We have now been sleeping on our Brooklyn Beddings 10" Total Latex mattress for about 2.5 weeks. We thought it would be helpful to describe our experiences in relation to our personal value equations in order to give back for all of the helpful information we received from this forum. This is our first all foam mattress. It is also our first latex mattress and our first online mattress purchase.
We have 3 Talalay layers (3" 24 ILD; 3" 32 ILD; and 3" 36 ILD), which rest on a wood slatted foundation from mattresses.net. The bottom 2 layers are glued together to form the 6" base. When we bought the mattress the website listed options of either 36 or 32 ILD for the base but Chuck told me over the phone that they were able to customize this further (I think the most recent update on the website says that the layers are each 3" and can be altered). On our receipt it says a #7 Talalay. Our configuration seems similar to a ‘standard’ setup of soft, medium, firm that works for many people as it does for us. In our local testing we felt that we sank in too far on a 19 ILD 3" topper and so felt that either a thinner layer of 19 ILD or a 3" 24 ILD top layer would work well for us (I am 5’8" 196 pounds). Chuck suggested the 24 ILD and it feels pretty good to us. It is probably just on the firm side of my ‘ideal’ and as it has broken in over the 2.5 weeks and I have liked it more and more. Of course, one of the things in our consideration to use BB was the 120-day exchange so that we could soften or firm up the top layer after we had tested it for a while. This was particularly important to us given that it was our first latex bed and first online purchase. The 32 ILD middle layer was then picked to help with the plush feel we tended to like while still providing enough support for both of us. In our local testing we were only able to try support cores in the medium range and these seemed supportive enough for us. This 32 ILD middle layer also provided a more progressive feel than jumping right to a 36 ILD middle layer (which probably would have been fine for me but may not have given my wife enough sinking in for my wife’s hips).
Overall, we have been very pleased with the mattress. It has been comfortable for us in terms of pressure relief and support and we have been very pleased with BB customer service (Chuck and Jacob), with the extremely fast shipping (it arrived in less than a week) and the price. I should also note that when I ordered I called as i felt more comfortable talking to someone and Jacob took the initiative to asked me if I was a member of the MU, which I was, (and gave me the 5% discount) and he asked me if I liked them on Facebook, which I had (and so we also got the 2 free pillows). We haven’t tried the pillows yet as we wanted test the mattress with as few changes as possible for a while.
Below are some of our experiences and considerations in choosing this mattress:
Bounce: One of the major considerations for us was reducing the ‘bouncy’ feel of some latex beds we tried. In our previous testing we liked the comfort and support of a latex mattress but felt that all natural Talalay latex in a stretch cover was too ‘bouncy’. My wife in particular felt like she was going to bounce off of the bed. Our current bed does not feel bouncy in our opinion. I think three things help with this and led us to order from BB: 1) it is made of blended Talalay; 2) the bottom two layers are encased and the top layer is also enclosed in a beaded layer on the top and bottom; 3) the quilting is made up of 1" of material (something like .25 wool, and .75 polyfoam) which I believe changes the feel of the latex slightly and I think adds some softness and reduction in bounce and pushback of the latex (the current version of the website at BB says 1" of wool so I not am sure if they changed it or if the website isn’t exact). We potentially loose some of the benefits of having more wool (i.e., less compression over time and more temperature control), which I think I would liked, but for us it met our personal value equation of wanting to slightly alter the feel in the direction we wanted. We also loose some of potential benefits of being able easily change out the lower layers. However, this was a trade off we were willing to make to get the feel we wanted. We also actually liked the idea of only needing to decide on one change – softer/firmer top layer – than having to decide on a whole range of possible changes as it felt more manageable for a 1st time latex purchase (I am also the type of person who would have needed to try every possible combination to see which is ‘best’ and I would have driven my wife crazy changing the bed too often).
