How to get a great night sleep … in an RV

When we bought our camper secondhand, it came with a few “extras.” Things like splattered spaghetti sauce on the ceiling. Squished cookie crumbs under bunk mattresses. A sofa that dipped. And a queen mattress with a small canyon in the middle.

So we scrubbed off the sauce stains, sucked up the cookie crumbs, swapped out the sofa, and slapped down a mattress pad. And it was all good–well, most of it. Not so much the bed part. We tried adding another mattress pad, but instead of gaining a better night’s sleep, we were still having a Princess and the Pea experience.

So this camping season Jarrett decided enough was enough and he started doing his research. And a few days later the solution arrived at our doorstep.

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Since we love our Prime membership, Jarrett’s search for a new camper mattress started and ended with Amazon. As he compared a slew of brands and options he was consistently reading reviews that indicated memory foam mattresses can make you hot at night, especially in the summer (hello peak camping season). This information helped him narrow the search down to the Lucid 6-inch gel memory foam mattress.

And two days later it shipped right to our doorstep in a nice, long box. Here’s the little video we made of our unboxing:

After removing the mattress roll from the box, you use the included tool (which is essentially an envelope opener) to carefully slice off the plastic wrapping. The queen mattress unrolled perfectly in our bed area, with even a little wiggle room to spare. For best results, Lucid says it’s important for the mattress to be placed on a flat surface, so the plywood surface of our bed area worked well.

After unboxing the mattress, Lucid recommends you allow it to sit for 48 hours before use so it can expand to its full size. It’s also helpful to let it air out a bit since it has a bit of “factory” smell to it when it arrives.

The verdict:

So far we’ve spent four nights sleeping on the new camper mattress. It is a firm mattress, so if you like things soft and cushy, this model is not the mattress for you. However, our 35-year-young backs are finding the firm but padded support to be just perfect. And so far the gel layer seems to be working to keep us cool–although we haven’t hit the hottest part of summer yet, so time will tell. Over on Amazon is a handy chart to help you pick the right Lucid mattress based on the level of support you are seeking:

How about you? Have you replaced your camper mattress? If so, what type or brand did you go with?