Day 8: The @Casper Mattress Challenge

Night 8. The windows did make a difference. Not a major, earth shattering one, but a difference nonetheless.

Sleep Pattern

I laid down around 10, knocked out around 11.   Hit REM sleep, dreamed about something to do with engineering.  Got up at 6am.

Not as groggy as the night before. But unlike the first couple of nights, I felt like staying in bed.

Body And Positioning

I turned a few times. I get the sense that I will never be able to just sleep without turning, unlike when I was a teen.

Was wrong about 65 degrees as I was hot again.

Mattress Durability

Shape still intact.  Slightly soft, but not sagging.

Day 7: The @Casper Mattress Challenge

Night 7. Tomorrow I (hopefully) get to hear a lot less sound from my windows.

Sleep Pattern

I laid down around 11, knocked out around midnight.   Hit REM sleep, dreamed in the third person watching something going on.  Got up at 6am.

Slightly more groggy than expected, but that might have been the hours.

Body And Positioning

I turned only twice: once to the right and once onto my back, which is where I stayed for a bit. lower left side hurt.

65 degrees seems to be the nighttime sweet spot. I was hot but not unbearably so.

Mattress Durability

Shape still intact.  No noticeable softness, at least not like before the trip. Interesting.

Day 6: The 30-Day @Casper Mattress Challenge

Night 6 and really looking forward to that window install on Wednesday.

Sleep Pattern

I laid down around 8pm, knocked out around 10pm.   Hit REM sleep (don't recall the dreams, but I know I did because it took the alarm to wake me and at first I thought it was part of the dream).  Got up at 6am.

I felt a little groggy.  Definitely less than the day prior.  So my initial theory about my body getting "back used to" the mattress after travel is probably a sound theory.

Body And Positioning

I turned quite a few times. I also had some pain on my left side (which is why I kept turning, so as not to lay on that side, but I eventually felt uncomfortable on my right side and would turn).

Heat overcame, had to pull back the comforter again.

Mattress Durability

Shape still intact.  No noticeable softness.

Day 5: The 30-Day @Casper Mattress Challenge

Night 5 (officially), back from travel.  Having slept on a Spring Air mattress at Residence Inn, I now have a definite point of comparison from a "sink in" perspective.  (If you didn't know, Spring Air is quite possibly the most comfortable overall mattress possible.  But it IS a spring mattress.)

Sleep Pattern

Again, it's the weekend so noise was not as bad or as prevalent.  I was also dead tired due to extensive travel, medication and long working hours.

I laid down around 8pm, knocked out around 9pm, which is a record for me.   I don't exactly remember reaching REM sleep though; I assume I must have and don't remember, but I was out until 7:00am the next morning.  I got up groggy, which was strange.

To compare, the Spring Air mattress plus a waffle cone ice cream had me knocked out cold for a good 12 hours, but with no dreaming, even after reading rather vivid books. Without the waffle cone, I was about 6-7 hours sleep with mid-time wakeup.

Body And Positioning

I turned maybe twice.  To be fair, I was also tossing and turning on the Spring Air mattress, and quite a bit more, so maybe my body just doesn't like being stationary, I don't know.  It's also possible that my body was starting to get used to the Casper mattress and reacted to this totally different mattress.

No heat overcoming.  This is with the thermostat set to 70 and the exterior temperature in the high 30's/low 40's; that's WITH pajama bottoms.

No pain at all this time.

Mattress Durability

Shape still intact.  After my 5-day business trip I noticed the softness was gone, too.  So it will go back firm eventually as long as you don't sleep on it for a while.

Day 4: The 30-Day @Casper Mattress Challenge

Night 4, another difference.  As a side note this is the first mattress where I experienced a difference night-to-night as opposed to, say, week-to-week.

Sleep Pattern

I laid down around 8pm but didn't actually go to sleep until around 11:30pm.  Longer to go to sleep.  Did enter REM because I distinctly the dream having something to do with being called fat (which I'm not even close to, thus why I remember it), but I woke up twice, once at 1am, and again at 4:30am.  I'm not sure what the deal was with the 1am wakeup; it may simply have been too much on my mind in anticipation of my Tuesday travel.  I had to actually read myself back to sleep which took 30-ish minutes or so.  4:30am made sense because again, cars and traffic hitting the roads likely woke me.

Body And Positioning

Tossing and turning while awake, not so much when entering sleep and likely very little after going to full sleep.  Different position, once again feeling rested and not groggy.  I'm noticing a pattern at least with this - regardless of disrupted sleep I don't have a feeling of wanting to stay in bed like I usually would.

No heat overcoming.  This is with the thermostat set to 65 and the exterior temperature in the high 30's/low 40's.  One difference here is that unlike usual, I didn't wear pajama bottoms.  Interesting.

No pain at all this time.

Mattress Durability

The mattress continues to maintain its shape.  However it's significantly softer than when first unrolled, to the point that when lying in bed, you can now feel your "place" as it were.  It's not like you're stuck in that place though, if you move or roll you can still do so without being impeded.  What's not yet known is whether body heat is the strongest reason for this.

Day 3: The 30-Day @Casper Mattress Challenge

The third night I again experienced a difference.

Sleep Pattern

This time, as I was working a little late, I laid down around 10pm but didn't actually nod off until just after 11pm.  So it again took me a little longer to go to sleep than the previous day; two things were different (and one is likely because it's a weekend).  First, I didn't wake up midstream like I did before.  I actually slept through to around 7am-ish; I officially "woke" around 6:45am and was in a half-awake-half-asleep state for the rest.  Didn't take me as long to go to sleep and I woke up after a full night.   

Again, it's a weekend and specifically a Sunday morning, so even fewer cars on the road.  Tonight will be a good test of this theory, as it will be a Monday morning when I expect the worst of outside noise.  If it turns out I get woken up midstream, it means that it's noise disrupting me, and once the new windows are in (which have sound control properties), it should be a somewhat better experience.  The one window that I have in my home office which matches the forthcoming new ones performs so well that I get tempted to sleep in there every night.

Body And Positioning

 Definitely a lot of tossing and turning again, at least initially.  I assume that at some point I stopped and went to dead sleep because I know I hit REM; it was a rather lengthy dream. I woke up in the same position I'd left off, once again feeling rested and not groggy.

Heat overcame me on a few occasions where I had to pull the comforter.  In fact I fell asleep with just the sheet on because it was so hot.  I was almost tempted to grab a fan.  Mind, this is after the mattress sitting in a room not exceeding 65 degrees all day.

The only pain I experienced was on my right knee.  I sleep with a leg pillow to align my spine when I sleep on my side, and if I sleep on the right side (which is more comfortable than sleeping on the left, for some reason), depending on how I sink in, it will shift my kneecap, which is probably what happened here.  I can't confirm that - since I was asleep - but it's the only reason I can think of.  Means I sunk into the mattress more than the first two days.  Although it's rather intriguing that pain seems to only happen in spots.

Mattress Durability

Once again the mattress went down on a simple finger press, very easily, two inches this time.  Felt like a sponge rather than latex or memory foam, only in the area I slept in.  But it maintained its shape, for the most part.  I did observe what appeared to be some slight bowing downward; when I looked under the platform it didn't look uneven.  It might be my imagination.  I'll keep an eye on it.