While this is a really cute idea, beds are not something to joke about, and I'd really like to see some good evidence that long-term sleeping on this bed doesn't do any damage.

I usually dislike people how just insult other people's ideas, but in this case there is a genuine chance of people causing themselves serious damage. Does anyone know of any evidence of this actually helping people sleep better?

If a few years down the line this has revolutionised people's sleeping, I'll be all for one. If instead people have trapped nerves by sinking slightly into gaps, then I'll be glad I let someone else test it first!

This is of course wild speculation, but with the materials this is made of, I'm guessing it's a lot safer than the crappy, cheap mattresses many people sleep on. I've woken on my arm many times to no ill effects, and I can't possibly see this putting more pressure on a nerve than my own body weight (never mind someone else's).

Agreed.

From experience (broken leg), any compression on your body including limbs leads to a shitty night's sleep so I don't think I'd want to wedge bits of my body in gaps then lie on them.

My other half would also hate this.

The best night's sleep we've both found is on a bed which is pretty much like a piece of concrete with a sheet on it :)

The best night's sleep we've both found is a bed each in different rooms.

That's one of the most sad realizations I've ever had, but I found it to be true, as well.

Not enough robot battle space. :) http://xkcd.com/335/

Honestly, that's what I was expecting based on the headline.

I was tempted to post it too!

Have you looked into whether it is dangerous to have a newborn infant sleeping on this matress?

A cot/bed with a poor fitting mattress can cause death by the infant rolling into a gap/crevice and suffocating. (Infants don't have the strength to lift their head or crawl out.) For various reasons, it is also relatively common for parents to sleep with the baby in their bed (despite the risk of crushing). This mattress has crevices all over it, so would seem to present a severe risk of suffocation to infants.

---

edit: crevasse -> crevice

You should never have a newborn sleeping directly on a mattress next to you. Ever. Regardless of the mattress.

Research does not support this view. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15911459, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18046747, and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8506461, among others.

From one of these papers:

"At very least, we hope that the studies and data described in this paper, which show that co-sleeping at least in the form of roomsharing especially with an actively breast feeding mother saves lives, is a powerful reason why the simplistic, scientifically inaccurate and misleading statement 'never sleep with your baby' needs to be rescinded, wherever and whenever it is published."

Co-sleeping while breastfeeding actually reduces incidents of SIDS, and benefits both the infant and mother by allowing both to get more sleep. The biggest risk factor is if an adult co-sleeps while intoxicated, which is entirely preventable.

I have no problem with room-sharing, or even an in-bed cradle. Those have obvious benefits without some of the risks of placing a baby on a mattress next to you.

Thanks!

Agree. But it needs to be taken into account, as a significant number of people do it, despite all the reasons not to.

I wonder why they don't have a single sized one. Because where cuddling is optional on a double bed, it pretty much is the only way to share a single bed.

Also interesting to consider is that it won't fit all types of beds. As with a lattice bottom bed, slices could fall through, and with a box-spring bed the slices at the top and bottom of the mattress could simply slip over the edge.

It looks like they run a pair of fasteners through the whole stack of slices, to prevent them from separating too much.

That will definitely prevent the ends from falling off. Not sure how effective it will be on a slat base.

Seems like it solves the cuddling problems but creates a whole new how-to-have-sex problem, I can imagine a bunch of positions would be made rather awkward by this mattress.

Please, enlighten us.

When you try to put a hand/elbow/knee down on the mattress, there's a good chance you'll slip in to one of the slits in the mattress.

Although the leverage you could get by digging your feet in would be crazy. Silk sheets feel nice but are wicked slippery.

Good thinking!

On the other hand, you can stick your feet into the slits for better leverage.

Or maybe a whole new sets of positions will be invented.

I like how there's a new Kickstarter ripoff explicitly for projects that have no prototype and whose "founders" have no industry experience. Makes it easier to get in the right mindset for maximum enjoyment before clicking.

Their price comparison chart also seems extremely misleading: I have a natural latex mattress and it was not $4000. It was $700.

indiegogo existed as a fundraising platform before kickstarter (but it was originally only for filmmakers).

I also noticed that the higher reward levels, which I would expect to be all inclusive, have a lot of fine print like "Please add $150 for domestic shipping"... Seems like a way to milk it.

The video does have a fully working prototype?

because all kickstarters are created by reputable people with legit "industry experience" who always produce.

...NOT!

Though this is not the worst indiegogo project I've seen, Kickstarter at least has a policy against overhyping a product that doesn't exist. (That's why we see so many of these projects on sites that do allow this overhyping now.)

