After a man revealed he'd been sleeping on a fiberglass-filled mattress that was making him vomit and break out in rashes, nearly a dozen mattress companies sent him free beds

• An influencer posted to TikTok to say he'd been 'sleeping on fiberglass' for months.
• Cody Jacob told Insider he's been experiencing mysterious illnesses for most of the year.

Twenty-six-year-old influencer Cody Jacob had been waking up with various unusual maladies for the better part of a year. For the first three months, he threw up "for an hour" each morning. Then came the full-body hives, and, he told Insider, a diagnosis of Heat urticaria — an allergy to hot water that made him feel like every inch of him had been "stung by a bee" in the shower. When he tried to fall asleep, he said, it felt like he "had hair all over my face."

But, after stumbling upon PSA TikToks about fiberglass in mattresses, Jacob came to a "daunting" realization. He shone his flashlight around his room and said he found everything — his walls, his carpet, his desk — glittering back at him.

The ongoing sicknesses that he told Insider had so far stumped his primary care doctor were, he believed, being caused by living in a room covered in a fine fiberglass powder. The source, he told Insider, was an $800 mattress he'd purchased on Amazon.

Fiberglass, a material made of glass and reinforced plastic, is often used in mattresses (especially memory foam mattresses) and is used as a cost-effective flame retardant. Eric Rodriguez, the CEO of Innerbody Research, told mattress review website Sleepopolis that fiberglass shouldn't be an issue unless you're directly exposed to it.

"Fiberglass inside a mattress is okay if it stays in," he told the outlet, "but if it gets out, it can wreak havoc on your house and your health." If the mattress cover gets worn out or is defective, the tiny fibers can get all over everything." Once it's out, it's hard to contain; it can even end up in a home's HVAC system.

Jacob told Insider his mattress did have a fiberglass warning on its tags, but, since it arrived with a zip-off mattress cover, he thought it would be fine to remove for washing. "The second you even open the zipper, not even take the cover off, it just goes everywhere," Jacob told Insider of the material, which he initially didn't realize was fiberglass. "It spreads like fine, fine dust particles."

A couple of days after his discovery, Jacob, who recently left a music teaching job to become a full-time influencer, posted about the experience on TikTok to his 352,900 followers.

"I forget that, because of my audience size, I can ask for things, and sometimes I will get them," Jacob told Insider of his decision to post. "So I was like, well, I might as well try — but, I did not expect this."

"Everything in my bedroom, and my insides and outsides, are completely coated in fiberglass," he said in the December 10 TikTok, later adding "I just thought I had sensitive skin because I keep getting rashes … I'm being cut open by the fiberglass."

"If you're a mattress company who wants to send me a mattress without any fiberglass, I would be so happy to do literally whatever you wanted," Jacob said. "I'm not even going to ask for a paycheck because I just don't want to sleep on fiberglass."

And it seems Jacob was right; He told Insider nine mattresses are en route to his home from a slew of companies. He plans to replace his own mattress and then donate the remaining brand-new mattress to shelters in Cape Cod, where he lives.

Initially, commenters responded with shock, concern, and advice — like instructing him to wash the walls in vinegar to dissolve the fibers. But, a second wave, Jacob told Insider, directed hateful comments at his sexuality and body size.

Some viewers — of which there were many, as the video has received 7.5 million views — were confused by Jacob's mention of Casper and flooded the company with angry comments, believing it to be at fault for the fiberglass fiasco, which they were not.

"I was expecting lawyers to drop from the sky, like navy seals from helicopters, and take me away," Jacob told Insider. "I was going to become the not-friendly ghost of Casper." He's since posted many explicit requests for viewers to leave Casper alone, please.

Jacob, overwhelmed by the situation, told Insider he hasn't been able to dispose of the mattress yet and, in lieu of affording thousands of dollars in cleaning fees, plans to clean the home himself. "This is the most adult thing I've ever done," he said. He also told Insider he'll likely need to "get rid of like 90% of my clothes."

Afraid of exposing others, Jacob said he's also still sleeping on the mattress a few days after discovering the issue — but now with three comforters and four throw blankets between him and the material. After eight months, he says he figures "another week won't kill."

Jacob told Insider he takes accountability for not reading every warning label, saying "as consumers, we should look at what we're buying," but wonders aloud why companies continue to use a material that can so negatively impact a person's health.

"People need to know," he said of the risk. "Because, as I've said, I've been actually suffering."

Email tips on all things internet to mleighton@insider.com.