Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site azure.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!tektronix!azure!markp
From: markp@azure.UUCP (Mark Paulin)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Waterbed caveats
Message-ID: <2492@azure.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Jan-84 17:47:54 EST
Article-I.D.: azure.2492
Posted: Wed Jan 11 17:47:54 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Jan-84 00:29:21 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 30


I recently made the switch from a foam-core futon (read "very firm mattress")
to a standard waterbed.  I found several problems.

Waterbeds do not "breathe."  The vinyl water bag will not allow perspiration
to leave your skin at its normal rate.  Ever stick to a chair in the summer?
Then you know what I mean about this.  Thick mattress pads help some, but I
still prefer my futon.

I cannot find a comfortable temperature.  I think this is due to the high
specific heat and thermal conductivity of water.  If the bed is comfortably
warm when I get in, I'm bathed in sweat by morning.  If it's cooler, I freeze
when my body heat drops in the night, and I wake up cold.  It seems as though
my body heat never warms the part of the bed I'm on, again unlike my cozy
futon.

I find it difficult to turn over in place because the bed "squishes" so much.
It's easy to *roll* over, but then I crush my girlfriend...

With two people in a waterbed, the support is not even *close* to uniform.
We roll to the middle every night.

I don't like having to *climb* out of bed in the morning.  One gets *onto* a
futon bed, one gets *into* a waterbed.


It's *still* better than sleeping alone on my futon...

Mark Paulin
...tektronix!tekmdp!markp