Original review (4 stars) –
I’ve been sleeping on this futon nearly every night for the past year. The first few days, I was sore, but then I wasn’t. I don’t use a pillow with it because that feels weird. It’s comfy, it was pretty nice on a low/medium-pile rug, now I have it on vinyl flooring with just a thick blanket under me for some cushioning on my joints. I may buy a tatami mat for it because I want just a LITTLE more cushion.
This all being said, I’m a front/side sleeper, even though I try not to be. I fall asleep with no pillow and my stuffed animal on my side, and I usually wake up in the morning on my front, using the stuffed animal as a pillow. I kind of relish the nights I sleep in a real bed though. The cushioning just can’t be beat.
ALSO! It’s not that easy to fold. It will come unfolded on its own. I keep mine hung over a portable clothing rack during the day. It’s easy to care for: about once a week, I wash the little zipper cover I use and I hang the bare futon on the rack. I get my little portable space heater and turn that on for a while. Since I hang it up every day and heat it about once a week, I’ve never had a problem with mold or smell or anything.
TL;DR it’s a little more work than a mattress, and a little less comfortable, but it’s comfy enough to sleep on every night and I have much more space in my room than if I had a bed!

EDITED REVIEW (5 stars) –
I slept on a new, firm twin bed for a year after my year on the futon. I am now back to sleeping on the futon. It’s my favorite thing.

Changed my review from 4 to 5 stars. I don’t think I’d describe caring for the futon as a hassle. Honestly, the upkeep I described above is pretty minimal, and I feel much cleaner on my futon than I did sleeping on my mattress that couldn’t get aired out the same way.

The daily upkeep of just putting it on my rolling clothes rack takes less time than making my bed.

Currently I just sleep on the futon with nothing underneath on a hardwood floor.

Something I didn’t mention before with the futon is how grounding it feels to sleep on the floor like that. I really like doing yoga on a thin mat, I wear barefoot shoes; I like to feel the ground below me. This futon allows me to do the same when I’m sleeping!

So much love for my futon

This is a wonderful mattress. It came in a slim box. It was in a great vacuum seal bag that can be reused. I took it out and it puffed up quickly. I was very comfortable on this on our hardwood floor. I actually bought it to go on top of a roll-away bed. It will work great. I put it back in the bag and collapsed the bag. It fit back in the box for convenient storage. Great product!

I bought this shikibuton after trying a few mattresses (Nectar, Casper, Sealy Response, Simmons, and most recently Zinus) that simply didn’t work for me. It’s probably stress at work because of busy season, but I’ve been getting an hour or two of sleep before constantly waking up. It’s a vicious, never-ending cycle until I have to wake up for work. After doing some research, someone online recommended getting a shikibuton and sleeping on the floor (on top of a mat). This was such a weird concept to me because I slept on a mattress and frame/boxspring my whole life. However, I was desperate and decided to give this a try. Thankfully I did because I’ve been sleeping like a baby and feeling so energized whenever I wake up. It did take a little getting used to the first few days though. Once I did, I don’t think I can go back. I have even more projects and stress piling up at work, but I can get a full sleep in before waking up. This shikibuton is the perfect combination of comfort and firmness when used alongside my floor mat. I still find it hard to believe because it’s so thin compared to traditional mattresses but it somehow just works. To make it even better, the shikibuton is easy to fold and put away. I have a four story home in the city and sometimes I am too lazy to go down 2 flight of stairs from the master bedroom to my office room/yoga room on the first floor if I want to get some workout in. In less than a minute I can fold my shikibuton, put it away in the closet, and setup my yoga mat. It’s so convenient and I couldn’t do that with a traditional bed before. This shikibuton and concept of sleeping on one has changed my life. It’s so much more affordable compared to all the mattresses I tried and returned back to Costco/Amazon as well. I highly recommend giving a shikibuton a try if traditional mattresses aren’t working for you. I don’t have any back pain or posture issues so I can’t attest to improvements from that aspect of it while using shikibuton.

Plus the shikibuton doesn’t squeak and slide around during adult time compared to a traditional bed.

I’ve had this Japanese futon for quite some time now and I can honestly state that this was extremely comfortable to sleep on. I bought it because I currently have a loft bed, and sleeping near the window on summer nights is difficult. So my solution was to purchase this to sleep more comfortably near the window and for easier maintenance in comparison to an air mattress (It’s exhausting to continuously blow up the air mattress and then deflate it later when I don’t use it).

I got this futon along with purchasing a traditional tatami mat (same brand) for the bottom of the futon. This is supposed to help ground the mattress from moving and to allow the futon to air out (prevents mold). After sleeping on it for the first time, I noticed that my back pain was diminished and I felt better.

When I tried storing it away, it was a simple task, comparable to making your bed. This Japanese futon was light and easy to fold into three as advertised. I just put it to the side when I didn’t need to use it for a bit.

Overall, I recommend that anyone with back pain try this out. You get what you paid for. The quality is amazing and it got fluffy moments after I opened it from its packaging. I’ve considered other brands on Amazon before, and I don’t regret buying this Japanese futon as my final choice. Hope this was helpful to some, thanks for reading! 🙂

I wanted to give the futon a few months use before leaving a review, which I have. It may not be the thickest but it is remarkably comfortable and very light. I have a bad lower back and using this futon has really helped. I sleep better and don’t wake up anyway near so sore. Two nice touches were a thank you note and an origami stork. I bought this futon because I wanted a good quality product and am very pleased with it.