Open Your Eyes Bedding



The only way to really know what is in your mattress is to make it yourself.

We here at OpenYourEyesBedding.com have designed an easy way to make your own organic buckwheat hull mattresses, hull filled pillows and Pure Bond (no added formaldehyde) plywood bedframes.

Our kits are no-sew so you do not need any special skills or tools.  

A hull mattress is fairly firm and the comfort comes from the hulls ability to shift and contour to your body for continuous support.

A hull mattress may not be for everyone but check out our reviews and FAQ to see if making your own mattress is the right choice for you.  

Feel free to reach out to us through our site's contact form if you have any questions!  

PIE Only members get a special discount HERE

Open Your Eyes Bedding

I have looked into these beds and really really want one.

I built myself a pair of buckwheat hull pillows to try out the feel and it is excellent. They have a lovely weight and solidity, while also moulding perfectly into what ever shape you want. I have back and neck issues, and was for ever beating up and folding conventional pillows to get them to support my head. Not any more.

The hulls have been compared to a beanbag, but this doesn't seem to be a fair comparison. My experience of bean bags is that the beans inside flow and move very easily. If you used them as a pillow, even a slight move of the head would end up with you losing support. The buckwheat hulls seem to lock together a bit due to their shape so while you can easily mold them to what ever shap you need, they also stay firm and supportive.

Hi Michael,

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with sleeping on buckwheat hulls.  You are spot on how you describe the difference between beanbag pellets and hulls. The Mattress Underground forum described our mattress "beanbag-like" because that is only what they imagined it would be like (they never felt our mattress) and that always bothered me! Would you mind if I quote you on our site? I think it is good to understand this difference.  We do ship our kit fabric to the UK often and we have lots of kit fabric on clearance right now to offset the shipping costs.  Reach out to me through our contact form if you would ever like a shipping quote.  

Oooh. Fabric on clearance, right before xmas? I'll be in touch

And yes, please do quote me!

Question

How are these mattresses when used directly on the floor, instead of on a frame?

They are fine on the floor (lots of airflow throughout) but you will want to put something down (thin rug or a wool blanket) below to add some grip.  You would not want to put this mattress on a slick polished wood floor for example as the pods will want to slide apart.  

Send me your full shipping address and the size kit you would like to me on the contact link below and I will send you a shipping quote.  

https://openyoureyesbedding.com/pages/contact-us

I have ordered the kit, and the hulls today. I'll definitely be posting photos and some updates as we build it, and as we get used to sleeping on it. My wife is a little concerned, but she isn't the one with the bad back!

Thanks for your order Mike (your kit will ship today) and I hope it will help your back.

Most of our reviewers mention reduced back pain + better sleep. I no longer have back pain and my husband has a fused spine from a rock climbing fall and a hull mattress works well for him too.

The benefit to a modular mattress is that, if for some reason it does not work for one partner, their side could be switched out to another style mattress, especially for a King mattress that is basically the size of two long twin mattresses.  Glad your wife is open to giving it a try!

Thanks for sharing your progress here and please let me know if you need any help along the way.

We have an older memory foam mattress that she still loves, but it now sags too much for me. We'll have to see how it goes. I do like the idea of a half-and-half bed though. We have a single memory foam that should could use on her side. She isn't a fan of the pillows I made, but I think that is because I made them too fat for her, but they are just right for holding my neck and head when I side sleep. I have pretty broad shoulders, so need a thick and supportive pillow.

My kit arrived a few weeks ago and we have been sleeping on it for about 2 weeks now. I thought I'd give a bit of a write up.

Assembly and Troubleshooting

Filling was "easy" but time consuming, and there were a few pitfalls along the way. Firstly, I measured out the correct amount of hulls for one pod and used that as a guide for filling the others. Unfortunately I didn't have a suitable box/tub that could both fit enough hulls and then transfer easily into the pods. It ended up being a bit of a faff, and I think in the end some of the pods ended up being a bit overfull. My two boys "helped". The 18 month old kept climbing into the huge tub of hulls and hiding his toys in them.

