I have no write-up, so probably not a terribly interesting comment. But my wife and I decided to make our own 100% wool mattress several years ago by stitching together five italian officer blankets with wool batting sandwiched between each layer. By far the most comfortable mattress I've ever slept on. We've had it for maybe 5 years now I think.
Definitely on the firmer side, but it's like four inches of wool, so its got quite a bit of springiness to it.
As far as heat, we're of the opinion that wool is basically the ideal material. It is breathable, but it matches your body temperature and maintains it pretty well. It wicks the moisture away from you really well.
I don't know how exactly to compare it to other mattresses, but we keep our house at ~60F in the winter and we haven't been running AC in the summers, so our house has been up around 90F with high humidity. It is very comfortable across that whole spectrum.
If you've ever had a pair of high quality wool socks, it's kind of like that. They keep you warm in the winter and keep your feet comfortable and dry in the summer.
> we haven't been running AC in the summers, so our house has been up around 90F with high humidity. It is very comfortable across that whole spectrum.
Everyone is different, but I can’t imagine anything remotely comfortable about sleeping in 90° heat with high humidity. Having recently had to spend a few weeks “sleeping” (more like constant restlessness) in a bedroom in the lower 80s, that just sounds like hell.
It's mostly a matter of stubbornness. Plus your body can get used to a lot of things if you let it. Probably overnight it would get down to around 80F as well.
Today its about 65F, which is quite pleasant. I've found it makes me appreciate these days more.
We basically bought 5 Italian Officer blankets off Ebay (They are roughly the size of a queen bed), and then a bunch of wool batting from a website that sells pre-made wool mattresses, but also just bulk wool.
I think I looked into it recently and we spent something like $700 on materials.
But then you just put down the first blanket, lay down a layer of the batting (I don't remember for sure, but I think it maybe came in queen size bats already from where we bought it), and then repeat.
We stitched around the outsize with yarn using a baseball-style stitch to keep everything sort of fixed in place.
That is how it looked when we first made it, so its a bit more worn in by now. The reason it looks like there are only two layers is because of how we stitched it and how the excess batting was spilling out past the blankets a bit.
I've never tried to actually roll it, but you can fold it in half pretty easily. Folding it half again would probably be doable, but I think that's about as small as you would get it. Rolling it might work better, but I've never had a reason to I guess.
Wool mattress are actually really good. They are natural, breathe easy, no allergens and you don't need to clean it. You just air/shake it out once in a while.
I disagree. If you hang around The Mattress Underground, where lots of mattress aficionados and professional sellers post, you will quickly become aware that most beds are pretty mediocre and overpriced. There's lots of in-depth discussion on their internals, and it's pretty disappointing.
It's not surprising, as there's a lot of information asymmetry in the bed market. Customers don't have a good understanding of internals, and manufacturers deliberately augment confusion by producing under tons of sub-brands and models. Furthermore, at least in the US, sells are carried on a 1-by-1 basis where the salesman tries to extract buyer's reserve price.
I've spent a few years optimizing the core objects in my life, and my bed is for obvious reasons on the top of the list. To cut a long story short, I tested dozens of beds, bought a high end nordic bed (Hästens) and a natural latex one. Both were good. But, like the OP, I've eventually settled on a custom design. A very different one, though.
IMHO, the most healthy option is a thin soft core on top of a hard surface. I also prioritized natural and washable materials. I ended up with a pad made of felt wood panels on top of a modular wooden base. A huge unintended bonus of this design is how easy it is to pack and move around. I can disassemble and carry my bed effortlessly. It's also pretty cheap and durable. And I can disassemble it and put each pad in my washing machine!
A good heuristic is that most high quality items are custom made niche things. Either made by you or, usually, by specialized artisans or engineers. I've seen the internals of some beds costing a few grand. Not pretty. Laughable quality compared to the carefully felted panels I commissioned from a great mill. Same applies to industrial tees vs loopwheeled ones, or cheap plastic coats vs ventile. In the PC world, an equivalent would be some bad quality box with horrible thermal paste and mediocre cooling vs a custom Calyos build.
>A good heuristic is that most high quality items are custom made niche things. e.
See, I just don't think this is true. When you get something custom, you get to tune a lot more parameters than when you buy COTS, and if you know exactly what you want, and if that is different from what is generally available, that can be super valuable.
