murphy@hou2a.UUCP (R.GANNS) (01/16/84)
Anyone contemplating getting a waterbed should first try, somehow, to spend a night or two on one (..and I mean sleeping). Try to do this over a range of temperatures. The prior comments made about poor venting of perspiration are valid. It's also true that bodies will tend to roll together in the middle like marbles in a sink. This is fine for some, but not others. I found that a standard bed with an extra firm mattress was good for a tired back. Waterbeds didn't seem to give the right kind of support, but this is probably an individual thing. Also consider where you'll put it. They weigh (literally) a ton, and your landlord may not like that much mass straining his floor. Drainage is also a consideration--when time comes to move it, you'll have to empty it. This is not a trivial operation. Leaks can also be a problem. Here's an example: A friend of mine lived in an A-frame with an upstairs waterbed. At a particularly rowdy party one night, some drunk found a twelve guage shotgun and a load of OO in a closet and, acting much like the south end of a north-bound horse, discharged the 12-bore thru the cieling, right into the you-know-what. What happened next caused at least one person to spill their drink. It was a minor miracle (especially considering the kind of party it was) that no one was on the waterbed at the time the artillery went off. There are several other more straight-forward ways to put holes in a waterbed that do not require the presence of an idiot. I'm sure you can think of a few. In a nutshell, I found waterbeds not all that great for sleeping. Rich Ganns
jjb@pyuxnn.UUCP (01/17/84)
My wife and I have been sleeping on our waterbed for 2 years now, and we do NOT roll together into the middle of the bed (except when we want to). Jeff Bernardis, AT&T Western Electric @ Piscataway NJ {eagle, allegra, cbosgd, ihnp4}!pyuxnn!jjb
gary@arizona.UUCP (01/17/84)
I've had a waterbed for 5 years, so I can speak from experience. It is the old style bed, a large single celled bladder sitting in a liner. I have found that a thick acrylic blanket under the lower sheet solves the sticky plastic feeling. It also adjusts the rate of heat dissipation, saving energy and helping the too hot/too cold problem. We adjust the temperature about twice a year -- down in the summer to provide a heat sink, up in the winter to provide a heat source. The temperatures vary from 84F to 89F. As to people rolling to the middle, you probably don't have enough water in the bed. One nice thing about waterbeds is that you can adjust the firmness. Ours is soft enough to sway a bit, but there is no tendency of the bed to play matchmaker. -- Gary Levin / Dept of CS / U of AZ / Tucson, AZ 85721 / (602) 621-4231