Every home has at least one. From the White House to a shotgun shack in Appalachia, this product is notable for its widespread use across every demographic.

Virtually all of us spend nearly a third of our lives using this product, which commands a wide range of prices -- from less than $100 for basic versions to well over $10,000 for custom-built ones. In addition, this product is so commonplace you might not give it a second thought after the purchasing decision. U.S. manufacturers produce about 35 million units a year, and the industry's revenues neared $6 billion in 2009.

If you haven't guessed it yet, I am referring to the lowly mattress. I recently had a great experience with a particular brand over the last several years, but right now I would avoid or even short the stock.

When my wife and I were newlyweds, one of the most important purchases for our new household was a mattress. I'm a restless sleeper, and my wife sleeps so silently and still that sometimes I have to check to be sure she's still breathing. My rolling about at night disturbs my wife when we sleep on spring-based mattress, so much so that we often sleep in separate beds when in hotels.

The memory of a TV commercial from the late 1990s -- in which a person is jumping on a bed but not spilling a wine glass sitting on the same bed -- sent me looking for this mattress brand. Considering the hyperbole used in commercials, I wasn't expecting the mattress to live up to the TV ad -- but I was willing to give it a try.

Talk about being pleasantly surprised! Not only was this mattress exceedingly comfortable, I could roll around with abandon and my wife would barely feel the movement on the other side of the bed. It truly is the rare product that performs exactly as advertised. It's been three years since our purchase, and this mattress has held up as the most comfortable and practical mattress either of us have ever used.

Based on this positive experience, I took a close look at the company as a potential investment. The mattress is called Tempurpedic, and the manufacturer is Tempur Sealy International (NYSE: TPX).

The world's largest bedding manufacturer, Tempur Sealy was formed by the merger of Tempur-Pedic International and Sealy Corp. this year . The Lexington, Ky.-based company's brands include Sealy, Tempur-Pedic, Posturepedic and Stearns & Foster. The Tempur-Pedic mattress was the result of 10 years of research, originally for NASA, culminating in the founding of the U.S. Tempur business in 1992. The Sealy part of the company was founded in 1881.