New Mattress Breaking Down or Breaking In?

New mattress owners, find the question interesting regarding New Mattresses Breaking in or Breaking Down?

We encourage you to go to websites like Yahoo Answers, What’s the Best Mattress, PennLive.com, The Mattress Expert, and various other places on the web. There you will read about people claiming to have trouble breaking in their new mattresses. Something we covered in a blog called How does a new mattress break in? On the flip side there is another large group of people asking the question why is their bed breaking down, sagging, and developing body impressions within months or even weeks, something else we discussed in There’s A Body in My Mattress! Needless to say the debate goes on.

So what is normal and what can I expect from my new bed? Does my new mattress need to break in or will it break down prematurely and develop body impressions? The fact is you should not be surprised if indentations develop over the first few weeks or months of your new mattress. Mattress manufacturers warn us in the warranty card we receive with our new beds that settling of the upholstery layers and materials are normal and should be expected. We agree and it is probably the one thing manufacturers are being honest with us about. The funny thing is we don’t pay attention and we keep buying these poorly constructed beds. The comfort layers made up in the design of our new mattresses is said to compress and that the performance of our new mattress will in fact improve.

Body impressions improve the mattresses feel?

Interestingly most mattress makers including the big brand names give notice of settling of the comfort materials to us in their warranty cards. They all disclose that it is not only normal but also likely for a new bed to develop up to a 1.5 to 2.0 inch body impression and will remain all the way through the life of the new mattress set. The warranty cards, manufacturers, and retailers say that it is not a warranty concern. Really…? Inch and a half holes in a mattress are comfortable, supportive, and they don’t make us feel like were sleeping on the edge of a hillside and they’re good for proper support?

Comfortable Liars

Believe me or believe them, I don’t find sagging mattresses comfortable. I personally believe we are all being shystered into believing settling of material or breaking down is a good thing with that said I’ll give you an analogy. Tires wear out and down because they are either poorly designed, under inflated, or the car is out of alignment. Tires wearing down are not good for handling, ride, traction, or safety. Like tires mattresses wearing down or breaking down prematurely are not good for our health, sleep, support, or comfort. At STL Beds we often say to people that we simulate mattresses to wearing a new pair of shoes all day. They will be comfortable at first but this new-found support can often be too much too fast and be a bit of a rude awaking for some and just like our feet our bodies need some time to adjust and get used to this brand new level of support.

Instead of breaking down my bed what can I do?

Some people make an effort to break down or break in their beds intentionally. It is a ludicrous idea but some are doing just that. Instead use a softer mattress topper or a thicker mattress pad it will add a little extra cushioning. Keep in mind this is not helping a new mattress break in rather its helping you adjust to a new mattress, a new mattress that either has more support than you are used to or was purchased too firm in the first place.