Not An Ad For Nectar

Since my move at the end of 2024, my hips hurt. Not when I’m sitting still or even when I’m walking around a bunch. But when I first stand up or get out of bed, my hips hurt.

My first thought was, “I am aged.” Except that I’m only 38, so the likelihood that both of my hips are crapping out on me at the exact same time and in the exact same way is miniscule.

Nay, gentle reader. Twas not the years, but the mattress killed the beast (read: made the hips hurt).

When I found out I was moving I took advantage of the upheaval to make some changes. Most notably I threw out a bunch of crap that had been sitting around my apartment untouched, I got a new couch, and I got a new bed frame and mattress.

I was most excited about a brand new bed. Never in my adulthood had I ever had my very own brand new bed. Over the years after college I have slept primarily either in the bed that used to be my parents’ bed when I was a kid or on a bed that was gifted to me by a friend when I moved into my first apartment. Neither mattress owed anyone anything when I started sleeping on them. Thankfully, though, I sleep like a dead person and can sleep pretty much anywhere without issue.

Or so I thought.

I ordered my new bed online after having tried it out over a few months of spending a couple nights a week sleeping at my ex-boyfriend’s house. While we were together, he had replaced his bed and the new one was SO COMFORTABLE. Like, SOOOOO comfortable. I asked what kind he had gotten and he said, “Nectar”. So when it came time for me to buy a new bed I was like, “cool, I’m buying a Nectar.”

Turns out Nectar has probably 10 or 12 different mattress options. I read the descriptions and picked the one that sounded the most like the one I had slept on and ordered that. If I had been less stressed about moving/processing a breakup, I probably would have just texted him to ask what kind of mattress he got, but I didn’t think of it at the time.

I did eventually talk to him again and told him about my new bed and we compared notes on which kind we each got. Turns out we did get the same one except he got the version that has springs and memory foam; I just got the memory foam. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t the exact same mattress because his is, again, SO COMFORTABLE. But I figured it certainly couldn’t be that different and assumed it would be fine.

The first night I slept in my new bed was New Year’s Eve. That was the day that I moved. The morning started around 6 or 6:30 am and from that time we were running around from old apartment to new apartment, picking up and dropping off the rental truck, getting food for all my glorious moving helpers, deciding where to set up furniture, and beginning to unpack. When I unpacked the bed and unrolled the mattress (Nectar mattresses arrive rolled up in a box, wrapped in plastic, and you unroll them and let them expand to full size), I had a squadron of helpers. I remember the unrolling the mattress part being super fun on a very stressful day.

Anyway, after all of the moving and unpacking, we went to my uncle’s house for New Year’s Eve. It was wonderful to be able to get away from the chaos of an unpacked apartment, to walk away from the stress for a little while and just enjoy some family time. But by the time I got back home and was able to go to bed, it was after 1 am. I was exhausted, to say the least.

It takes a couple days for a Nectar mattress to fully expand, but you can use it after a few hours. It had been at least 10 or 11 hours since we unrolled it, so I crawled into that bed and relished the feeling of sinking into that memory foam. Nothing is better when you’re that tired than a bed that absorbs you into comfort. I slept very well that night.

Over the next few months I continued to sleep well on my new bed, but as we already I know I can sleep anywhere. The sleeping part was not the problem; it was the pain I was beginning to notice in my hips.

After a few weeks of being in denial about it, I finally admitted to myself that my very comfortable mattress was the problem. It was too soft, so when I slept on my sides my hips would sink too far into the mattress, overextending the muscle (muscles?) on the outside of my hips. Hence the pain when I would get up and move around. I realized that the springs really did matter and I was missing those springs in this otherwise very comfortable mattress.

Thankfully, Nectar offers a 365 night trial period. I was able to contact them, tell them the problem, buy a new mattress with springs, and get the old one picked up all with one email and two phone calls. Very easy.

Less easy was unrolling the new mattress myself, but I was determined. Once the mattress picker-upper guy had removed the old mattress from my bed, I set about unboxing and unrolling the new mattress. This became a comedy of errors.

I believe myself to be a fairly capable woman. When something breaks or I cannot figure something out, I can use my brain and also Google to figure it out most of the time. I like it when I can problem solve on my own; it makes me feel smart and independent.

The first challenge was taking the mattress out of the box. These mattresses are HEAVY. I had gotten it into my bedroom by shoving the box onto a throw rug and dragging the rug through my apartment. But the box came up to my chest, so getting the mattress out was a challenge; there was no way I could lift it out of the box. A few moments of consideration and I solved this issue by flipping the box on it’s side and pulling the box off the mattress rather than trying to pull the mattress out of the box. Success.

The rolled up mattress was wide enough that I could heave each end up onto the bed frame one side at a time without too much trouble. Then came the unrolling part. I started pulling on the plastic and the mattress slowly rolled up the bed frame until it was at the headboard. Then it became a question of how to move the mattress back down the bed frame so that I could continue unrolling it. I tried pulling on the plastic wrap from the foot of the bed, but that only pulled the slats out of place. Instead I had to grab hold of the mattress from the side and put my back into heaving it back down the bed frame. That worked, but twas sweaty work. I had to repeat the process several times to get all of the plastic unrolled.

Once you get all of the plastic off the rolled up mattress, it kind of pops open. Not fully open to a flat mattress, but it no longer resembles a tube. It looks like, well, a mattress that has had all of the air sucked out of it and then has been folded in quarters.

So I got all of the outer plastic off, but it was now stuck under the mattress. Also, if I were to unfold the mattress in the way that it was naturally unfolding, it would have been upside down. The next step was to turn the thing over and get the plastic out from under it. Plus, there was another layer of plastic wrapped around the mattress keeping it from expanding fully.

I worked for a while shifting the mattress slowly this way and that, but couldn’t get the plastic out. I went to get scissors and starting cutting the plastic away. Then I accidentally cut the plastic that was keeping the air out. The mattress rapidly began to fully expand.

You can imagine how this went. I gave in to the mattress’ wishes to expand and just let it happen. So then I had a queen size mattress upside down and backwards on top of a bunch of plastic.

There was a lot of grunting. There was more sweating. There was a fair amount of swearing. But I did finally get the thing flipped over and turned around the way I wanted it.

I have not yet slept on the new mattress; it is still expanding as I write this. I am currently couch surfing on my own couch for another day or so. Then I will make the bed and crawl into it with great expectations for a lovely night’s sleep as well as the eventual departure of the hip pain. Either that, or I find out that my hips are crapping out on me. I know I’ve got the right mattress now, so if the pain sticks around I think the only other possible answers are age or my body is crying out for me to stretch more often.

Personally, I’m hoping it was the mattress.