I've been looking at matresses recently and the best advice I can give you is go and humiliate yourself in the showroom and lay on some. Just pokeing and proding a matress won't do you need to actually take your jacket off and lay on it for 5 minutes.
You back should be supported lightly by the mattress and your shoulders and butt should sink into it just a little. A good test of this is to lay on your back and to slide your hand (flat) under the small of your back, if your hand slides in to easily the mattress is probably too hard as your back isn't being supported, if your hand won't go in at all then the mattress is probably too soft and you are sinking too far in.
Its important that YOU try this and don't rely in the manufacturers rating of the mattress because a firm mattress will feel softer to me than to a very light person who won't make much impression on it.
There are three or four main types of mattress
Continiously sprung - these have an open bed of springs and padding over the top. Because the springs are woven together then the mattress isn't always responsive enough to individual parts of your body and if you sleep with a partner your weight may effect the contour of their side of the bed. Price range ~£50-500 (kingsize)
Pocket sprung - Imagine these like one of those toys with thousands of individual pins which will make an imprint of your hand. Pocket springs operate independantly and hence can respond to the contours of your body without effecting one another. These tend to be more expensive but the top beds are made in this way. The more springs the more finely the mattress can respond to your shape. You MUST MUST MUST test these if you are considering one, just pressing your hand on it will give a false impression of how soft they are, your have to lay on it, try on your back and your side for a minimum of 5 minutes ~£500-£5000 for a kingsive
Tempur - These are special foam mattresses made from a 'memory' material, they 'squidge' to your bodyshape supporting you everywhere, I found them very strange, coming from a continiously sprung mattress they feel almost too responsive filling every gap under you, almost like I would expect a waterbed to feel. When I got on one I felt like I was in that scene in Trainspotting where he sinks into the carpet! These are expensive ~£1000+ for a kingsize
Foam - These come in a variety of softness and react more like a continiously sprung mattress in my experience, they tend to deform around the indent you make as well as accomodate you. If the one you chose is too firm it will be like laying on concrete, too soft and you'll be sunk into it which won't do your back any good.
If you have a bad back don't be taken in by anything labeled back care or orthopedic, its a watch word for firm and they tend to be continiously sprung, we have one at the moment and I'm quite happy with it but firm doesn't mean it will be best for YOUR back.
We're pretty settled on a pocket sprung zip and lock superking set by Hammond, which is two mattresses which zip together to make one. This means we can have one in firm and one in extra firm to accomodate the weight difference between my wife and I and eliminate roll together (minimal with a pocket sprung anyway)
Test them
Spend the most you can afford
Your spend ~1/3 of your life in bed and a good sleep effect the rest of the 2/3rds
Go to an independant dealer who won't give you harsh looks for actually laying on the beds, places like Harveys and major retailer are just rubbish it this and hate to have the place made untidy, an independant will encourage you to try and explain the different technologies.
Hope that helps, enjoy your new bed
MB
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although i shouldn't skimp on that, gotta sleep on it!
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