But usually, the more custom a thing is, the more likely it is to have quality issues. When you want a one-off, you usually pay either in terms of more money or worse quality control (often, as in the case of rare cars, both)
I mean, it can still be totally worth it, but if you buy a hand-built Ferarri because you think it will be more reliable than a mass-produced Toyota, you are likely going to be disappointed. (I mean, a hand built supercar has a lot of qualities... reliability tends to not be one of them.)
Did you explain your thoughts about the ideal mattress some time ago maybe? I'd say I already read those same arguments before and found them extremely interesting.
Mattresses are something we do totally wrong. We could have much more ergonomic designs that were also affordable, washable, less bulky and recyclable.
Great to see someone that took the time to do the research! If I may ask, what's your opinion of my DIY mattress? Mine just consists of two 12x100x200cm pieces of PU foam cut into a triangle shape (I live on a boat.) The 12cm thick PU foam rests on some wooden slats. The foam has 25kg/m3 density and 4kPa compressive strength, if that matters.
My girlfriend and I both find it very comfortable, and all the guests I've had also like it.
What do you think? Are there any hidden risks here that I'm not seeing, or reasons to evaluate the mattress on factors other than comfort? E.x. potential health risks (back problems???)
Sounds good to me. 12 cm is not very thick, so I assume it's quite firm yet comfortable enough to side-sleep?
I don't like foams too much because they tend to release VOCs. But I reckon that a boat might be more humid than a regular home, so it might be tricky to get other materials to work well except wool, horsehair or kapok.
Perhaps you could find a Hästens shop near you, walk there and try one of their 8 cm horsehair toppers (TM8) without a bed. Don't buy it. It's a good product but really insanely overpriced. It will give you a good idea of how a thin custom wool mattress will feel, though. These will compress a bit more than foam, but they also breathe more which might be an advantage during warm weather.
Are you Flemish or Dutch? If so, there should be a few shops close to you.
It's actually not firm at all! Very squishy. You do sink in slightly. You wouldn't be worried about back issues with something made entirely of soft foam? FWIW it's very comfortable night after night and I don't run into any back pain, but I'm still young, so maybe that'll take time to manifest itself? Back issues are my main worry.
And yes, boats are generally more humid than most homes - especially when left alone, they get extremely humid.
And yes, I am Dutch, I guess you could tell by my username :) I'll have to check out a Hastens sometime.
If you side sleep, I don't think you'll run into too much trouble. To be sure, lay on your side and ask someone to check your spine is straight. Your hips should sink in a bit, but not too much.
Else, if you are a back or tummy sleeper and it's squishy, you should try to switch to something more firm.
If what I suggested is too radical, try natural latex, which is quite firm.
A good entry point to the (pretty lacking) sleep ergonomics literature is:
I actually sleep on my back. Not that I don't believe you, but why should I try something firmer when I find this mattress to be very comfortable and never feel back pain? I assume that this causes a risk of future back pain - would you have any information about that specifically?
Did you read the article? Did you not notice the quality of this bed?
I mean, I don't mean to shit on the article. The article itself is awesome, and I love taking this hacker mindset to other aspects of our lives. And writing a good article about it flexes a different, valuable skill. But if I ordered a mattress from a company and got this, I'd be (justifiably) upset.
As I recall, there's a lot of sketchiness surrounding mattress sales, with manufacturers paying for fake reviews. Do you think The Mattress Underground is a good resource, considering this?
My intention wasn't to get it cheaper, it was to have the size and then features I wanted once I did some research. I could've found some dude to put a British emperor mattress on a boat for me but it would not have been as comfortable. I did reach out to some companies like purple that make a similarly structured mattress but none were able to make one 7'x7'.
My wife bought a cal king purple a few months ago and we love it. I was skeptical because it looked like memory foam but it isn't at all. I was also worried it would sag when you leaned over an edge since there was no special side support. But it doesn't sag at all which is a mystery to me.
the very notable difference is that when you make software for a company, you're creating something thats supposed to be used by other people and getting paid in return. if you sell someone a crappy homemade mattress, and charge them 4 weeks at $80/hr, you've basically committed fraud.
if I make a mattress, or a mug, or a shirt, or a skateboard for my own use and it turns out badly - i've learned something and probably enjoyed myself.
Bless this mindset. The internet would be a lot less interesting without the makers and their write-ups.