How would you keep it clean? Imagine stretching out and finding something.. unmentionable .. hidden away in a crevice, urlgh!

Bedsheets...

stretchy rubber bedsheets?

Did you even read the linked site?

You shower ;)

Great idea. Some thoughts:

- like xkcd suggests, the only really important slit is for the arms.

- couldn't this be simulated by taking a regular mattress and simply cutting a slit in the right place?

- has anyone tried doing that?

Uh, have you SEEN the inside of a "regular mattress"? Cutting a slit in it would destroy it, plus sticking your arm into would be like sticking your arm into a pile of chicken wire fencing.

One of those all-foam mattresses might work, though. Not sure.

Interesting idea, but the name maybe should be nudged in a different direction. When I saw the title, I expected this to be the next evolution of those creepy Japanese full body printed cushions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_pillow

Those looking to make less of a commitment to cuddling might consider the Cuddle Pillow:

http://www.armadillow.com/

There are a lot of potential pitfalls with this, the first one I can think of being having sex. I wouldn't want to have slits in the mattress that my arms or legs could get caught in when having sex.

Maybe you're doing it wrong?

Thought I seen that somewhere.. Googling it [1] shows results as far back as 2008. So unless he is the inventor himself, he is just blatantly lying when he states "... the solution I came up with is the Cuddle Mattress."

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=cuddle+mattress

If you watch the video, he explains he had the original idea for some design contest which he won in 2007 [0] and then received so many emails and requests that he eventually decided to do it.

[0] http://yeahsnos.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/love-mattress/

"When I first created the mattress back in 2007..." - from the video

Good idea. But in practice, how does it work with a bedsheet?

RTFA.

I've seen this idea before, and it does look like it would solve the problem nicely.

Hard to lug around a mattress when you're moving house (if you're renting), though.

This comment confused me on first reading. In Australia, it's very much common that you bring your own bed (and other furniture) with you from place to place. (You can get furnished apartments, but they're much less common, at least in Sydney.)

Are you in the US, or somewhere else?

Not the OP, but in the UK(well, London at least) it's very common to have furnished apartments and not to lug your furniture every time you move.

Access to many apartments and houses in London is very restricted. You'd have to take your furniture apart to get it through the door and up the staircases.

That said, a mattress will fold and bend round corners easily, so I don't think this is a big issue if you're renting. (Getting rid of the landlord-provided mattress may be a bigger problem in my experience)

Yes, I do live in the UK. At least for now, I can't afford an unfurnished flat. And so far, I've had to move quite a bit.

Apartments in the US usually come with heavy appliances such as refrigerators and ovens but not furniture. Furnished apartments are also much less common here.

I bet this one is easier than others, since it looks like most of it breaks apart into slices.

Really nice idea and all...I have just one doubt, why would someone want a t-shirt or hoodie with the logo of a mattres?

To --- when in conversation with a nice lady --- nudge the topic towards the mattress, tickling her curiosity to try it out ;)

Way to get maced :)

Ah the dating life of HN

Price anchoring / gimmicks for lower tiers? The idea is cool enough to reward on its own, but if you can reward it and get stuff, well, that might push a few up a tier.

Get with the program, man, you can't have a startup without tshirts! They usually end up being 90% of the actual products shipped.

Yep, I kinda like the mattress, but even if I'll get one, I don't want hoodies in the package.

"Cuddle More" is a great idea for a t-shirt. Too bad the proposed design looks so industrial.

I think I may have just come up with their new slogan: "The seedless watermelon of mattresses".

Very annoyed. I had this exact idea about 18 months ago, but didn't do anything with it. Just goes to show that success is really about hard work and commitment rather than just a great idea. Kudos to you. I hope it changes the world.

That's OK, he came up with the idea years ago and he posted on the web a few times. I don't think you would have got very far before being sued.

This guy came up with a similar idea 2 years ago.

http://txchnologist.com/post/33432483866/txchnical-improveme...

This guy won reddot design award in 2007. So this is much more older than 2 years

Okay, I must be missing something...forget about sexual positions or suffocating infants for a second: how on earth do you keep this thing clean?

I'm mostly curious regarding how you put sheets on this bed and still use it for its intended purpose.

Might I humbly suggest that you READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE.

So this is a HN-worthy piece of news.. :)

It's an innovative solution to a common real-world problem. This is exactly the kind of content HN is built for.

It used to be called Startup News after all.

A regular memory foam mattress solves this problem more cleanly, comfortably, and safely.

I am not sure about that. I slept on a regular foam mattress with company, and the experience could be improved.

Portlandia. zzz.

I'm sorry!

Shut up and take my money.