Hard men only (Futons)

Member Name: mmillmor

Product:	Futons
Date:	10/01/01 (638 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can give you a great nights sleep

Disadvantages: Not everyone gets on with them

I have three futons in my house and no normal mattresses. I love them. I have one futon on a normal bed base, one on a nice sofa bed base, and one on a cheap sofa bed base.

The cost of the bases varied from about 50 pounds to 200 pounds, but that has no relevance to the comfort of the bed once you are lying on it. The only differences in them are;

1) How nice does it look
2) How easy it is to get on to (my mother in law can not lie down on the low sofa bed ones, so can not stay with us).
3) How well constructed are they - i.e. how often can you put the sofa bed up and down before it breaks.

Obviously, in general you get what you pay for.

Now to the futon mattresses themselves. A futon is made up of layers of cotton, laid on top of each other, with an outer covering to keep them all together. Up to a certain limit, the more layers you have, the less of the bed underneath you can feel. I have 5, 7 and 8 layer mattresses. With the 5 layer, it does feel a little thin, and I would not recommend it for regular use, however the thinness does make it ideal for a sofa bed because it is easy to fold up in to the sofa shape. The 7 and 8 layer mattresses both are very comfortable, and nothing of the base underneath can be felt. These are only really suitable for a fixed frame or a sofa bed that does not bend too much because they are thick and more unwieldy (my 7 layer one is on a sofa bed that folds through 75 degrees down the middle to make a long sofa, rather than the thinner one which folds twice along it's width, requiring the mattress to fold through 180 degrees).

Now to the comfort. Many people who first try a futon say it is just like lying on a floor. They are indeed very firm. If you are used to a very soft mattress then this will be a real change. I spent many years in rented accommodation with mattresses weren’t fit to sleep on 10 years ago when they were first bought. These invariable sagged my bo
dy in to the most back aching positions, and I hated it. That is probably what turned me in to a futon fan - the contrast with those dreadful nights. As for the firmness of the mattress, the thicker ones do have some give in them, and they very easy to get used to. The same can not be said for the thinner ones. I would however recommend trying one before you buy - not everyone can get on with the firmness, but don't think that the cheap thin one in your friends spare room is anything like the more expensive thick ones. It's really quite different. Go lie down in your local shop and try it.

One final note on the care of futons, they do settle in to a shape where your body presses down on them. This is quite good because it fits your body shape, so you lie better, however it is firmer where is has settled. You are meant to turn your futon and give it a beating every now and again to plump it up like a pillow, but I don't tend to bother as much as I should. I like my body shaped dip in the mattress.

Summary: