BB #BME too firm for me

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Need suggestions. I am 36 yo, 215 lbs side sleeper primarily and my wife is 34 yo, 140 lb, side/back sleeper. I also have scoliosis and have a temperamental back. I think my inner spring is sagging (10 yo denver mattress) which is creating lower back pain. I also get neck pain sometimes.

I started trying out mattresses and thought we both liked the soft level foam mattresses (like TP Cloud Luxe). I spoke with Novosbed and Brooklyn Bedding on the phone and both quickly recommended medium firmness…quite quickly. We bought the BB med and the first few days were good. Then I had some neck pain in the morning and could feel it getting worse. A couple days later my neck was in full spasm and pretty painful. I believe the reason is my shoulder has way too much pressure when sleeping on my side and its literally pushing collarbone into my neck sideways. I went back to my spring mattress for a few days and noticed it was getting better.

So I am looking for help with my next step. Here are my options as I see it.

  1. Stick with mattress and try out the memory foam topper than BB will provide. I still have to wait a couple weeks which is ok, but I know the topper is 2" memory foam. Is this a good quality product they provide.?.Obviously not latex developed by them internally. That would be like 6" of comfort layer which seems excessive. Also seems odd to throw a 2" topper over high end talalay latex. This option is free.

  2. Exchange mattress for the soft one. I think this is probably the right mattress for us but the return policy means we can’t exchange or return it. If it doesn’t work out I am stuck and out $900. Seems like way too much risk. They didn’t seem too willing to make an exception on the return policy…understandably.

  3. Different mattress brand. Not sure I trust other latex brands so will likely go memory foam…maybe Novosbed. But that is another $400. Also not sure of the soft there will be too soft. I don’t think so… BB only gives you one risk free return. Is it the same with Novosbed and can you exchange more than once? I don’t see it on their website.

2

Hi Siggy,

I would have suggested a medium mattress in your weight range as well. While the only way to know whether a mattress is a good “match” for you in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP is based on careful testing or your own personal experience when you sleep on it … when you are in a higher weight range a soft mattress has a greater risk of sleeping with your spine out of alignment which can lead to lower back pain and discomfort.

While it’s not possible to “diagnose” mattress comfort issues on a forum with any certainty because there are too many unique unknowns, variables, and complexities involved that can affect how each person sleeps on a mattress in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or any “symptoms” they experience … there is more about the most common symptoms that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress and the most likely (although not the only) reasons for them in post #2 here.

Head and neck issues can also be the result of a pillow that doesn’t keep your head and neck in good alignment over the course of the night and it’s very common that when you buy a new mattress you will also need a new pillow as well because the distance between your head and neck and the mattress surface may be different from what it was on your old mattress.

[quote]So I am looking for help with my next step. Here are my options as I see it.

  1. Stick with mattress and try out the memory foam topper than BB will provide. I still have to wait a couple weeks which is ok, but I know the topper is 2" memory foam. Is this a good quality product they provide.?.Obviously not latex developed by them internally. That would be like 6" of comfort layer which seems excessive. Also seems odd to throw a 2" topper over high end talalay latex. This option is free.[/quote]

Again … the only way to know whether a mattress (or a mattress/topper combination) will work well for you for certain will be based on your own experience and since the option to add a topper is free it certainly wouldn’t involve any risk to try it. I don’t know the quality/density of the topper but you can certainly ask them.

Exchange/return policies are a hidden cost that is part of the price you pay for a mattress and the majority of customers that don’t exchange or return a mattress are the ones that pay for the minority of customers that do. There are very few companies that allow for more than one return or exchange because it would add too much to the cost of the mattress for everyone else. Having said that … you are the only one that can decide on the level of risk that you are comfortable with. I would personally try the topper first.

I don’t know how many returns Novosbed allows (but of course they do allow at least one which is the most important) but they would be happy to let you know when you talk with them.

Assuming that the materials in a mattress you are considering are durable enough for your body type and meet the quality/durability guidelines here relative to your weight range … the choice between different types and combinations of materials and components or different types of mattresses are more of a preference and a budget choice than a “better/worse” choice (see this article). The best way to know which type of materials or which type of mattresses you tend to prefer in general terms will be based on your own testing and personal experience because different people can have very different preferences.

Latex and memory foam are very different materials with very different properties but each person may have their own preference between them. There are certainly some people that strongly prefer memory foam and there are some people that strongly prefer latex. There is more about the pros and cons of latex vs memory foam in post #2 here.

If the BB mattress and topper (and/or a different pillow) doesn’t work well for you then you have many other good options available for you to try (including Novosbed) regardless of the type or combination of materials or components that you tend to prefer.

If you are considering online options then the mattress shopping tutorial includes several links to lists of many of the better online options I’m aware of (in the optional online step) that include many different types and categories of mattresses in a wide range of designs, budgets, firmness levels, and with different return/exchange policies that may be worth considering.

