What is the difference between VE Foam and non-VE foam?

Visco-elastic (VE) foam provides a sleep experience that is different than any other. It responds to body heat and pressure to actually mould itself to the body of the sleeper. Certain very high profile ad campaigns would have you believe that it is the only worthwhile product for every sleeper. We’d like to temper (pun intended) that message a bit. The carefully designed laminations and cutting of the non-VE foams that we use in our TSS and TSS-Plus models provide nearly the pressure reduction of the VE, but have a very different, springier feel. The body impression or mould of the VE persists for several minutes. There is a lot of personal preference involved. Some find the VE the most comfortable; some find it a little too close and personal. If you can, try a VE product in a store before you make your decision.

Why is pressure reduction important?

You know why good sleep is important. Pressure reduction is a key component to restful sleep. Innerspring mattresses all create pressure points on the body of the sleeper. Medical studies over the years have proven that these pressure points restrict blood flow to the tissue around these points, causing soreness and affecting the health of that tissue. Your body changes its position to try to relieve this pressure. When you are young and healthy, you can often make these position shifts without awakening. With a bit of age and / or infirmity, they can disrupt your sleep greatly. The lowest possible “interface pressures” are best for your health and contribute greatly to sound, restful and comfortable sleep. Our therapeutic sleep surface products are all designed toward this goal.

What is the difference betweeen our Sleeping Platform Support and Box Springs?

Europeans have been sleeping on platform style beds for years – the US is catching on. The only virtue of the box spring or foundation as usually sold is that it is cheap to manufacture. Box springs can flex, sag, hammock and squeak in use – all detrimental to sound sleep. Our Therapeutic Sleep Surfaces are designed to provide optimum support and comfort when used on a rigid, flat support. Our Platform Support meets that criteria and can be used by itself for a contemporary appearance or in most bed frames or furniture. Any bed or platform that is suitably flat and rigid is equally suitable.

How do I choose between Regular and Extra Firm mattresses?

The TSS and TSS-Plus are designed to self adjust to sleeper body weights up to about 250 pounds. The TSS-VE has a somewhat greater capacity. For body weights over 250 pounds or if you prefer a really firm mattress, we offer the TSS and TSS-Plus in Extra-Firm at no additional charge. For body weights greater than 350 pounds, we recommend consulting with customer service. For a reasonable additional charge we can custom make sleep surfaces for plus-sized sleepers. Custom sizes are not currently available.

How do you ship a large mattress without using freight by truck?

A key design consideration for all the Better Sleep Shop.com products is that they be shippable at reasonable cost and speed by the package carriers such as FedEx and UPS. Our exclusive compression packaging allows us to ship all our sleep surface products this way. In most cases, we can ship to the lower 48 in three to five days at a significant savings over truck freight. In addition, the compressed packages are often easier to get upstairs, to the basement or around that sharp bend in the hall than conventional bedding. Compression does not harm the products at all and once they are released, they magically rebound to full thickness within an hour or so. It’s fun to watch.

Will I need to assemble my sleeping system?

For the advantages stated above, we ship our Platform Support knocked down in two cartons for user assembly. This lets us ship a strong stable platform quickly and inexpensively. As with the sleep surfaces, it is frequently more convenient to move the platform components into place before assembly than to maneuver conventional bedding. It does require an investment of time by the user. A Reasonably Handy Person With A Screwdriver can assemble it in an hour or less. If you have any questions or doubts, view or download the assembly instructions in .PDF format from this site.

Why are the Better Sleep Shop prices so low?

We use a low-key, Web-based promotional program with limited advertising. Full page magazine adds, commercials on national TV, stores in shopping malls and truck freight shipping cost staggering amounts of money that we can barely comprehend. We use just in time manufacturing, compression packaging, knock down assembly and parcel service shipping to achieve real cost savings that we can pass on to the customer. We will never sacrifice quality of the product for price savings.

Are there any weight and handling considerations?

All bedding products are heavy and awkward to handle. Please be realistic about your ability to assemble and move these products. Most require at least two people to handle. Get someone or several someones to help you. If you are not up to it physically, we’d rather you shopped with a full service local dealer who can provide the muscle power than to have you frustrated or injured.

How do I select the right product?

You don’t have to spend $2000 or more for a quality sleep system.

We make a range of products to most budgets, tastes, personal preferences and design considerations.

If cost is a consideration, our TSS product will deliver excellent comfort and pressure reduction with a completely conventional appearance. You may actually prefer it if the visco-elastic foam sensation is not to your liking.

The TSS-Plus offers more of an immersion sleep experience, but retains the cost advantage, lighter weight and quicker rebound of the poly-foams.

If you seek the full blown visco-elastic sleep surface experience, the TSS-VE is the very best available and at a cost of hundreds less than the competition.

Thank you for considering Better Sleep Shop for your bedding needs.