That Sinking Feeling: What Causes A Sagging Mattress?

Can You Repair A Sagging Mattress that Sinks in the Middle?

Here in St. Louis we have a saying in the mattress business, craters belong on the moon, not on the surface of your mattress. We don’t like sagging mattresses.

After all, when you climb into your bed, shouldn’t the main features be comfort and support? Who wants to feel like they’re sleeping in a deep trough?

If you’re getting a hollow feel or indentation in the mattress surface, you’re not alone. Have you considered the idea to ditch the trench or perhaps try to fix the problem?

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There are a few things to take into consideration:

• How old is the mattress?
• Does your sleep system have adequate support?
• Are you using it with the proper box spring, foundation, or platform?
• Is the mattress being regularly cared for and serviced?

We’ll explain each of these – let’s dig in.

What Are The Most Common Reasons For An Indention In A Mattress?

People often describe sagging mattresses as a feeling of sinking in the middle, but the middle of what? Mattress sag is one of today’s most common complaints and sags appear in many places. This dipping can take place in one of a couple spots. The most common sagging is a result of larger sized people, couples, and poorly built mattress sets.

1) Sags Directly Where You Sleep

The first location to top the list of sag spots is located directly where we sleep. It is true, those who stay on their respective sides of the bed and don’t move around a lot, tend to end up sleeping in what we like to call the nest of bed materials. The feeling is most prominent directly under the upper torso located between our shoulders to our buttocks. The constant daily use of 6-8 hours a night accelerates the compression of padding  layers and the wearing out and fatigue of steel coil springs.

2) Sags In The Middle

The second spot is uncomfortable cavitation that is located directly in the middle of the bed where the notorious bed hogs drift and couples’ spoon or snuggle. These sags on the mattress’s surface develop because we are creatures of habit, and when the combined weight of the couple is constantly concentrated in the exact same spot, issues begin to develop. The result is the loss of firmness, support, and resiliency. Improper mattress support is the major factor that robs your bed of a long life. This lack of support can come from bad boxsprings and bed frames that are not up to snuff.

Additionally, this lack of support makes your bed feel like you are rolling towards your partner and falling into a hole. If you’re not fed up and annoyed with these issues you should be.  This lack of support that causes cavitations fails to give us much need support and disrupts important restorative sleep cycles that our bodies must go through on a nightly basis for healthy restorative sleep.

Is There Something I Can Do To Slow Down, Stop Or Prevent The Sagging?

Yes! You can regularly rotate and flip a mattress over to both slow down and even out the wearing process of a beds’ sleeping surface. It is very unfortunate, but the typical mattress is not built to last 10-20 years anymore like some of us experienced in past years. 6-8 years of comfort and support is much more likely these days, even for the better-known brand name mattresses.

Premature sinking can be minimized with regular flipping. Unfortunately, most mattresses today are what we call “no flip” and cannot be turned over in order to utilize both the top and bottom sides. What makes the problem worse is that some mattresses go so far to call themselves “never turn” mattresses which is yet another piece of a monumental and expensive problem.

These two designs fail to recognize that mattresses need both regular rotation head to toe and to be flipped over on a quarterly basis to slow down the problematic issues of upholstery settling. Today’s mattresses are much different from those of the past and have gotten much thicker and include many more comfort layers that are prone to deep holes and valleys with daily use. These layers are made from low-grade foam and polyester fiber and include less total steel; all of which are just additional contributing factors to the sinking of our mattresses.

Culprit: Improper Center Support

Another culprit that robs mattresses of life and causes them to fail quickly in the middle is a lack of adequate support. Proper center support of your mattress and boxspring is required by every brand and is a warranty responsibility that you must fulfill should you ever exercise a claim for a sinking in mattress.

Queen and king-sized mattresses being larger, wider and having more weight must have a center support built into the metal frame or added to a wooden bed. Adding this kind of support is low cost and easy, not adding it is an expense and risky chance to take. Without the necessary support the resulting problem, is a permanent body impression or indentation.

Culprit: Broken Box Or Boxsprings And Platform Beds

Despite its name, most boxsprings don’t include a single spring. In fact, they are often no more than stiff metal supports or a wooden box that forms a platform of support. This supporting surface elevates the mattress and gets it off the floor while at the same time provides a decking that keeps the mattress from falling through a standard metal bed frame.

NOTE: If there is damage such as a broken support or bent steel, the mattress will sink where said damage has occurred.

If you have a platform bed you usually do not need a box spring and the chances are you have plenty of support under your mattress. We do suggest that you confirm this by making certain that the cross slats have a couple supportive legs in the middle. These will need to reach the ground and will help keep the steel or wooden slats from bowing.

The Sinking Problem – What Can I Do?

The body impression problem is a real one and it is my opinion that the industry talks out of both sides of its mouth. They advertise no flipping necessary. They even say that you never have to turn it, but when problems like were talking about arise, the very first question they ask you is if you have flipped over or rotated your mattress. Remember, rotating helps with even wear, but flipping quite frankly isn’t even possible with most mattresses being sold today since nearly all are built with only one usable side.

While all mattresses will eventually wear out, fail, or simply lose comfort, it is very important take note that with proper care, the right metal frame or good box spring is going to provide much needed support under your mattress. You can save money and protect your investment for many years to come by simply doing your homework and picking a good quality mattress.

Beds are costly, we can neglect them, or we can take care of them giving them loving protective and proper maintenance throughout their life. Taking advantage of our tips and providing the right kind of upkeep and preventative maintenance is easy and very low cost. It not only defends your investment but should keep you and yours from feeling trapped in a crater on the surface of the moon.