Phoenix

3

Thanks for your feedback. I use a cervical pillow for neck alignment. It has three different heights to it so finding good alignment usually isn’t a problem. If I’m on my side, i use the high edges. If Im on my back or 3/4 in either direction I use a medium height.

I don’t have a super strong preference latex vs memory foam. But I may need the extra contouring of the foam for side sleeping on my broad shoulders.

I’ll try the topper when its available and let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

4

Hi Siggy,

I hope the topper works out well for you … and I’m looking forward to an update once you’ve had the chance to try it out.

Phoenix

5

Hi Siggy,

Just wanted to weigh in on your questions involving Novosbed:

Medium Firm?
I concur with the Novosbed customer support team, BB, and Phoenix: given your weight range and described sleeping preferences, a Medium Firmness would be the most appropriate choice to promote proper spinal alignment and give you the support that you need. You are not alone, however: side-sleepers do occasionally get sore shoulders on medium-firm mattresses and adding a softening layer (whether with a topper or other system) is often a great solution.

Exchanges
The biggest problem with buying a mattress, online or in store, is not being able to try it out under real sleeping conditions. A trial period is essential, and now table stakes in the online mattress world.

Information about Novosbed’s trial can be found Here. Although we used to allow customers to exchange their mattress once, we discontinued this option and replaced it with Comfort+, which allows customers to alter the firmness of their mattress without a topper, and in a more compact, more effective, and more environmentally responsible way.

I wish you the best of luck with your mattress purchase!

Sam

President

6

So a bit of an update. We received the mattress topper from BB. It definitely softened up the mattress a ton. Here is my issue.

With the topper, I am back to having low back pain similar to what I have on my 10 year old spring mattress. But neck and shoulders are better.

So obviously I have a bad back in general and am trying to balance neck and back pain they really need two different firmnesses. My wife loves the soft topper and says its like sleeping on a cloud. She has no back pain. But with the medium BB without the topper, she says her shoulders hurt.

I see two options.

  1. Cut the topper in half and just put it on her side
  2. Helix beds. does anyone have any experience or feedback with them? They can do multiple firmnesses split down the middle for people like us. I know they use dunlop latex vs the talalay on the BB. Also use mini pocket coils and a polyfoam base. Just haven’t heard much about them and I think they are pretty new.
7

Hi Siggy,

As I mentioned in my previous reply … the most common (but not the only) cause for lower back pain is either comfort layers (including toppers) that are too thick and/or soft or a support core that is too soft so it sounds like your topper may be a little thicker than you need and you may have “jumped over” the firmness that is the most suitable “match” for you in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP and gone from a mattress that is too firm for you to a mattress/topper combination that is too soft to maintain good spinal alignment over the course of the night.

I would also keep in mind that the neck issues you originally had with the medium mattress may have been a pillow issue as much as a mattress issue.

With your wife’s lower weight it’s also possible that her shoulder issues may have been a pillow issue as well although based on your comments and feedback the odds are higher that for her it could be a firmness issue with the mattress as well (based on “averages” … lower weight ranges will tend to do better on softer mattresses than higher weight ranges).

It’s not unusual at all for a couple to have different needs and preferences and here is more information in the first part of post #2 here about some of the different ways that can be used to accommodate a couple that have very different body types or sleeping styles or different needs and preferences in a mattress.

While this is a possibility … it would result in one side being thicker than the other and the ridge in the middle would likely be very noticeable. If you were to take this approach it would probably make more sense to use a firmer topper on one side than the other (with the same thickness) so that the entire sleeping surface is more even.

You can read more about the type and quality/durability of the materials in the Helix along with many of the other simplified choice mattresses in post #2 here in the simplified choice topic. Post #1 in the same topic would also be well worth reading. A forum search on “Helix” (you can just click the link) will bring up more comments and feedback about them as well.

The Helix mattress includes 2" of 1.8 lb polyfoam in the comfort layers which is the minimum polyfoam density I would suggest for those that are in more average weight ranges. They also use 1.5 lb polyfoam in the base layers of the mattress and while the deeper layers will have less effect on the durability and useful life of a mattress … it’s still a little lower than I would normally like to see in a mattress in this budget range. The deeper layers can still have “some” effect on the durability and useful life of the mattress but the effect would be more for those that are in higher weight ranges and/or that tend to compress the deeper layers of the mattress more than those that are in lighter weight ranges.

The microcoils themselves are a good quality and durable component and there is more about microcoils that are used in comfort layers in this article and in post #8 here and post #2 here (although how much you will feel the microcoils will depend on the order of the layers).

Assuming that the materials in a mattress you are considering are durable enough for your body type and meet the quality/durability guidelines here relative to your weight range … the choice between different types and combinations of materials and components or different types of mattresses are more of a preference and a budget choice than a “better/worse” choice (see this article). The most reliable way to know which types of materials or mattresses you tend to prefer in more general terms would be based on your own local testing or your own personal experience. when you sleep on it.

Phoenix