I've recently been condo hunting and noticed that most new places have firm mattresses, not the dirt cheap kind but the ones with foam or something on the outside but apparently no springs inside. Thai people seem to have swallowed the myth that firm mattresses are good for the back. In reality in depends on body weight and shape and sleeping position. For me firm mattresses are just uncomfortable and I'm not sure a topper would solve the problem. 

Normal is not a trend.

A topper pad works for me.

59 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

A topper pad works for me.

Any recommendations? The ones on Lazada cost about 7000 baht - might as well buy a new mattress.

I've found most of the beds I've slept on in Thailand over the past twenty years have been like bloody mortuary slabs, with absolutely no give in them at all. Perhaps it's because traditionally they slept on the floor, so when beds and mattresses started to become the norm, they opted for a similar firmness. Whatever, at my age now, I prefer a nice soft sprung mattress. Hard ones just give me backache.

4 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

Any recommendations? The ones on Lazada cost about 7000 baht - might as well buy a new mattress.

I bought a mattress topper a few weeks ago from Home Pro. It was between 1,500 and 2,000. It's not a fancy memory foam one (because they are super expensive!), but it has taken the edge off and was worth every penny. 

 

 

 

Anyone seen a sleep number bed ( the ex-wife in US has one and I think that's what it's named?) in BKK? The kind that the mattress is divided into 2 halves and each half can be controlled separately as far as soft or hard and the head section can be tilted up for TV watching or reading?

Love the firm mattresses in Thailand as well as Japanese futon...much better for your health.  These spongy springy things that sag in the middle, mostly from Europe are terrible for you.

Yes they are trying to recreate Thai youth when they slept on the floor.

 

And of course, they must be cheaper to make.

 

The thing that narks me is that if you're going to sleep on something hard it should be dirt cheap. Spending a fortune making something elaborate, and then making it - from the user's point of view - identical to a board with two inches of foam, makes no sense. 

 

I think springs are just a bad idea. Foam is the way forward. A foot of firm-ish foam, with a duvet on top of it. Fat people like hard beds because they bring their own mattress. Seriously, think about an x-ray picture of the skeleton a fat person laying on a hard bed. Their "mattress" is their subcutaneous fat. If someone is fat, and doesn't exercise, they've got very different needs from a think person with a dose of post-gym pain.