Another Newbie

[phoenix]

Hi cn1ght,

Yes, I did read through much of the well written information on the main page. I got through everything from “overview” to “types of retailers” before my brain gave up. I am not saying I remember what I read, but I did read through it.

Hopefully you were reading the mattress shopping tutorial here and not all the pages on the main site

1. Do you have any suggestions for people/places/locations for me to bug in/near the Cleveland, Ohio area?

The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Cleveland/Akron areas (subject to following all the steps in the tutorial post of course) are listed in post #2 here.

Now, I laid on (4) latex Restonic mattresses about an hour ago, each of which had some amount of latex [between 0.5" and 2"(soft)+2"(medium)] on top of 6" of memory foam. Am I misunderstanding the quote I provided, am I misunderstanding what the “core” is, or is the setup of 2" latex on top of 6" foam lacking an actual supportive core and therefore all (4) of these would be considered poor mattresses to purchase?

The support core of a mattress would be the layers that are deeper inside the mattress (say the bottom 6" or so) and are firmer layers that are meant to prevent the heavier parts of the body from sinking down too much. I doubt that the mattresses you tested had 6" of memory foam in the bottom layers (it’s not likely that any manufacturer would make a mattress like that) and it’s much more likely that you were given incorrect information and that the bottom 6" was polyfoam not memory foam.

3. As a very rough rule of thumb, am I correct in remember that side sleepers (like myself) tend to sleep better on 3" of comfort layering? I never sleep all night on my back nor on my side, however once in awhile I take a nap for ~2 hours on my stomach which requires the least comfort which is annoying since the side requires the most…

It’s accurate that side sleepers generally need thicker/softer comfort layers to relieve pressure points but I would avoid thinking in terms of the specific number of inches of a single layer because every layer will affect every other layer to some degree so a mattress with a 2" top layer with a softer layer below it may be closely equivalent to a mattress with a 3" top layer of the same firmness with a firmer layer below it. I would use your actual testing to decide whether a mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). Your question is similar to an earlier one today and my reply in post #2 here would also be worth reading.

4. If this is answered elsewhere I apologize for missing it: is a box spring required for a mattress? Is there anything “wrong” with simply buying the mattress and laying it on the carpet with no box spring nor bed stand?

You can read more about box springs, foundations, platform beds, and other support surfaces that are suitable for different types of mattresses in the foundation post here and the two posts it links to. While the floor would provide a good support surface for any mattresses that needed firm non flexing support (which would include most mattresses with a foam support core) … you would have a very low sleeping surface which may be uncomfortable getting in and out of bed and there would also be little to no ventilation under the mattress which could increase the risk of dust mites, mold, and mildew (see post #10 here) and possibly stains on the mattress which would void your warranty.

5. Not a question, but the human checking on this website was annoying. I was stuck on the Ford “wave the boot below the hatch” and I successfully did so more than 7 times, each time the ad said “congrats” but I got an error stating that I was not successful. I finally was able to create an account when the Captcha switched to a different ad.

The Captcha I use is one of those “necessary evils” unfortunately. It’s by far the most successful Captcha I’ve ever used to keep spammers out of the forum and not a single automated spambot has been able to register and spam the forum since I’ve used it and with other Captchas (which used images with letters in them for the most part) there were some days where a dozen or more automated spammers made it through. I realize it can be frustrating sometimes (although the “game” can be refreshed) and the ads are what support the free software and they can be somewhat annoying as well but overall it’s the best I’ve seen and it solved a significant issue with spam on the forum.

Phoenix