I can fully sympathise with your position. After one night "sleeping" down below my wife announced that there was insufficient padding for her to get comfortable. I resisted the obvious comment (for once) and had to agree with her that the joints in the bed seemed perfectly placed to rub on the boney joints of our skeletons. With three kids you no doubt have to look for the economical solution first and some of the gear is ridiculously expensive. I found a solution which was both comfortable and cheap, and works for us. I started at the local carpet shop and bought an off-cut of underlay (choose your own thickness and spongyness). I cut it to the shape of the downstairs bed then cut it in half length ways for ease of storage (rolled up and secured with elastic sewn to length). My wife made a cover for each (gingham if you must know) so that washing was easy. When rolled out this eliminated all of the bumps and gaps, but was not the most comfortable to lie on so next we made a tight fitting cover for an old duvet (again for ease of washing). A mattress topper would also do. This goes on top of the underlay and makes a really comfortable bed on which to lie. The two pieces of underlay are rolled up and the duvet goes into a stuff sack and stored on the rear shelf when not in use. They are a little bulky but not so that it causes us a problem. What you use to cover yourselves is up to you. We use another duvet. Both duvets are used on the upper bunk so we are not really wasting space, although I appreciate with three kids the logistics will be a bit different for you. Comfort factor - 10/10. Cost - less than £20.
