Ultimate Dreams California King 13" Gel Memory Foam Mattress

I decided to wait a while before writing this review. After sleeping on the DreamFoam Ultimate Dreams mattress for five months now, I have no doubt it has been one of the best purchases I've made on Amazon.The bed I'd been sleeping on was very old and so was the mattress. I was lucky to get a decent night's sleep once a week. Most nights I'd wake up many times and have trouble going back to sleep. In the morning, I'd awake to aches and pains and a headache. I decided I needed to do something and after exhaustive research, I decided on the DreamFoam mattress.It's a leap of faith purchasing a mattress online. You can't test it out first. You have to trust reviews. (Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews here -- they were so helpful!) As others have mentioned, this mattress does compare favorably to the TempurPedic Cloud Luxe, so I did try that mattress out in a store. Once I decided I liked that, my mind was made up to purchase the DreamFoam.The mattress arrived in about a week. I also ordered an inexpensive steel frame platform to put it on, so my entire bed was replaced. Upon unsealing the plastic, the bed began regaining its shape and was nearly full size within 30 seconds. There was a slightly sweet odor, but it was not objectionable to me. The odor completely disappeared within a week.I slept on the bed the first night and fell in love. It was the best sleep I'd had in months! I woke up with a grin on my face. However, over the next week I did experience an adjustment period. I occasionally woke up with a slightly stiff back and was a bit concerned that I'd made a mistake. I have lower back problems and one of the main reasons I wanted a new mattress was to give my back better support. Turns out my body just needed to adjust to being supported properly. My old mattress was so aged and offered so little support that my back didn't quite know how to react to being aligned properly! After a week, the stiffness completely went away and has not returned. In fact, over the past five months I feel that my back has gotten stronger, or perhaps less prone to injury. If I do tweak it, I just go lie down on my bed for a while and it feels so much better. It's awesome! Sleeping on it overnight seems to "cure" it of any soreness.The mattress is plenty soft for me, however softness/firmness are quite subjective. I do like a soft bed. When I first tried out the bed with no sheets, it felt extremely soft. Sheets do firm it up a bit. Personally, I like to use soft jersey knit sheets as I think they preserve the feel of the foam best. Regarding the TempurPedic Cloud Luxe comparison, if anything I think the Ultimate Dreams mattress is perhaps a tiny bit softer, though I realize that's the opposite of what most people say.Softness and firmness are different things, though. To me, firmness indicates the amount of support the mattress gives you. There's plenty of support here for this average sized woman. For my body, I am most comfortable sleeping on my back on the Ultimate Dreams mattress. Side sleeping is also comfortable, but I tend to wake up and change positions once or twice when I'm on my side. If I sleep on my back, I tend to sleep right through the night.Another plus is the bed is so quiet. My old bed with box springs squeaked every time I'd move and was so unpleasant. This bed is silent as a mouse and feels very solid. The memory foam doesn't transfer movement either. So, instead of waking up every time one of my cats jumps on the bed, I sleep right through it!Of course, I can't comment yet on longevity, but so far so good. I have rotated the mattress head to toe twice so far. The manufacturer suggests rotating every three to six months. From now on, I will rotate twice a year. If I experience any problems with the mattress, I will return and update this review.I hope my Ultimate Dreams mattress lasts a long time. For the price, I don't think there could be a better value out there. Compared to the competition, you get nearly equal value for a fraction of the cost. And there's no way to calculate the value of a good night's sleep as we learn more and more all the time how important sleep is for our bodies.Thanks, DreamFoam, for a wonderful product at a great price!!May 17, 2015 UPDATE: I've now had this mattress for well over a year and thought I should provide an update. I'm still sleeping well on the mattress. It is a little warmer than a regular spring mattress in the summer, but not enough to bother me. If you sleep very hot, though, it might bother you. I have been rotating it every six months as indicated by the manufacturer, and it is showing no signs of wear or indentations. Overall, I still believe this was one of my better purchases in a long time, and I would definitely do it over again.

