To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Part 3 - Resting on a Cloud

With three previous posts on my sofa bed you might think I'm a trifle obsessed with it - and you'd be right. Here is number 4! The reason for my obsession is that when you live in a studio apartment, it's a very important piece of furniture. It must perform three functions, and they must be performed flawlessly. It's taken some work, but I've now gotten two of the three perfected - comfortable seating and comfortable sleeping. The latter is what I'll address today with a great product that has turned what is normally an unpleasant, lumpy sleep experience into a dream - an Air Dream, in fact.

When I was deciding what sort of sleeping situation I wanted in my new apartment I considered a day bed, but was worried about the room looking like a bedroom all the time and a murphy bed, but that would have required some major demolition and construction with the current layout of my place. A sofa bed seemed like the best option to make the place work for entertaining and still provide me a real bed. If Mary could do it, so could I.

My one concern with the whole sofa bed oeuvre was the notoriously uncomfortable sleeping experience. I set out to see if there had been any advances in sofa bed sleep technology and was pleasantly surprised to find the Air Dream mattress. Its air over coil technology easily eliminates the bar across your back that is the hallmark of a sofa bed mechanism. Simply inflate the mattress with the included air pump...

...and it becomes an 11" thick mattress that feels like a regular bed. Here it is dressed out in some of my vintage sheets.

The next morning just flip up the cap on the air chamber and it deflates quickly.

After making sure all the air is out of the ends and corners it folds up like a normal sofa bed mattress.

I had a few concerns before ordering, so I called the company to ask some questions. I spoke with Sean and he was very helpful. I was worried about what to do if there was a power failure. I couldn't inflate the mattress without power. Sean said that I could sleep on the mattress without inflating it, just like sleeping on a regular sofa bed mattress because under the air bladder is a standard flexible coil mattress. My sleep experience wouldn't be as comfortable as with the bladder inflated, but it would do in a pinch. My second question had to do with longevity. This mattress is really designed to be a guest room replacement. I wanted to know how well it would hold up to daily use. Sean told me that as long as I took care of it (making sure the air had all been expelled before folding it up, not letting the bladder get pinched in the mechanism, etc.) it would be just fine - plus, there is a three year warranty on the mattress, air chamber and valve. So I was sold, I ordered it and haven't looked back. It's been a wonderful solution for me.

You can find them on their website. They're a great solution for guests and daily use alike. Just so you know this isn't a biased review, I did pay full price for my mattress, and I do feel that it was worth it.

No more sofa bed posts. I promise! At least not until I address the third important aspect - how it looks, and get it reupholstered...