My Dad hasn't slept in a bed for at least 10 years. Little did I know at the time that he was experiencing Mild COPD. He is now in the end stages (10% lung capacity) and I can tell that he's afraid of dying.
Every night, the ALF staff has to give him Ativan in addition to his Seroquel in an attempt to get him to calm down and try to rest. He has a recliner, but seems to be experiencing shortness of breath when trying to rest there. He tries to perch himself in the corner of the sofa so he's somewhat upright, but lately, he can't seem to get relief which means I get multiple late night calls begging me to come over (NOT FUN).
I just learned that Dad has been sitting on the ottoman, dozing off and falling off of it, so the ALF wants to remove the Ottoman from his room (YAY! ANOTHER BATTLE).
Soooo, I think it's time to FORCE (this should be an adventure) Dad to start sleeping in a hospital like bed. There's a bed in Dad's room. He just has NEVER slept in it. The "moving mattress" beds are insanely expensive, so I wondered if anyone knew of any resources for me to find one at a discount.
Maybe if it doesn't LOOK like a hospital bed, Dad will sleep in it.
The only battle after that is trying to figure out how to get the TV close enough to the bed where he can see / hear it.
Some medical appliance warehouses will rent them out... thus try before you buy. I did that with Dad's recliner where he could raise the seat so he can easily stand up, just to make sure he would like it. He loved it, best recliner EVER !!
Another thought. Have you looked at accessories for a regular bed? During recovery for one of my back surgeries I used a huge pillow thing that resembled the top part of an easy chair - it even had arms. You just place it at the head of the bed and it makes it comfortable to be sitting at about a 10 or 11 o'clock position.