I recently bought the Queen-sized Ultimate Dreams 13" mattress, and I have been very pleased with it. You cannot beat this mattress in terms of price and quality. I am a physician, and I had been on a lengthy search to replace my Euro-top traditional mattress that was no longer comfortable. I was experiencing a lot of morning back pain, and I could rarely get more than 5-6 hours of pain-free sleep. The lack of sleep was taking its toll. I had to do something. I originally looked at air mattresses that one could dial in their ultimate comfort number but was encouraged to look at memory foam as a more practical option- no moving parts or air bladders to fail as well as generally cheaper price points. Since I had never even considered memory foam as a sleep option before, I felt compelled to do my homework and learn as much about memory foam as possible. I visited several mattress shops and asked a lot of questions.Like many of you, I was concerned about how this would retain heat. I like to sleep in a cool environment, and a mattress that would retain body heat would have been just as bad as sleeping in a sauna. I would say this mattress is pretty neutral in temperature. I would have liked it to have been a bit cooler, but, so far, I have not had to get up in the middle of the night because the mattress was too hot. It is extremely comfortable. It is not for someone who likes a very firm sleeping surface. If you want a firm memory foam experience, get an 8"- or 10"-thick mattress instead. I loved how the mattress allowed me to sink into it, like laying on a cloud, yet I felt very supported. I am a big guy, so it was nice to find that balance. My morning back pain began to ease right from the first night. Like all memory foam mattresses, it does take some time to get used to sleeping on foam versus a traditional mattress. You may need to allow yourself up to a month before passing final judgment on any foam mattress. This is my first memory foam mattress. The first few nights of sleep adjustments only served to improve upon my first night's experience. I cannot say my morning back pain has been eliminated; however, it is at least 90% improved, and a little weight loss should correct the last 10%.Other reviewers of the Ultimate Dreams mattresses commented about how this mattress' comfort level was between a TempurPedic Cloud Luxe and Cloud Supreme. I was very skeptical at first. How could this be for a mattress that costs 75% less than the other two? I went to a local shop that had both the Cloud Luxe and Cloud Supreme and spent some time trying both of them out. I liked how both of them supported me and decided to try the Ultimate Dreams based on cost alone. I would wholeheartedly agree with the other reviewers- it really is between a Cloud Luxe and Cloud Supreme. Another potential issue is the chemical smell that often accompanies foam pillows and mattresses. I was pleased to learn that these mattresses are not compressed until you order one. The longer foam is compressed the harder it is to get rid of that smell. (I have 2 memory foam pillows, so I know how off-putting the smell can be.) There was virtually no smell when I unrolled the mattress. Within 5 minutes of unrolling, the mattress was fully usable- both in terms of function and lack of odor.There are a couple of essentials you need to consider when looking at memory foam. You need to get a moisture barrier. Who would want to make a large investment in a mattress only to have it ruined by a spilled drink or accumulated bodily fluids? There are multiple barriers out there, and you should be able to find one to fit your budget. (If you buy this mattress, you can actually afford to get a really nice eucalyptus fibre barrier that dissipates heat.) You should also get a firm foundation like a wood or metal frame on which to place your mattress. I suppose a box spring frame could do for a short time in a pinch if money were really tight, but I would not recommend it. Memory foam works best when it is on a "rock solid" foundation. Amazon sells an easy-to-assemble wooden foundation with a slipcover that makes it virtually indistinguishable from a traditional box spring foundation.I learned about this mattress very late in my search, and I was very glad that I did not buy one of my earlier choices. I would have spent too much to get, essentially, the same product. Also, many of the other memory foam mattresses that were in my budget were firmer by virtue of the fact that they were thinner mattresses. A comparable mattress to this one would easily run $2000 and above. It took a bit of faith, at first, to finalize the purchase. I had never bought a mattress online before. If I did not like it, it would have made an outstanding guest bed for the price. So, I felt there was relatively little risk in making the purchase. I have recommended this mattress to several of my patients, and I will continue to do so. It is made in the USA, and it is absolutely the best quality mattress for the price (as well as for many higher price points). Do yourself a favor and get this mattress. Your back and your wallet will thank you.