Warmth: I tend to be sensitive to sleeping warm (if I wake up hot I have trouble falling back to sleep) and this led us away from wanting a memory foam bed even though we liked the feel of 1-2" of memory foam. Our current bed does not feel warm to us. In the 2.5 weeks I noted some warmth only 2 nights (the first was the first night when I was I paying attention to every little difference). My experience is that it sleeps slightly warmer than a non-foam bed but definitely cooler than when I have slept on a memory foam. Most importantly, my experience is that the latex doesn’t retain the heat the way memory foam does. I may feel some warmth between my skin and the mattress but if I turn or move slightly the heat is released and the latex feels comfortable with little heat retention. For comparison, one night we put our old 2" memory foam topper (which we had used to soften our previous spring mattress that had compressed) on this mattress to see how it felt. It felt good in terms of pressure relief and support but I woke up early hot and couldn’t sleep and my wife let me know she woke in the morning having sweated all night. Specifically, when I tried to move around the memory foam felt warm (retained heat) and I couldn’t get comfortable. So, in my experience the bed is within my tolerance in terms of temperature and I rarely notice any concerns. Currently, we also have just a regular (water resistant but not water-proof) mattress pad. I am considering a mattress pad with all wool (such as the .25" wool St. Dormier) that might further help with temperature regulation, but for now I very happy with the current configuration.
Edge support: One concern we had was that an all foam mattress would not have the ‘structure’ to support us while sitting on the bed. My experience with this is that it does support me (I sit on the side of the bed every morning to put my socks on). It is actually more ‘supportive’ in my experience than many ‘cheaper’ spring beds I sat on in the store but not as ‘supportive’ as some spring beds (that probably had steel or foam support on the sides). My wife’s experience is that it is a lot less supportive than our previous bed. She likes sleeping on the bed but would in an ideal world prefer more side support. My guess is that neither of us is sinking through and thus is getting supported while sitting on the bed but that our expectations about what type of feel ‘should’ be there makes the actual experience somewhat different, given that sitting on the edge of the bed feels different than our previous spring bed, which was pretty solid in feel.
Related to this, one concern my wife expressed to me when testing some latex beds was that she felt like she was going to ‘roll off.’ This was particularly the case for the 100% natural latex bed that was in a stretch case (where she also experienced the most ‘bounce’). However, she has not expressed this feeling on this bed (I expect because of the reasons I noted above regarding the quilting layer and blended Talalay). I also have put myself right up to the edge and never felt like I was going to fall off till half of me was already off of the mattress. So, this hasn’t been an issue in our experiences. Of course, each of us will be different in our response.
Sheets: One area the ‘less’ degree of structure has made a small difference is with the sheets. Our sheets fit on the bed but after we sleep on them we notice that they wrinkle up more across the top of the bed. It doesn’t change the ‘comfort’ of the bed for us when we are sleeping. It just looks a little messier when we look at it.
Size: Our bed is 10" with about 9" of latex. In reading the posts on this site and in discussions which Chuck at BB it seemed that 9" would be enough for pressure relief and support. In fact, in talking to Chuck he mentioned they could do a more customized bed in terms of size but he suggested against it, as it wouldn’t be needed. I was a little worried in that in the store I tended to like thicker beds (albeit thicker spring beds). However, the advice for not needing more than 9" of latex was accurate in our experience. Both of us feel comfortable and supported on the mattress. If I was going to add another couple of inches it would mostly be for the look of a thicker mattress, which might fill out the sheets we have and look taller. Again, our expectations about how tall the bed ‘should’ be (our previous bed was 11 with a 2" topper) probably leads us to think a slightly thicker bed would look better though I doubt it would change our experience of sleeping on it much. We could always add a topper or a firm lower layer later, though for now we are going to give it some more time before making any decisions.
Overall we are very happy with our choices as they meet the majority of our expectations and personal value equations. I will mention that one minor hiccup did occur in that the law tag was misprinted and says 100% Dunlap, 100% wool. I called Chuck and he explained that there was a mix-up in their printing and a couple of mattresses went out incorrectly tagged and that if I checked inside the mattress the layers would be marked correctly. He was correct in that the top layer that I had easy access too did indeed say B. Talalay 24.
So, our experience with an all latex bed has been positive and our experiences with BB, in particular, has been great. Obviously, these are just our experiences but I hope they help others in figuring out their own decisions.
David
