My multi-layered bed: wood slats with GOLS-certified organic latex strips, three organic wool toppers, organic wool felted wool pad.
I’m writing this because last Tuesday morning—before going off on an overnight trip—I glued some strips of GOLS-Certified Organic Latex to the wood slats on my bed frame.
I’ve had these latex strips sitting in their shipping box for a few months waiting for a day when I could let the glue dry overnight. Either I had to go sleep somewhere else, or I had to sleep on the floor. So I waited until I was going somewhere.
When I came home the next evening, I put my wool mattress and three wool toppers from Shepherd’s Dream back on the bed, and laid down. Immediately I said, “This feels wonderful!”
I had probably the best night’s sleep that night. Ever. And every night since I’ve slept really deeply all through the night. And Larry too. Sleeping like a baby.
I can only come to one conclusion: Like Goldilocks, I finally got my bed “just right.”
39 Years of Natural Beds
I’ve been sleeping on natural beds for almost forty years. I was committed to sleeping on a nontoxic mattress, but they were not always the most comfortable.
In 1978, my first nontoxic bed was a metal foldaway cot frame (with springs) on which I piled a stack of folded cotton thermal blankets. Not comfortable at all but it wasn’t toxic, so I slept better.
Then I got a cotton futon and slept on it on a wood floor. VERY uncomfortable, but it wasn’t toxic.
Then I got my first wool mattress, which was up on wood slats. Much more comfortable, but that was before it was discovered that a thick wool mattress wasn’t the best design because it couldn’t breathe. The cotton cover molded and disintegrated within a couple of years.
And then my next mattress was the Shepherd’s Dream wool mattress that I still sleep on today. And I have to say, after all these years it’s still like new.
At first I had it on the wood slats, but it’s not very thick, so I could feel the slats. I added two wool toppers and that was a lot better. (Later I added a third wool topper after purchasing one when I was out of town and needing to sleep on a synthetic mattress. When I got home, I just put it on my at-home mattress.)
Then Shepherd’s Dream introduced latex strips for the wood slats. I was reluctant to try them because I didn’t like the smell of latex.
At the time the only latex you could get was a mix of natural and synthetic. It smelled very strongly of what I used to call “latex smell” and I had to air the strips for several months before I could have them in the bedroom.
And then they just got to a point last October where they were crumbling and I had to take them off because they were creating piles of dust under the bed.
When I removed the strips, just having the mattress on the wood slats was less comfortable.
I really needed some new latex strips.
GOLS-Certified Organic Latex
I was reluctant to replace my latex strips because I really really really didn’t like the smell of what I thought was latex.
And then the folks at Happsy sent me a sample of their GOLS-certified organic latex. It is completely different from the natural/synthetic latex I had before.
I had assumed the odor I didn’t like was the natural odor of latex. Not so! The odor I didn’t like is completely absent from the GOLS-certified organic latex, so it must have been the synthetic latex I was objecting to.
But the best part is this latex is both nontoxic and comfortable. It is both soft and supportive at the same time.
It took me more than thirty years to get my “just right” bed. Part of the wait was that the materials just weren’t available before. But now we have a whole new generation of mattresses available with ever-improving materials.
I really didn’t know before this week how much difference a comfortable mattress makes in quality of sleep. Now I know. Amazing.
