to get the memory foam topper, but I'm a little wary of the Amazon reviewers on here now, because I feel they've led me astray once before. Listen to me. This bed is warm. I'm a normal person and I'm sleeping in a drafty New York apartment in December with a summer quilt and it's too much blanket. Farewell, down duvet. I won't be needing you now that I've got a flaming mattress. How can we sleep while our beds are burning indeed. I am really trying to fall in love with this mattress. I so want it to be everything amazing that everyone else says on here. Anyone who lies on my bed or sleeps in it is shocked at how hard it is. I've heard a lot of "I could never sleep on that" and "That is not comfortable" and I feebly cry that it is great (the power of positive protesting!) and great for my back (less pain, but the bar was looow) and really quite a bargain (the price tag is amazing, I'll admit it, but there needs to be a happy medium). I had given the bed 3 stars, as I do sleep okay sometimes, but then changed it to two after I realized I don't have many good things to say about it. I think I like my bedframe (the Crate & Barrel Scholar Bed) and the fact that it's a queen more than I like anything about the mattress. I really want to be clear that this is a troublesome bed for this not-too-picky sleeper and encourage you to think twice before ignoring the critical reviews of the Sleep Innovations 12-inch Sure Temp Memory Foam Mattress - Queen Size.
