A Topper For Our Topper??

[phoenix]

Hi giasmile,

The mattress felt wonderful at first and my husband’s back pain disappeared completely, but after a few months he developed neck/shoulder pain. After reading through some more posts here, I thought maybe it was the pillow. So the pillow experimenting began. We tried cotton, down, kapok, memory foam, shredded latex, buckwheat… I took pictures of him using the various pillows to check his alignment… we adjusted the fill to make them higher… lower… the only thing that helped relieve his neck pain was sleeping on another mattress. During this time, I developed neck and shoulder pain, too, which I’ve never had before. So we finally concluded the mattress was just too firm

This would have been the same assumption I made after your experiences and trying any of the suggestions here that may also make a difference. The odds are high that your shoulders aren’t sinking in enough to the firmer latex.

We were both in so much pain, we went to the local bedding store and bought a 3" memory foam topper to go on top of that. That setup seems to work fine for us, but I don’t want to continue to use the memory foam because of toxicity reasons (in my mind, it kindof defeats the purpose of spending all that money on an organic latex mattress).

I’m not sure why adding a memory foam topper would defeat the purpose of a latex mattress if it works well for you. While 100% natural Talalay latex (if that’s what you have in your mattress because 32 ILD is generally blended Talalay and there is no organic Talalay latex) is a more natural material than polyfoam or memory foam … the most important part of a sleeping system for most people is PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) and it’s always the combination of materials in your sleeping system that provides that. There are some people that a combination of memory foam and latex is their ideal combination and preference.

In terms of safety most people would not have a safety issue with memory foam that was CertiPur certified but some that are more sensitive to VOC’s (such as people with multiple chemical sensitivities or those who wish to avoid more synthetic materials for personal reasons) may have a different criteria and answer to the question of “how safe is safe enough for me?”. For those who are in this situation post #2 here is a good place to start to sort through the often conflicting information about a very complex subject.

If you do prefer to use latex then post #8 here has more information about choosing a topper and includes a link to some better sources of latex toppers I’m aware of as well although you already have your own local source. 28 ILD would be on the firm side for many people (unless they were in a higher weight range, mainly back or stomach sleepers, or had a preference for a firmer sleeping surface) and a topper that uses softer latex in the range of 19 ILD to 24 ILD would be more in the “average” range for a comfort layer for most people that were in an average weight range and side sleepers. If you decide to use your 28 ILD topper as part of your sleeping system as well then you will likely need a thinner topper than you would if you used a softer topper directly on top of your mattress because your base would already be softer and every layer will have an effect on the feel and performance of every other layer.

They told us they would let us sample another topper that is a 19, but we would have to purchase it if we want to keep it. We are going to try the new topper this week. I just wanted to check in with you to see if you think we are on the right track and if there is anything else you would recommend.

While only your own experience can tell with any certainty … and assuming that the 19 ILD is also 2" … then this is probably the direction I would go as well. They are being very generous both with giving you a topper and letting you try another one that you can return because the “norm” is that toppers can’t be returned. I would try it both directly on top of your mattress and with the 28 ILD topper underneath it to see which one was better for you in terms of PPP.

Phoenix