I’m 1,78 m and 77 Kg and I sleep in almost all positions. I like firmer mattresses because I like to have lumbar support. I evaluate if I have good lumbar support when I sleep with my belly down, and I feel ok. When I sleep with my belly down, and I don’t feel my lumbar area “going down” / sinking in the mattress, I feel good in a mattress.
But I also sleep in other positions, so I would not like to have a extremely firm mattress to avoid dorsal pains and contractures.
What kind of mattress do you advice? Bonnel / Continuous innersprings, Pocket Springs, Latex Core or Foam Core?
I bought recently a Pocket Spring mattress (low budget price $600) but I don’t like it. It doesn’t have confort zones, and I don’t know the constitution of the confort layers. The mattress is too soft, I feel my lumbar area sinking down the mattress and I wake up every day with pain in the dorsal region of my body.
Thanks for providing your stats and mattress shopping updates. I scanned a bit through your posts since July to see where mattress hunt brought you thus far. Sorry about your experience with the low-budget Pocket Spring and the backpains it caused you. At least you can add it to your learning curve and readjust your mattress shopping approach for better results. I am not very sure how transparent the mattress retailers or manufacturers are in Portugal but not knowing the “constitution of the comfort layers” is a big red flag as it is impossible to know much about the durability and suitability of this mattress for you and generally it leads to a blind purchase. I hope that you are able to return this product and take some time to do a bit more due diligence when considering future beds.
This question is very common on our forum (i.e. which mattress type or firmness level would be better for me?) To start off, there is some fairly extensive general information about this on our site so I’d first peruse some of the posts and articles in the mattresses section of the site (particularly in the sections about sleeping style, preferences, and statistics along with putting the layers together and the page on tips and tricks here) which will give you some general concepts, guidelines, and insights about the effects of different body types, sleeping styles, and mattress designs for different people. While this is only generic and not specific to any particular person it will give you good insights into how different variables work together and the impact they have on your final alignment and comfort on a mattress.
Your 3-way combo sleeping means that you have a much narrower comfort/support range to select from than many other sleepers. As you well noted, a prone sleeper needs a firm sleeping surface to keep the spine in good alignment This should be your primary concern as stomach sleeping spinal misalignments allow the forward (lordotic) curvature of your low back to be accentuated, which can result in negative long-term alignment issues. Once support suitability is taken care of the next point of attention can move on to selecting the comfort layer(s) that are soft enough to minimize any pressure points when sleeping on your back/side.
Unfortunately, there is no magic bed that is perfect for all of your 3 sleeping positions. Any type of mattress can work provided that it has the correct support/comfort for you. It all depends on your threshold levels and sensitivities. Of course, your weight and body profile will also make a difference in how far you tend to sink in and how deep a cradle you need in your mattress so all your “statistics” should be weighed when selecting a bed. Those who sleep in multiple positions would need to discriminate between the effects of the firmness/comfort choice for any of their positions which can’t come “in theory” so I’d make sure to visit a local shop and try different firmness levels mattresses and take some notes. I wouldn’t consider visiting any shops that are not willing or able to give you the mattress specifications you need to know so you can compare the quality of the materials and components to the mattress durability guidelines here This will also help you make an educated guess as to the firmness/comfort you do well with. Then you can move to focus on which mattress feel you like best.
Whatever bed type you select I’d probably consider something with Latex in the uppermost layers as this material has an unusual combination of surface softness and deeper firmness/support that comes from its elasticity, its point elasticity (ability to conform to the shape of a body), and its compression modulus (the ability to get firmer faster with deeper compression than other types of foam). This means that it can enhance the pressure-relieving layers above it because of its surface softness and point elasticity but it is also very supportive and can “stop” the heavier parts of the body from sinking in too deeply.
Once you have a chance to go through those readings, connect the dots, and narrow your choices down to a couple of finalists feel free to run by us any other questions you may have.