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We sleep on a bed made of wool batting enclosed in two sewed together wool blankets. It is super comfortable. I think most people would be better served by aban

We sleep on a bed made of wool batting enclosed in two sewed together wool blankets. It is super comfortable. I think most people would be better served by abandoning modern "inner-spring" mattresses

chrisco255 6y ago
Does anyone manufacture these? Or do you have a photo?
- war1025 6y ago
  We bought our batting from Shepherd's Dream [1], which looks like it also sells actual beds. The blankets are just queen sized wool blankets that you can find various places. We made our bed in the winter of 2013/2014. We used 5 wool blankets with a layer of "2yd extra thick wool batting" between each pair of blankets. It starts out very thick, but compresses down to probably 2-3 inches thick over time. We just made a set of similar beds for our three kids, but we used 3 yards of wool and a single queen sized wool blanket folded in half for the exterior. I will see if I can get some pictures. Happy to answer questions either here or at the email in my profile if people are interested. [1] https://shepherdsdream.com/ https://shepherdsdream.com/ Edit: The blankets might actually be twin sized. Their dimensions are very close to the footprint of a standard queen bed. So I think that means they are a size down since usually blankets will overhang the mattress.
  - 0xffff2 6y ago
    Sounds like this mattress doesn't have much support on its own. Do kind of base do you put it on? Box spring? Slats? On the floor?
    - war1025 6y ago
      We sleep on the floor. It's a great place. You can't fall off of it.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - sdflhasjd 6y ago
    Those prices are ridiculous
    - earthboundkid 6y ago
      One thousand dollars is a normal price for a good, new mattress.
      - TylerE 6y ago
        They aren't $1000. The queen is $2185. Even the twin is $1,495. You can get a really nice foam queen for like $600.
    - war1025 6y ago
      Well, we made ours. The total cost was probably in the range of $600
    - war1025 6y ago
      I believe they are both: 1. A small business that basically does all the work by hand and 2. Catering to a very niche market of upper-middle-class folks. They sell raw materials for more reasonable prices. Labor gets expensive real quick.
TylerE 6y ago
Seems most people are buying foam mattresses these days, not spring?
- seanmcdirmid 6y ago
  A lot of hybrids also (springs with a foam topper). There is also latex spring.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
  My old internally sprung mattress did me great for years but finally sprang a spring and that was that. Got a modern foam mattress as they were all the thing, a very well reviewed one, and regretted it ever since. It rapidly developed a sag under my quite moderate weight, and it keeps in heat rather well so in summer you cook. My advice is, don't. My next mattress will be the old fashioned sprung ones again. IME, YMMV.
  - agustif 6y ago
    emma (german I think) bought it on spain. Just launched a springy version at a 3x price-tag though! Got the cheaper foamy one
  - dsego 6y ago
    Was it memory foam or latex?
    - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
      I didn't know you could get latex. Never heard of it. Looking at the mattress it just looks like a normal foamy stuff, yellowish colour, if that tells you anything.
      - dsego 6y ago
        I think memory foam gets warm and deforms. Latex should be firmer and keep cool. I haven't really tried different materials so this is just from researching online.
icebraining 6y ago
Seems similar to a japanese futon, though they are usually filled with cotton rather than wool. Sleeping on a wool blanket seems dreadful in hot temperatures, though. Does it ever get to high 70s or more where you live?
- war1025 6y ago
  > Does it ever get to high 70s or more where you live? We live in Iowa. A quick look at the weather suggests that the high for this week is 86F. 90s aren't uncommon during the summer. It usually cools off fairly significantly at night. We don't use our AC except on the very hottest four or five days of the year, and always open the windows back up after supper if we did use the AC that day. Wool is basically a miracle material in my opinion. The bed doesn't get hot. If you put a wool blanket on top of you, yes you will get too hot. But if you sleep either without a blanket or with a thin cotton on, it's really not bad. Part of it might be that we are stubborn and counter-cultural, but also it's just a really comfortable bed and you can adjust to heat much easier than people accustomed to AC assume.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - Giorgi 6y ago
    Unfortunately lots of people have wool allergy
    - war1025 6y ago
      People have a lanolin allergy, not a wool allergy. Lanolin can be washed out.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    You probably need to be comfortable with harder mattresses. But I use a higher-end futon on a platform bed that is about 20 years old at this point. (I do also have a featherbed on top of that but TBH I actually fluff it and redistribute so seldom I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference.) In Massachusetts, I don't have AC except (sometimes) in my office. I sleep on a pad downstairs a few days a year--I'm in the country--but usually the bedroom with a fan is fine by the time I'm going to bed.

