Thanks so much for being here to help. We live in a very rural area and are going to have to purchase a mattress online with trying before we buy. All we’ve ever slept on is innerspring. We are considering all latex, latex-over-coil hybrid, memory foam-over-coil, and coil-over-coil. I’m wondering if you can give me some direction to focus our search to just one or two of those categories, given the following:
- I am 5’7", 285 lbs, and sleep mostly on my side, sometimes on my stomach.
- My partner is 6’0", 240 lbs, and sleeps mostly on his back, sometimes his side. He snores loudly and tosses and turns all night.
- We sleep together on a queen size bed; so minimizing motion transfer is probably our very top priority. Also, being able to sleep all the way to the edge of the bed, since the queen feels pretty small for us.
- At this point, cost and durability, while important, probably matter less to us than just finding a bed that supports our bodies and minimizes motion transfer. We’re just really desperate to start sleeping better.
Thanks in advance for your help!
I think I understand your needs. A firm latex base core with a medium latex comfort layer should do the very best at limiting motion transfer, providing great edge support and still maintaining durability and great comfort. Spring beds even with latex will have more motion transfer. Memory foam beds don’t do well with edge support but do offer low motion transfer but you will be in a sink hole within a few years with your weight so I cannot recommend memory foam. I can sleep right on the edge of my all latex mattress even though it’s a soft configuration.
Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly–really appreciate it! I am very interesting in all latex, but it’s really unfamiliar to us, we have absolutely no way to see what it’s like in advance, so I feel like I need a bit of reassurance.
- Do you think all latex will out-perform a hybrid with a coil system of any kind (even very top-of-the-line) in regard to minimizing motion transfer in our (high combined weight) situation?
- Do you think we’d be able to sleep all the way to the edge, even at our weights?
- What about heat buildup…would a coil hybrid be cooler?
- I’m hoping to get something pretty tall (11-13" or so)…what sort of latex layer configuration (type of latex and ILD) would you suggest for our situation?
Again, so thankful for any help with this!
Yes, an all latex will outperform even our top of line hybrid as far as motion transfer. Yes, you will be able to sleep all the way to edge, even at your weights. Latex is open cell foam which means your body heat has a place to go instead of reflected back at you like most memory foams. I travel with a latex topper just to make sure I have airflow under me since I sleep hot as does my wife who’s going through the hot flashes right now. We burn up on memory foam.
If you want the extra height then either the Ultimate Hybrid at 12" or a 6 + 3 + 2 all latex which will also finish at 12". You would need a 36 ILD base with 3" of #32 and 2" of #28.
Oh gosh, I feel for your wife…that’s not fun! 
The “Ultimate Hybrid” you mentioned would still have coils though, right? I guess I had been thinking that we needed some extra height in the mattress because we’re bigger, but maybe that’s not really necessary with latex…what do you think would be the minimum height we would require? Also, in the IDLs you recommend, would you suggest Talalay or Dunlop?
Thanks again…feels good to be getting somewhere with this!
My original suggestion of 6" 36 with 3" of #32 Talalay would be more than sufficient. I have people weighing much more than you sleeping on nothing but a 6" core and have been for many years. I would stick with talalay since both of you sometimes sleep on your sides.