I ordered the discount kit, which consisted of shorter "end of roll" fabric sections. This worked fine, but I inadvertently ended up tying some of the pods substantially tighter than others. I realised later that the pods needed to be fairly loosely tied to allow the hulls to settle and shift when you sleep on them. Our first few nights were rather more lumpy and uncomfortable than we had hoped. I disassembled the bed and adjusted the knots on every pod so they were all much looser. The end result is a much more even surface which adjusts easily to your body shape in the night.

Mattress sizes - this is entirely my fault for making assumptions, but I ended up with too many pods and too many hulls. UK mattress sizes are substantially different from US sizes. The mattress dimensions were given, but I made assumptions. End result is I have enough left over for an whole kids bed!

Bed base/Bed frame - I adjusted our existing Ikea bed frame to support the pods, by adding a heavy sheet of plywood. The pods would fall through if it were slats. This worked well structurally. However, the bed frame that is advertised on the website definitely would have advantages. Specifically, the pods when assembled don't quite cover the whole base that we have. As a "natural" kit product some variability is to be expected, obviously. The end result is that the pods move around a bit on the ply, and sometimes in the night you find that you have settled slightly between two pods. It isn't uncomfortable, but also isn't ideal. The bed frame sold to go with the pods solves two problems. It is adjustable in width, so you can size it to fit your mattress exactly. It also has an outer "lip" to hold the pods so that they cannot spread apart in the night. I won't be shipping a bed frame from America, but might look into improvising one of our own.

Because we placed the pods directly on a hard and fairly smooth surface (plywood) they shift around a little. After a few nights they need adjusting back into place. It only takes a few seconds though. I realised later that in the FAQ somewhere it suggests putting a heavy woolen blanket down beneath the pods if you are using a smooth surface. This stops them moving so freely. At some point I will do this with ours.

Now the important bit. What is it like to sleep on?

Absolutely brilliant! (caveat - my wife isn't entirely sold on it yet).

Firstly, you need to realise that it does not feel anything like a sprung or memory foam mattress. It is much much harder when you first sit or lie down on it. In fact, your first instinct when sitting on it is probably that it isn't very inviting to sleep. The best analogy I've found is for sleeping on a beach. When you first lie down the sand is firm, and possibly a bit lumpy and uneven. You feel those lumps and bumps. But as with a beach, if you spend 20 seconds adjusting things you can adjust it to fit your body curves. Unlike a sandy beach, the hulls themselves also have a degree of spring/give. It is less than a normal mattress, but for me the combination of adjusting to body shape and softness is perfect.

Before this I was waking multiple times per night with back pain and stiffness in my legs. After the first few nights of getting used to it, those aches and pain have gone. Completely. I've found myself sleeping comfortably in the same position for 6+ hours without stirring. I don't think I have done that in a decade! It hasn't "fixed" all of my back and muscular problems - they stem from lots of things including bad posture, desk work and old injuries - but it has certainly eased things and removed one aggravating factor.

One thing we have learned is that getting back in on top of your divots and dents from the night before is not ideal. It is nicer to start from "fresh". I've got into the morning routine of:

Throwing the covers back

Lifting/gently tossing each pod to fluff them

Adjusting their positions against each other.

Total time a little over 60 seconds each morning.

When you come back in the evening you get to lie down on a softer and fluffier mattress, that adjusts much more easily to your body, rather than the bumps you left from the night before.

My wife's view is a bit different. She is sleeping fine on it, but finds it less inviting/welcoming that the old much softer mattress. I'm totally willing to concede this. When you first get into bed it doesn't have that snuggly comforting feeling of a soft mattress. She is also not the most patient person. She expect to get into bed and it just work. Instead of taking 60 seconds to get comfortable, by nudging and adjusting she just lies awkwardly on lumps. This is definitely an attitude/learning thing. Despite all that she is sleeping soundly and deeply - or as much as is possible when you have an 18 month old in the house!

Overall I'm very happy with the purchase and have been recommending it to others.

Interesting to read