I've been suffering from a "mattress nightmare" since last June. My 15-year old Sterns-Foster mattress had, I thought, lived out it's warranty and needed to be replaced. So I found a new Sterns-Foster Extra Firm mattress at Macy's and had them pick up the old mattress. That's when the nightmare began.
The Extra Firm was too firm. So I went a couple of weeks with no mattress while I searched for a replacement at Macy's. I tried a Serta iComfort mattress with 'cool jell foam'. After two nights of sleeping on it, and each morning feeling like my legs had been bathed in menthol (which degenerated from a freezing cold sensation into a burning hot sensation), I returned that mattress. Then I went another couple of weeks without a mattress (luckily, my female partner of many years agreed to let me sleep at her house while I was searching for a new mattress). Macy's wasn't too happy about my getting yet a 3rd mattress, until I emphasized that I was going to have to sell the Serta on Craigslist. So, reluctantly, they agreed to a 3rd choice (with restocking and delivery fees).
The third time around I picked a Sterns-Foster Comfort Firm mattress. It seemed to feel fine at the showroom. But when I got it back to my house and slept on it for several nights, I was waking up each morning with a massive headache, respiratory distress, and profound upper GI tract upset. So, I got on the internet and did some research on memory foam. Various sites suggested 'airing out' the mattress for 20 days, letting the sun hit it, and allowing it to 'de-gas' its fumes. I tried that for a month, airing it out on my sunporch.
After a month, I tried it again. The same horrible physical reactions were there. I aired it out another month, and then tried sleeping on it -- the same hypersensitive reactions. Then I aired it out for two months. I tried it again, and still was profoundly ill the following morning. So, I called Macy's again. The main customer service reps refused to allow me to return the mattress. But I went to the Macy's corporate website and wrote them a plea. A manager called me, and in the process of the conversation agreed to take the mattress back and give me a refund, minus another restocking and pick-up fee. (At this point, I had laid out around $500 in restocking and delivery fees -- and not had a bed to sleep on at my house for 6 months -- and still didn't have a mattress that I could medically tolerate.)
So, I asked around, talked to friends, did some research online, to find a mattress that I might be able to tolerate. (I've got to tell you, all this time I was having very fond memories of my 15-year old non-memory foam Sterns-Foster mattress, wishing I had simply put a plywood board beneath it and kept it for another 15 years!) I tried one that is locally manufactured. After one night on it, I awoke the next day with a very weird sensation on my lower legs like they had been bathed in Ben-Gay. It was a 'freezing-burning' sensation, very painful. So, I called the local company and they agreed to take the mattress back, with a full refund and no delivery/pick-up charges. I talked to the manager; he said that while they used 'standard, regular, non-memory foam' material, they did use a poly-foam material. Most people were fine with it (some good friends had recommended it and they had had no problems for 10 years). But that a few people, mostly women, had had hypersensitive reactions.
So, that was three weeks ago. My legs still burn daily and/or feel like they are freezing -- some days I feel both sensations at various times of the day. I find that swimming in pool water at the gym cools them somewhat, but I'm afraid at this point that this has provoked a form of neuropathy in my legs which will continue for years. I have already been suffering for more than two years from 'burning scalp syndrome'; no shampoo I use does not burn my scalp. So, my body is 'on fire' much of the time -- all really quite uncomfortable.
At this point, my only option is either to continue sleeping at my female partner's house (which is not a negative, but we agreed early on that we enjoyed having separate domiciles and it feels awkward to continue not having a bed at my own house), or sleeping periodically on my couch (the foam in those cushions doesn't make me ill, but the couch is not really a bed). My therapist suggested finding a 'non-manmade material', like a cotton futon. I tried one last night, to mixed results. This is all quite frustrating.
The one thing I do know or have learned about all of this is that there is a high degree of possibility that my hypersensitivity is caused by heightened reactivity due to emotional turmoil from the sexual abuse and torture that I suffered as a child (which I've discussed on this blog in the past). One of the results of sexual and physical trauma, especially in childhood, is that the adrenal glands are overextended from being in constant 'fight or flight' mode, and that therefore ones immune system and other bodily functions are overstressed throughout life. It's a major dilemma: I'm hypersensitive to mattresses, clothing material, food, fumes, chemicals, stress, etc. as a result. Materials that don't bother most people just devastate me. Unlike viruses, where we gain an immunity over time, my hypersensitivity has increased as I've aged, making even being alive, at times, a bit of a fearful issue. Even as I heal emotionally from the sexual and physical abuse, my body's ability to recover from or even tolerate toxins in the environment decreases.
That personal medical/emotional issue is mixed with the reality that there are more toxins in the environment all the time. Rachel Carson wrote about this back in the 1960's and the problem has only become worse; more and more chemicals are dumped into the environment which are either untested on human subjects, or the testing is so skewed and doctored that it passes government scrutiny with little oversight.
It's a challenge, no doubt. Finding a bed to sleep on which doesn't make me ill is a major disruption in my life; thankfully my female partner still has one I can sleep on (she says she surely won't get rid of that one). When just getting a good night's sleep without fearing that the mattress upon which one sleeps is going to be potentially deadly, that is indeed a major problem in anyone's life.
