Would a knackered mattress be harder or softer?

[Pigeonpost]

Our mattress is 8 years old. It was expensive and amazingly comfortable. These days I am finding it much too hard for me and wake up with back pain every morning. I have put on about 4 stone in those 8 years bloody kids which I guess won't help. We turn it regularly but I'm still suffering. Will a mattress topper help or do we just need to accept that it's past its best and I need to try much harder to shift this bloody extra weight?

Depending on its construction, harder but thinner I would imagine. Unevenly. (Years of sleeping on it will compact/knock the stuffing out of certain spots in particular. Hence Lumpiness. )

I don't use mattress toppers so I'll have to leave it to others to comment properly on those and will only say that I don't much like the idea of trying to put something new on top of something that's tired and lumpy. I'd bite the bullet and - after 8 years - go for a new mattress.

Thanks. It isn't lumpy though. We do turn it and flip it regularly so that must have helped with the lumps. I can't remember what sort of construction it is but I am conscious that 8 years is probably the shelf life of a mattress, just need to find the money to replace it now as it cost more than the bed did! Have bought a topper for now just to see if that does help temporarily.

Good luck then - I'd be interested to know how it works out. And Yes - mattresses are expensive aren't they? Probably not as expensive as other things given their importance to our wellbeing but still quite a chunk of cash in a oner.

We went into dreams for a look at mattresses, got quoted £1050 for a new one went into an independent store and got nearly the same mattress for £275. Expensive but well worth it!

I think many people only replace mattresses if they're stained/dirty or something. It's a false economy to my mind given the length of time we spend on them. (But £1k for a mattress is........Wow!)

There are two difficulties for me - finding out (over more than a 'quick lie' on them) how a mattress suits - I have a dodgy back - and getting rid of the old one. If I could get those two really licked, I'd replace more often than I do.

But £1k for a mattress is........Wow!
Um, not that unusual - if you buy makes such as Vi-Spring you can be paying several £ks. But they are blissfully comfortable and last far more than eight years.

I hear you. if I had a bigger budget perhaps. (But I don't, sadly.)

I have a feeling this one was around the £1000 mark but I might be wrong. And yes, Cozie my concern is how you tell by lying on a mattress in a shop whether one is going to be comfortable all night or not. My topper did seem to help a bit last night. I could always buy another one and be like the Princess and the Pea!

I have an old book with that story illustrated - looked quite astounding.

I'm glad the topper helped although I guess it's a new mattress in the longer term. (When I said 'lumpy' by the way, I didn't mean with actual lumps in it - perhaps 'uneven' would be a better description. Especially if you're given (as I am) to lying on one side of it reading or watching a movie. I'm hard pushed, on turning it, to find an edge that has any resilience these days.)