Revive Your Bedroom Just In Time For Valentine’s Day

What you’re looking for is a mattress that conforms to your spine’s natural curves. It should be neither so firm that your body touches down only at three or four points, nor so soft that you sink into it like marshmallow cream. That can be tough to determine in a quick test-drive at the mattress shop.

One hint: you can change positions up to 40 times while you sleep, so shift, turn, and try out multiple arrangements of limbs. Still, the best way to avoid mattress remorse is to sleep on the one you’re considering ­preferably for several nights in a row.

That may explain the growing popularity of hotel mattress-purchase programs, which have cropped up in hotels from the Ritz-Carlton to La Quinta. You slept soundly every night of a weeklong trip? Bring the bliss home by buying the identical mattress. If that’s impractical, you should find a dealer with an exchange policy that gives you a week or more with a mattress before you commit (many do).

An easier question to answer than “how firm?” is “how big?” If you’re often joined in bed by kids, dogs, and his-and-her laptops, then a king-size bed (76 inches wide) might be right for you. But we’re fans of the 60-inch wide queen, because it better fosters a "couple connection".

Yes, each of you sacrifices eight inches of elbow room, but that means you’re always within snuggling distance. Remember, we’re talking a third of your lives. You shouldn’t be at each other’s throats. You should be in each other’s arms.

Dan and Jennifer: Dan gets way too hot to snuggle in bed.  We make up for it with lots of hugs and kisses during the day, but at night, we keep our distance and stay on our own sides of a great big King Size mattress.

Our bed, which we think is the single most comfortable bed in existence, is a Stearns and Foster, no flip mattress (one of those really thick mattresses that you see in luxury hotels). The mattress is so comfortable that it makes you want to stay in bed all day!)

Get more advice from contributing editors Lauren and Anne Purcell at purcellsisters.com.

Good Night… and Good Luck!