Dormia Mattress Might Be Your Ticket to a Good Night's Sleep in an RV

Kentucky RVers Journal - Fall 2004
Finley Willis - Publisher

Advanced Comfort is a New York company that has been manufacturing mattresses since 1971. The firm's Dormia brand mattress is sold factory-direct and through retail locations in 10 states, with Indianapolis and Cincinnati hosting the closest outlets to Kentucky.

Back in 1996, in their quest for new customers, Advanced Comfort's savvy marketers decided that the internet offered opportunities to expand their reach. After pioneering in online retail, it was natural for the company to continue to explore nontraditional markets for high quality sleep products.

Although many current generation recreational vehicles come with good quality mattresses, such has not always been the case, as some RV manufacturers aimed for more affordable units. Advanced Comfort's management realized that an untapped market existed among the estimated 30 million RV enthusiasts traveling America's highways in motor homes, travel trailers, folding camping trailers and truck campers.

The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, the industry trade group, puts a total of 7.2 million on the estimated number of camping units now in use. Advanced Comfort, thinking that a lot of campers would sleep much better on a Dormia mattress, decided to make its pitch directly to RVers by advertising in Kentucky RVers Journal and some other camping publications.

Brian M. Benko, vice president of Advanced Comfort, also invited us to test the Dormia product and write a report on the test. Here's what we learned.

Unless you sleep on a twin or smaller bed, you will need two strong individuals to handle the mattress. My full-sized Versailles Memory Foam mattress weighed around 100 pounds and was eight inches thick, an indication that the mattress has the right stuff to outlast the 25 years covered by the company's limited warranty.

Dormia recommends use of a good mattress pad for sanitary reasons, but the Versailles, currently priced around $500 for the twin and $700 for the full-size, comes standard with a removable, washable and replaceable tricot lyocell cover.

Dormia mattresses use Visco-Elastic foam, one of the latest developments in memory-foam technology. Three inches of the material, tops a high density five inch foam core.

When you normally sleep on a conventional innerspring mattress, the memory foam takes some getting used to because of the way it contours and molds to your body. The feeling is akin to sleeping on a waterbed, but without the sloshing and waves! The evenness of the support seems to provide great pressure relief and helps prevent some of the pains common to older joints. Dormia also says the Visco-Elastic foam encourages increased circulation and deeper sleep, but my non-scientific snoozing could not verify that.

Whether RVing or at home, good quality and adequate quantity of sleep is vital to a healthy lifestyle, since most of us will spend about one-third of our life sleeping. If you are looking to improve the quality of your sleep, I'd recommend you check out the Dormia ad elsewhere in this issue. Even if your RV requires a non-standard mattress, the company can make one to fit. Sleeping better will make you an even happier camper!