Best topper for innerspring -- bad back and hips

[phoenix]

Hi butterpat,

I’m sorry for the delay in reacting to your generously detailed response. But the good part of the delay – which did, however, allow me to sleep in my own bed – is that my innerspring mattress has been delivered. It is the Original Mattress Factory’s Orthopedic Adjustable model – a model I needed to buy for my adjustable bed. The good news is that it is wonderful. I’ve slept on it four nights now and awakened with literally no back pain. My hips hurt, but I knew I was going to have to get a topper to please them. The mattress is 11 ½ " high and, while it felt quite firm in the showroom, it didn’t feel like a rock like some of their 9" innersprings. So I’m very happy with this.

So far so good … that’s good news

This is the tough one. I, too, have no clue what was in my 35-year-old mattress or my 10-year-old topper, though the topper was advertised as memory foam and imprinted as memory foam for several years; at some point it lost the ability to do that.

This probably indicates that it was a lower density which often translates as a softer version of memory foam (although even higher density mamory foam can be made softer or firmer as well).

Now that you know I have the OMF Orthopedic Adjustable, I’m wondering if that would sway you to either 2" or 3"?

The adjustable version is about the same thickness as their “luxury firm” and their pillowtop but I’ve never slept on it and each may have different ILD’s in the foam they use so I don’t know its relative firmness from experience.

In addition to this … the perception of softness and firmness is very subjective and depends on many factors including what each person is used to, their body type, their sleeping position, and on other factors as well (including their sensitivity to pressure). As a general guideline though I would suggest that in terms of extra softness and pressure relief …

1" would add “a touch to a little”
2" would add “a little to a fair bit”
3" would add a fair bit to a lot"

In addition to this … heavier weights would lean towards thicker and/or firmer while lighter weights would lean towards thinner and/or softer.

I realize these are also somewhat vague and subjective but like all things connected to mattresses it’s not possible to know for certain without personal experience or a reference point of testing the specific combination you are considering and knowing how you feel on each.

Is more supportive a negative when I’m looking for padding for my arthritic hips? Is there perhaps a comparable Sealy, S&F, etc. that I could readily find and test in a store so that I have a sense of the material?

More supportive in this context means that the layer gets firmer a little faster as it is compressed. It can “start off” softer with initial compression but then can “catch up” to less supportive foams so that it becomes firmer with deeper compression. It’s not really a negative or a positive but “more supportive” means that there would be less risk of alignment issues because you wouldn’t “go through” the layer as easily with the heavier parts of your body and you wouldn’t be “in” the mattress quite as much … all other things being equal.

Because there are so many variations of foams (both gel foam and regular memory foam) … a conversation with the supplier would be the best way to know which was most appropriate for you. They will have much more experience with the specific materials they use than I do. I would also bear in mind that less temperature responsive memory foams that are faster responding may also feel softer to most people because they don’t take as long to get soft as the types of memory foam that takes more time to soften with heat. How quickly and how much you move while you are sleeping can also play a role in how soft a memory foam feels to you (think of slapping honey vs slowly sinking into it).

You wouldn’t be able to “match” the feel with a “major manufacturer” mattress because they don’t provide specific information about the materials they use and in the types of complex layering of unknown materials they use you wouldn’t know which combination of layers you were mostly feeling. The layers above and below every other layer will contribute to how each layer feels and performs. The exceptions to this would be any mattresses they have tested and used as a specific reference point. For example they may know how their memory foams respond compared to the different versions of Tempurpedic memory foams.

I would include most of the options you included in your list as good candidates and in your conversations with them I would stress your circumstances and your desire for “softer” memory foam and then go by what they say. The only one I would hesitate to include because it doesn’t meet my memory foam criteria is the Foam Order higher density memory foam which I believe is sourced in China and isn’t CertiPur certified (EDIT: this has now changed … see post #10 here).

FoamOrder’s Natural Sense:
 Soft (not more specific than that on website), 2.8"
 Soft, 1.8"
(The Tally O Two topper from Absoluteomfortonsale didn’t make it to the final list because the softest one they have is the 2 incher at 24 ILD, which they call medium soft. You thought 24 might be too hard for me.)

Foamorder sells Dunlop toppers which would be firmer than Talalay. Soft in Dunlop is relative to other Dunlop toppers and generally wouldn’t feel soft as “soft” Talalay even in the same ILD. I would guess it would be mid 20’s unless their own experience or information indicated otherwise.

I feel like I’m not in a bad place now. I’m sleeping well on this mattress and getting up with a back that feels great. I can live with a little hip pain (and it’s less than it was on my old mattress) while I’m settling on the topper.

FWIW … and bearing in mind that I can’t feel what you are feeling on your mattress … my tendency would be to go with 2" of “softer” memory foam (going by the descriptions of the supplier and using the “guidelines” I mentioned earlier) because it’s less risky than 3" and because there is already some softer foam in the comfort layers of your mattress. It may even be a good idea to stick with no topper for the first few weeks so that your mattress has time to go through the initial softening and breaking in period (which can take up to about 90 days or so but 30 days is generally a good indication) and that you have also had a chance to adjust to a new sleeping surface. Once this has happened … then it will be easier to make your choice based on the longer term feel of the mattress.
Hope this helps.

Phoenix