Obviously, bed preferences are highly personal. I'm very happy with the bed I bought two years ago, the most comfortable I've ever had - its a low platform bed with hard wood slats butted against each other head to foot, and a thin futon mattress with a thin down mattress cover on top of that. Its like throwing a good, thick sleeping bag on top of a wooden deck. I have compression fractures in my lower vertibrae, and this bed works better for me than any other I've tried. There is no way I can sleep on a water bed.