[bluefoxicy]

Anyone using any non-western bedding or non-traditional bedding entirely?

I have a Soba pillow (buckwheat filled) in the traditional Japanese style.  It's made up tight, so the filling won't go directly to the corners when you apply pressure to the center (not a problem in cheap Wal-Mart cotton filled pillows, but trouble with loose filling).  I'm considering moving to a Japanese Shikibuton and building a nice tatami area to put it in.  The aesthetic will be calm, meditative--and surrounded by Shoji screens that hide shelving I'll use to store stuff, thus creating the illusion that I don't live in a garage.

Has anyone else skipped out on Mattress Discounters and gone and gotten something fancy and atypical of American style bedding?  Something contemporary, traditional, modern, debased from your local culture, debased from sanity?  A straw filled mattress made just like they did in the 1840s perhaps?

[EHall]

how does your back feel about non traditional bedding?

[bluefoxicy]

The pillow's nice but it's very firm and I immediately noticed my bed (a Sleepy's brand bed that cost me $800) was a lot more saggy than I thought  

I'm looking into the Shikibuton because it's (apparently) extremely firm, whereas my bed is ... firm.  With a pillow top.  But it seems to be much, much firmer at the 2 feet around the edge, and very ... odd ... lumpy? ... elsewhere.  It's 1 year old and I've turned the mattress now and then.

I used the pillow on the floor and that was actually nice.  Typically I never remain in the same sleeping position for more than 2 minutes.  I kind of coma'd; it worked out well.

Other stuff I've had is Wal-Mart cotton filled pillows; down pillows; very ... not-firm beds (bouncy springs!); Latex International rubber pillows (spoiler:  they suck)... when I was shopping, I tried the memory foam stuff (HATE, every time I tried to shift it was like a World's Strongest Man competition!  How do you escape that death trap in the morning?!).

I'll report on the Shikibuton when I pull that trigger, which is not yet; dropping my car loan from 10.71% to 2.61% first, aggressively paying down balance for the refinance as I want a lower payment.

[alikocho]

I have a custom made futon. It's square 6'6"

One of the most comfortable beds I ever slept on was in the guest house I stayed in in Delhi. The mattress was made of coir.

[euge]

I use the queen-size Coleman air-beds. Fantastic back-support. When one loses it's integrity I just buy another for $16. Pillows and sheets however are where the money gets spent. Nice ones. And a down comforter for the winter. I also built a light wooden frame for the mattress so it looks just like a regular bed at the proper height.

[bluefoxicy]

One of the most comfortable beds I ever slept on was in the guest house I stayed in in Delhi. The mattress was made of coir.

Interesting.  Stuffed with coir or was its cover woven coir?  Or both...

Cocona, Inc also makes a coconut shell based fabric but I've no comment on that or their process.  (I think it's just glorified activated charcoal as a marketing scheme)

I did air beds for a while, was nice for an apartment dweller...

[alikocho]

One of the most comfortable beds I ever slept on was in the guest house I stayed in in Delhi. The mattress was made of coir.

Interesting.  Stuffed with coir or was its cover woven coir?  Or both...

Stuffed with it. Cotton cover. Really supportive, and importantly not hot to sleep on.

[bluefoxicy]

One of the most comfortable beds I ever slept on was in the guest house I stayed in in Delhi. The mattress was made of coir.

Interesting.  Stuffed with coir or was its cover woven coir?  Or both...

Stuffed with it. Cotton cover. Really supportive, and importantly not hot to sleep on.

Ohh that IS important in India....

[1vertical]

Sleep straight 7-8 in my memory foam (12" thick) mattress. I hope I never
have to move the dang thing...king size and it do have a little heftiness.

[alikocho]

Sleep straight 7-8 in my memory foam (12" thick) mattress. I hope I never
have to move the dang thing...king size and it do have a little heftiness.

I once carried one of those up 2 flights of stairs. Took a lot of lifting.

[theoman]

We just ordered a cocomat: http://www.coco-mat.com/?i=coco_int.en.home

Freakin' expensive at a time when we can't really afford it, but we're sick of waking up in pain every morning. Hopefully it'll help.

My side will have the Atlas, my wife gets the Nefeli. They put them together in a single removable case. We'll have an Iviskos top mattress covering the whole thing.

[phillamb168]

We bought this before we moved to horrible-mattress-land: http://www.serta.com/Vera-Wang-Beds-by-Serta-luxury-designer-bridal-mattresses-mattress.html

Got it on discount, bought the king size. Last winter we went to Brussels and stayed in a "boutique 4-star hotel" and couldn't wait to get home to our mattress.. That's how good it is.

I'd really love to get a goose down mattress pad for the winter, or something along those lines. We only buy sheets 300 TC and higher, and I can tell a difference (we bought some cheap ikea sheets for a guest and slept on them once, so itchy). You can get them wayyyy cheaper than the dept. stores just by using amazon.

[Tim McManus]

http://www.bedinabox.com/

Bought a bed from these guys with the bamboo pad on top, probably the best mattress I've ever had, the price was right, and I never thought sleeping on bamboo would be comfortable.  However, they use the fibers form the plant, and they are very, very strong and very comfortable.

I recommend them.

[ccarlson]

We got our bed and a foam pad from Costco. I sleep like a baby.

[bluefoxicy]

Geeze, bamboo, coconut, foam, there's a lot of different types of bedding out there.

I seem to recall a few dedicated hammock sleepers in this world, too.