intelliBED Review: Why We Got Rid of our Tempur-Pedic Mattress

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A little over 11 years ago, Rob and I decided it was time to purchase our first real bed. We had been married a couple years and were still sleeping on the full-sized Costco mattress and metal bedframe that Rob purchased before we even met. You could say that it was slightly less than uncomfortable (understatement!!) and with our immediate plans to start a family, we knew a larger, comfier bed was in order. So about 2 weeks before we found out we were pregnant with baby #1, our king-size Tempur-Pedic mattress was delivered.

That first night on the Tempur-Pedic was kind of torture. We had been warned that it might take a couple weeks to break it in, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad. True to the info we were given, the first couple weeks were not restful sleep and waking up in the morning was followed by much pain. We eventually got over those first few weeks and honestly loved the Tempur-Pedic once we got used to it. This went on for a about 5 years. That mattress followed us to 3 states and 6 houses. It held up well and we were still pleased with it.

But over the past 5-6 years, we both noticed a decline in our sleep quality and an increase in hip, shoulder, and mid/low back pain. I attributed this to age (we’re not old, but we’re not getting any younger, you know) and thought nothing of sleep or the mattress being the cause of any issues. But then I discovered intelliBED.

After significant research and consideration, we decided to give intelliBED a shot and got rid of the Tempur-Pedic. It has been over 6 months since our first night on the intelliBED and I am so glad we made the switch and will never go back. But why?

In the 6 months since making the switch from Tempur-Pedic to intelliBED, we’ve noticed the following changes:

1. No more restless legs. It seems like a bold statement, but I haven’t suffered from them, not even a single night, since getting the intelliBED. I’m assuming this is not a coincidence.
2. I can sleep on my back now. On the Tempur-Pedic, if I happened to roll on my back during the night, I would wake up in terrible pain (low/mid back). This would happen multiple times each night. Which brings me to my next point…
3. We don’t toss and turn and wake up all throughout the night anymore.
4. When we wake up in the morning, we no longer have the tremendous low/mid back that makes it hard to get out of bed and walk upright. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed looking like a 90-year-old woman hobbling to the bathroom (sorry grandma).
5. While my headaches haven’t gone away 100%, they have been reduced by at least 80%. In addition to switching to the intelliBED mattress, we also started sleeping on the intelliBED pillows.
6. We no longer feel pressure on both our hips and shoulders. When we would lay down on the Tempur-Pedic, there wasn’t much give and there was painful pressure on our shoulders and hips.

So how can switching mattresses do all that? It’s all in the research. intelliBED’s proprietary, non-toxic intelli-Gel is vastly different from memory foam in many ways. I never realized that memory foam was toxic. In my research, I discovered something I had never heard of before: off-gassing. Sounds gross, right? Turns out, it basically is. The foam mattresses off-gas volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and cause a myriad of health issues. And it also explains a lot about the frequent, persistent headaches that I would get nearly every day.

The research definitely helped me, but I wanted to try the mattress for myself. I was so excited the day our intelliBED was delivered. We actually received our pillows about a week before the mattress was delivered, so we had already had a taste of what was to come.

We got the Posture Perfect Lo-Motion mattress rather than the Relief Perfect Lo-Motion mattress because we were already used to a firm mattress and didn’t want to go too soft. I’m happy with the decision, I think it is just right for us. For the pillows, I got the Low-Profile and Rob got the Regular. This turned out to be perfect due to the differences in our shoulder width. The Regular would have been too much pillow for me.

I will mention something that wasn’t entirely perfect with the pillows but was easily remedied in our case. The pillows come with an air chamber that allows you to increase or decrease the contour of the pillow. It’s really great because if it’s too high, you just let out a little air, and if it’s too low, you pump in a little more. Very simple and very effective. Here’s the downside: it was a little noisy when I would lay on my side and my ear was directly over the chamber. I could hear the plastic air chamber when I moved. Since I always had the contour set pretty low, I just removed the chamber altogether and the pillow is still perfect for me. If you’re a back sleeper, you may not have this problem, since I didn’t really notice the sound when I would lay on my back.

With or without the air chamber, I would never sleep on another pillow again. I believe that it has played a big part in the reduction of my headaches and that’s worth it’s weight in gold to me.

As we settled in for our first sleep on our new mattress, I was battling a little anxiety. I had really high hopes for the intelliBED but I was also remembering the pain and discomfort the morning following our first sleep on the Tempur-Pedic. The same as before, I had been told it was possible (though not probable) that I would feel some discomfort the first few mornings as my body adjusted. But on that extremely well-rested morning, I had not one single ache. Anywhere. And it’s been all rainbows and unicorns since then.

I think it’s in my nature to be slightly skeptical of things that seem too good to be true (which is a good thing, I suppose), so I didn’t want to jump into this review without really knowing if what I felt was accurate or just some sort of beginner’s luck. Turns out, all the hype was true, this mattress really is that great. The last 6 months have been wonderful and I’m looking forward to another 30 years on this mattress.

When we bought that Tempur-Pedic over a decade ago, we made that decision based solely on a few minutes laying on it at the mattress store. Luckily, you don’t need to make such an important decision with so little information. intelliBED will let you try out the mattress for 60 days, risk-free, before you commit to keeping it. That was definitely more than enough time for us to determine if it was the right fit for us.

So if you happen to be in the market for a new mattress and are trying to determine which type/brand is right for you, I hope that this review offers some insight in helping you make a decision. And if you do end up deciding on the intelliBED (which I obviously highly recommend), they are offering Our Paleo Life readers a great deal:

Get a 10% discount with coupon code OurPaleoLife

There is no expiration on that discount, so whenever you’re ready to go, it’s there for you. And if a whole mattress just isn’t in the cards for you right now, they also sell a topper that will vastly improve your quality of sleep.

*Disclaimer: this post does contain affiliate links and if you make a purchase, I will be compensated with a small portion of the sale. That said, I will only promote products that I feel is a benefit to the health and well-being of you and your family and that I 100% believe in.

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