Allergic to my mattress.

Five and a half years ago, my family had to move to a new state for a job relocation. As with every single move we've made, we worked hard to make wise decisions about what to move with us and what to leave behind. Our bed was several years old (about eight), and we decided to leave it behind. We had an almost new mattress in our guest room that our company always raved about, and we decided to move that mattress for it to become our full-time mattress.

That (seemingly) little decision started a five year battle with mattresses! About a year into that mattress, my husband and I both agreed it wasn't going to last much longer, but found ourselves needing to move into a different place to live so we put off the mattress hunt. After the move, my pain and my husband's pain continued to increase from the bad mattress so we finally decided to buy a new one.

As you would expect, I researched mattresses, and I discovered that mattresses were HORRIBLE for our health. And, not because of bugs: because of chemicals that the USA government requires be sprayed on the mattresses. We opted to go for a natural mattress and bought an organic latex bed.

And then, we hated it. Our backs killed us. It just didn't give either of us enough support. Thankfully, a friend had heard wonderful things about this mattress and wanted to buy it from us. Thank goodness.

Out that mattress went and in came another new bed. This time, we just went to a store and bought a bed that seemed to feel good to us. We didn't want to spend very much time on the purchase this time. Well, 7 months into it, we hated it, too. It became more comfortable to sleep on the ground. All the time we had it, I didn't feel great, and I smelled a funny smell. I never connected that I might be having an allergic reaction to the bed, though.

So, we jumped on the chance to buy a ComfortDirect Bed on sale with a free-return policy! Again, I was ignoring the information I knew about the dangers of new mattresses. And, it cost me. I was highly allergic to this mattress.

Within a few days of sleeping on it, I was experiencing horrible night sweats. A few more days into the bed, I started feeling like my body was on fire through the night at whatever point my body was touching the bed. I was rolling all night trying to keep my body from feeling so bad. In addition to the on-fire-feeling, I was still having sheet-drenching night sweats.

Then the real fun started: I started being impacted mentally. I couldn't make decisions; I was starting my day bawling in the corner; I was sad and grumbly; I was in awful shape.

In a moment of clarity, I thought that maybe my new medical issues were a result of the new bed so I went upstairs and took the whole thing apart. I opened both windows, turned on three floor fans, shut the bedroom door, and took my daughter to class.

My husband made it home before me and went into our room to change clothes. After opening the door to walk in, he says that he promptly shut the door and came back downstairs. When I came home, he told me that it smelled like a chemical factory in our bedroom. We were going to have to sleep in the basement until we could repack the bed and get it out of our house. Oh, I forgot to mention, by this point in our sleeping, he was starting to experience night sweats, too.

Long story short, we got the bed shipped back to the seller and looked at each other wondering: What next!? We lugged up the two twin mattresses from the basement and set-up camp on our floor (literally, it looked like we were camping).

As we hunted for a long term solution, my body let me know how much damage had been done: my entire endocrine system had been disrupted. It took me months of careful exposure to new cars, foods, public stores/restaurants, and chemicals in my own home to finally get my body and mind back to where they felt healthy.

I had a horrible and dangerous allergic reaction to a new bed. I don't know if the last bed we bought was the only contributor or if it was just the straw that broke the camel's back from build-up from the first bed we bought. Regardless, you should know that mattresses can be dangerous. They can hurt you physically and mentally.

I will soon post what we did to find a new sleeping solution!