How do I know it’s time to replace my mattress?

The usual number is about ten years. Most well-made mattresses do their best work for roughly a decade, depending on how they’re built and how they’re used, and after that they’re on borrowed time whether or not they look it. But the number is less useful than a couple of questions.

The two questions

First: do you sleep better in hotels than at home? People say this as a joke, and it’s the most reliable sign there is. A hotel mattress isn’t magic. It’s just not yours, and yours is worn out.

Second: how do you wake up? Stiff, sore in the lower back or the shoulder, or fine? A mattress that’s lost its support tells you every morning, and people get so used to it they stop noticing.

Things you can see

A visible sag, or a body-shaped dip that doesn’t spring back. A mattress that’s noticeably softer or harder where you sleep than at the edges. Movement you feel every time your partner turns over. Any of those and it’s time, whatever the calendar says.

Shopping for the next one

Mattress stores have a reputation, and most of it is earned. We do it differently, mostly because our designers are paid the same no matter which mattress you take home, so if the mid-priced model suits your back better than the flagship, that’s what you’ll hear. The mattresses are on the floor of the Ann Arbor showroom at 6235 Jackson Road. Wear comfortable clothes, bring your own pillow if you like, and lie down for a while in the position you actually sleep in. Tell us about the mattress you have now and how you wake up. A designer narrows the floor to a few that make sense and then leaves you alone with them.

Getting it home

We handle delivery and setup across Ann Arbor, Plymouth, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Northville, Canton and the surrounding area. It goes in the bedroom, set up, and you sleep on it that night. And since we’ve been doing bedrooms since 1952, the bed frame, the drapery and the room-darkening shades can be part of the same conversation if you want them to be.