At the beginning of my contemplative life I left the western style bed and slept every night upon a mat. I have slept thus for most of the proceeding 4 decades. I still sleep on a platform, and not a western style bed.
I found, once I left the western style bed, I began to experience lucid dreaming, and my contemplative life took off with the attainment of abundant superior fruit (maha-phala).
I find the western style bed is simply not comfortable for me. However, being old, and decrepitude taking over, like Michel, I too find I can no longer rest well upon the simple mat I used to rest upon at night.
I never found any of the Japanese style sleeping pads or meditation cushions useful, because they are generally made of cotton, and stuffed with cotton. I find cotton traps heat and moisture, and compacts to become hard, and thus making the depth needed for deep meditation, or lucid dreaming, impossible, and very uncomfortable.
So, I sleep upon a sheet of 3/4" plywood platform that I recycled from a deck repair that I did for the last zendo that I served. Upon that sheet of 3/4" plywood I have laid all of the wool blankets that I have accumulated over the years. During the summer I might just sleep under a single cotton sheet on top of all of the wool blankets. As the cold of winter comes I move down in the layers of wool blankets to keep warm. The bottom layer is a wool prayer rug, which, on the coldest nights, might be all the comfort I have between myself and the sheet of 3/4" plywood platform.
Otherwise I too attempt to observe the 8 precepts of the Uposatha everyday of my life, because I find them conducive to the attainment of abundant superior fruit (maha-phala).
