Grassroots adjusted bed

First does grassroots just mean el-cheapo or does it mean done cheaply with ingenuity?

I'm hoping for the latter.

My wife and I have been hunting for a cool (as in temperature) mattress. We are so tired of sleeping on a hot bed.

The Tempurpedics and other memory foam mattresses are absolutely unbearable (they need heat to work properly so they soak it up) and they leave this giant cavern in the bed so that when you need to try to find a cool spot you almost need to mountain climb out and you can't find another comfortable spot till that one finally returns to near normal. BIG pain.

All the innerspring mattresses seem to sleep hot as well, but Serta (I believe) just came out with a gel mattress. OK, only the top 3-4" are gel but they claim it is the coolest sleeping mattress. It definitely feels cooler for the few minutes we've laid on one. We think that's what we will ultimately buy, but we're still looking.

Now for the grassroots part. We've also wanted an adjustable bed for quite some time and while looking at adjustable bases I realized that several of them were no more than 2 arms that raised or lowered the head or the knee area of the mattress. We also realized that no matter how many times we tried them out we always settled into 2 basic configurations so I decided to see if I could save myself about $1,600 and just make a support in the configuration we liked the best.

I took a 2- 2x6"s and a 2x4" and put them together in a U shape with one 2x6" stood up, one 2x6" on it's side and the 2x4" as the other side of the U. This makes the leading edge of the U taller than the trailing edge.

Then I took 2- 2x4"s and made them in an L shape.

I put the 2x6" contraption under the head of the bed and put the 2x4"s under the knee area (in the L shaped configuration, not in an inverted V configuration, although that would be an option also)- VOILA! Instant adjustment that puts the head higher than the legs (good for acid reflux) and was extremely comfortable.

(EDIT: basically all I did was raise the bed the width of 2x6" and raise my knees by the width of a 2x4". The rest of the work was to make the boards stay on their edge instead of falling over and to give the mattress some support in the transition stage.)

WE'VE NEVER SLEPT BETTER!

The only time either of us moves is, predictably, when the mattress gets too hot.

It also isn't adjusted upwards so much that we can't sleep on our sides.

A few days later I crawled under the bed and saw a small gap between the mattress and the frame about 8" "south" of the head piece so I added a flat layer of 1x4". I don't know if it needs it, but it does support it a little better.

I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before. This has bought some time before we need to buy a new mattress and we see how this works out long term. That lets us shop for a sale and could save us more money on top of the cost of the adjustable base.

congrads on the ingenuity.

great idea!

what you need is to combine this thread with the DIY Cool-Shirt thread that was around recently and run some cooling coils through your mattress...

peter wrote: what you need is to combine this thread with the DIY Cool-Shirt thread that was around recently and run some cooling coils through your mattress...

I like the way you think!!

The cool shirt I owned would have been very uncomfortable to sleep on which means I probably couldn't just make a cool shirt topper and if I cut into the mattress to put the tubes in the topper I'd have to figure out a way to sew it back up.. . . . . . . hmmmmm

I'm sure there's an idea in here someplace and I could try it on this mattress and if it doesn't work I'm going to buy another mattress anyway.............

My son came over to visit last night and we are out to the shop to make him a set of "uprights" for him to take home with him.

Additionally all this time I've thought you needed a special mattress for an adjustable bed but when I've been shopping this time and was looking for the special adjustable mattress I was told they just used regular mattresses.

nice... (edit... facepalm for me not reading your last post lol)

one thing we found made a huge difference in how we slept (and part of that was temps) was SHEETS... some good high thread count Egyptian cotton and we slept so much better...

as for really cooling down a bed I wonder if anyone has ever tried something along the lines of radiant heat/cooled floors or the cooling cloths for racing... capillary tubes run under the surface of the mattress... then run a cool (or warm) liquid though... I know we've used electric blankets under the sheets in the winter and temps are nice but that wire isn't comfy on pressure points and it's not good for the blanket (not supposed to lay on it as it eventually brakes the internal wire and it stops working)

fun :)

Ceiling fans keep everything much cooler IMHO.

but they don't keep your body heat from soaking the bed you're laying in... sorta like while driving a car... even with the a/c on or the windows down the backside can get sweaty and warm.

I recall seeing a fan that fits at the end of the bed and blows under the flat sheet/blankets to keep you cool but still under a blanket...

My folks have several old adjustable twin-sized hospital beds. They are old-school manual crank ones my Dad bought at an auction somewhere. Make one bigger unit out of two and save big? Bet you can find some locally if you look around.

I've often wondered about the "inner spring" portion of the mattress and why it wasn't ventilated. Couple of holes in the sides and a fan and you could warm the mattress if it's cold or cool it when it's hot.

There is a mattress that has cooling cells built into it along with a heating and cooling fan system that sits under the mattress. It's very firm and uncomfortable. It also has just about the same sweet spot as does the Sleep Number air mattress bed. In other words there's only one place on the mattress you can sleep.

Interestingly if you do a search on cool mattresses almost every post tells you to cool the room down or add a ceiling fan as the only solution. We do both already.

Talked to my wife about the cool shirt idea and while she liked it in concept, she said we'd have to basically disassemble the whole top side of the mattress and she doesn't know how we'd get it back together.

