How to choose the right bed: what we can learn from the Pepsi Challenge

One question patient's frequently ask me is "what is the right bed for me?"

Like many things in musculoskeletal medicine, the answer is "it depends."  There is no one best bed for everyone, and the best choice will depend on a few different factors

One thing to pay attention is your preferred position for sleeping.  As a general rule of thumb, the most important thing to pay attention to is the position you wake up in, rather than the position you try to fall asleep in.  I had a patient the other day who thought she was a back sleeper, but she always wake up on her right side, which tells her that her body wants to sleep on the right side.

A second factor is paying attention to placement of your hands.  One of the hardest parts of finding a good night's sleep is figuring out where to place your hands relative to your upper body.  This is especially true for side sleepers.   The constant tossing and turning to find the right hand position reminds me of the scene from the movie Talladega Nights, where Will Ferrell's Ricky Bobby character can't figure out what do with his hands during his first interview.

The same thing happens with me when I sleep, especially if I am in a bed with pillows I am not used to, or sleeping in a bed that is too small for me.

One inexpensive item that can make a huge difference is using a full-length body pillow.  You can do what I do, and get a cheap one for $15 at Costco, or you can certainly get a much nicer one at a store like Relax the Back.

A third factor to consider with sleeping is the appropriate level of firmness when you sleep.  There is no best level of firmness for everyone, but I do find that patients often sleep with a bed that is a bit softer than would be optimal for them.  I think the reason for this is that the level of firmness that is most comfortable when you first lay down on a bed is generally a bit softer than the preferred level of firmness for a good, restful night of sleep.

By way of analogy, Malcolm Gladwell had a great anecdote about the Pepsi Challenge from the 1980s in his wonderful book Blink.   For generations, Coca-Cola was a the clear #1 brand in cola sales, with Pepsi a very strong #2.  Pepsi would set up booths in public areas and ask consumers to try a sip of the two products, and then reveal the brand of the cola they preferred.  Based on this "sip test", consumers strongly preferred Pepsi.

This challenge started in 1975, but took traction in the 1980s, enough so that Coca-Cola started to see drops in sales.  It eventually led to Coca-Cola reformulating their market-leading product, and producing a newer version of Coca-Cola called "New Coke" in 1985, designed to be sweeter like Pepsi.

New Coke is one of the all-time great marketing disasters, and soon Coca-Cola brought back their original, less-sweet Classic version.  So what happened?

It turns out that the attribute that makes a cola tasty for a small sip is not the same thing that makes a cola tasty for drinking several large glasses.  When asked to drink a thimble-sized sip of a cola, tasters generally prefer whatever is sweeter.  When drinking an entire glass, however, most people prefer something less sweet, as excessive sweetness can be cloying and unpleasant.

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Getting back to beds: The quality that makes a mattress comfortable when you first lie is generally how soft it is.  However, the quality that makes for a good nights sleep is how supportive it is, which is a different quality.   Softness and support are not oppositional- a mattress can be both.  It's just important to recognize they are different qualities.

Some things I would consider when buying a bed:
1. Give yourself ample time to mattress shop.  Plan on a few hours
2. Before you go, figure out what position you wake up in, and test beds in that position
3. Give yourself at least 15-20 minutes on each mattress to determine if it is a comfortable fit for you

Some specific stores I would consider when mattress shopping:
1. The Relax the Back store.  We've had very good experiences with specific owners of the Bellevue store.  They have excellent customer service and spend a lot of time with customers.  In the past, I've had concerns about Tempur-Pedic beds because of heat retention, but the newer generation of Tempur-Pedic beds no longer have that issue (although some competing brands of memory foam do, so I'd only recommend the Tempur-Pedic brand).
2. Bedrooms & More.  Located in Seattle near I5, they offer high quality natural latex mattresses, and also have excellent customer service.
3. Sleep Number.  The sleep systems, using individual air chambers, can be nice for couples who desire a different level of firmness.  This is what I have used for myself for about 7 years, and I'm happy with it.  I can't speak to the customer service of stores in the Bellevue/ Seattle area.