We sleep on a bed made of wool batting enclosed in two sewed together wool blankets. It is super comfortable. I think most people would be better served by abandoning modern "inner-spring" mattresses

chrisco255 6y ago

Does anyone manufacture these? Or do you have a photo?

war1025 6y ago
We bought our batting from Shepherd's Dream [1], which looks like it also sells actual beds. The blankets are just queen sized wool blankets that you can find various places. We made our bed in the winter of 2013/2014. We used 5 wool blankets with a layer of "2yd extra thick wool batting" between each pair of blankets. It starts out very thick, but compresses down to probably 2-3 inches thick over time. We just made a set of similar beds for our three kids, but we used 3 yards of wool and a single queen sized wool blanket folded in half for the exterior. I will see if I can get some pictures. Happy to answer questions either here or at the email in my profile if people are interested. [1] https://shepherdsdream.com/ https://shepherdsdream.com/ Edit: The blankets might actually be twin sized. Their dimensions are very close to the footprint of a standard queen bed. So I think that means they are a size down since usually blankets will overhang the mattress.
- 0xffff2 6y ago
  Sounds like this mattress doesn't have much support on its own. Do kind of base do you put it on? Box spring? Slats? On the floor?
  - war1025 6y ago
    We sleep on the floor. It's a great place. You can't fall off of it.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- sdflhasjd 6y ago
  Those prices are ridiculous
  - earthboundkid 6y ago
    One thousand dollars is a normal price for a good, new mattress.
    - TylerE 6y ago
      They aren't $1000. The queen is $2185. Even the twin is $1,495. You can get a really nice foam queen for like $600.
  - war1025 6y ago
    Well, we made ours. The total cost was probably in the range of $600
  - war1025 6y ago
    I believe they are both: 1. A small business that basically does all the work by hand and 2. Catering to a very niche market of upper-middle-class folks. They sell raw materials for more reasonable prices. Labor gets expensive real quick.

TylerE 6y ago

Seems most people are buying foam mattresses these days, not spring?

seanmcdirmid 6y ago
A lot of hybrids also (springs with a foam topper). There is also latex spring.
throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
My old internally sprung mattress did me great for years but finally sprang a spring and that was that. Got a modern foam mattress as they were all the thing, a very well reviewed one, and regretted it ever since. It rapidly developed a sag under my quite moderate weight, and it keeps in heat rather well so in summer you cook. My advice is, don't. My next mattress will be the old fashioned sprung ones again. IME, YMMV.
- agustif 6y ago
  emma (german I think) bought it on spain. Just launched a springy version at a 3x price-tag though! Got the cheaper foamy one
- dsego 6y ago
  Was it memory foam or latex?
  - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
    I didn't know you could get latex. Never heard of it. Looking at the mattress it just looks like a normal foamy stuff, yellowish colour, if that tells you anything.
    - dsego 6y ago
      I think memory foam gets warm and deforms. Latex should be firmer and keep cool. I haven't really tried different materials so this is just from researching online.

icebraining 6y ago

Seems similar to a japanese futon, though they are usually filled with cotton rather than wool. Sleeping on a wool blanket seems dreadful in hot temperatures, though. Does it ever get to high 70s or more where you live?

war1025 6y ago
> Does it ever get to high 70s or more where you live? We live in Iowa. A quick look at the weather suggests that the high for this week is 86F. 90s aren't uncommon during the summer. It usually cools off fairly significantly at night. We don't use our AC except on the very hottest four or five days of the year, and always open the windows back up after supper if we did use the AC that day. Wool is basically a miracle material in my opinion. The bed doesn't get hot. If you put a wool blanket on top of you, yes you will get too hot. But if you sleep either without a blanket or with a thin cotton on, it's really not bad. Part of it might be that we are stubborn and counter-cultural, but also it's just a really comfortable bed and you can adjust to heat much easier than people accustomed to AC assume.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Giorgi 6y ago
  Unfortunately lots of people have wool allergy
  - war1025 6y ago
    People have a lanolin allergy, not a wool allergy. Lanolin can be washed out.
- ghaff 6y ago
  You probably need to be comfortable with harder mattresses. But I use a higher-end futon on a platform bed that is about 20 years old at this point. (I do also have a featherbed on top of that but TBH I actually fluff it and redistribute so seldom I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference.) In Massachusetts, I don't have AC except (sometimes) in my office. I sleep on a pad downstairs a few days a year--I'm in the country--but usually the bedroom with a fan is fine by the time I'm going to bed.