What about a water bed? Then you wouldn't have the adjust ability. I would think that any sort of grassroots active cooling in the mattress might increase the odds of mold/mildew in the fabric. So if you air conditioned the room down to super cool, you'd still get uncomfortable heat from the mattress? Just curious.

I've never had a water bed, but I have slept on a couple a long, long time ago. Water slosh and getting in and out were big issues back then. Have they changed?

Just the name water bed now sounds so sleazy based upon all those 70's movies. I've been called sleazy before I guess I don't really mind. I couldn't elevate the head in a water bed and I'd have to totally rebuild my bed frame to make it fit around one - getting rid of the bed isn't an option. I built it 15 years ago and my wife loves it.

Gonna put up my disco ball, pull out the bell bottoms and do a little waterbed shopping to see if they still exist and in what form.

And yes the temp issues have more to do with accumulated heat in the mattress itself rather than the temp of the air. Cooling the room down just delays the inevitable.

carguy123 wrote: I've never had a water bed, but I have slept on a couple a long, long time ago. Water slosh and getting in and out were big issues back then. Have they changed? Just the name water bed now sounds so sleazy based upon all those 70's movies. I've been called sleazy before I guess I don't really mind. I couldn't elevate the head in a water bed and I'd have to totally rebuild my bed frame to make it fit around one - getting rid of the bed isn't an option. I built it 15 years ago and my wife loves it. Gonna put up my disco ball, pull out the bell bottoms and do a little waterbed shopping to see if they still exist and in what form. And yes the temp issues have more to do with accumulated heat in the mattress itself rather than the temp of the air. Cooling the room down just delays the inevitable.

Skip the waterbed.

wow... heat build up in the mattress... I don't use air conditioning unless it gets above 100F... never had a problem with my mattress getting too hot. Granted, I also use the highest thread count Egyption cotton sheets I could find too..

I use the really good sheets as well and while they feel more comfortable I don't find they , nor would I expect them to, do anything about heat build up.

BTW do a little googling and you'll find it's one of the most common issues with mattresses, especially ones with memory foam in them or the topper.

I knew it was a problem with latex and memory foam. Didn't think it was huge issue with traditional mattresses. Wondering if that egg crate foam material might flow enough air to give some relief. Fortunately, my wife's feet are often like ice itself, so that keeps thing cool for us.

Your mention of a foam topper makes me wonder if there is a fiber-fill type topper that could be added to a foam mattress. That is, you can add a foam topper to a traditional mattress but can you add a traditional bed style topper to a foam mattress?

makes sense.. they need heat to work.. therefor they are going to absorb it

Some foams do not hold the heat in. Memory foam does, but latexes are considered cooler sleeping, but there are several latexes.

The gel infused foam and the gel pads appear to be the coolest, at least when you first lay down on them. I've only stayed on one about 15 minutes, which seems like a long time when you are in a store, but they didn't get as hot as others.

Many mattresses are doing foam shapes to let air move within the mattress to help address this problem.

Also a traditional foam mattress is supposed to be the very best for people who sleep on their sides.

mad_machine wrote: wow... heat build up in the mattress... I don't use air conditioning unless it gets above 100F... never had a problem with my mattress getting too hot.

Sounds like you have a high heat tolerance to begin with.

You knew it had to happen sometime, after all, this is a mattress thread.

Our bedroom is the upper floor of an extension built on to the main house. It and the shop downstairs share HVAC - electric forced air AC/heat pump which is in a closet in the shop.

The shop always seemed a little humid; upon investigation it was revealed the condensate drain from the AC was routed to a sump pit ~in the closet~. Where presumably it vaporized and reentered the air in that wing of the house.

I bought a 50 pint dehumidifier and a condensate pump into which the condenser coil and dehumidifier discharge. It in turn discharges outdoors through the wall.

The shop is dry and free of musty odor. The big bonus is the AC works much better due to having less moisture to remove from the air.

Where this is pertinent to the thread is that the bed is cool and crisp and I've never slept better. It's actively good feeling. Getting up in the AM is painful it feels so good.

So - for a cool bed get some dry air.

Waterbeds are much cooler in the summer, they act as a heat sink at night and re-cool all day. But we sold ours when my wife was pregnant, for fairly obvious reasons. We purchased a mattress a few years ago that has a wool padded pillow-top. Warmer in the winter AND cooler in the summer than a foam padded innerspring.

For those looking for a mattress here's something I found.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/08/02/savings-experiment-how-to-save-money-on-a-mattress/?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl5|sec1_lnk3|220857

"Also, be sure to tap seasonal sales. Mattress discounts jump during patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, Karin Mahoney, director of communications for the International Sleep Products Association, tells DailyFinance. You can shave several hundred dollars off the mattress price during these red-white-and-blue sales, she says."

as a kid though my teen years I had a water bed and it def made life nice as far as bed temps... the water was an awesome heat sink... also work well for heating up the bed when the house is cold.

kept me nice and cool at night... but to share a water bed with another person is miserable in my experience... although my 'rents liked them and my in-laws just finally got rid of theirs as they didnt feel like moving it again.