Hi matressshopper123,
[quote]Since then I kind of have grown to dislike the mattress. The soft checks the box in that it does not generate pressure points on the shoulder/hip bones, but I’ve realized that since it has so much give my side tends to uncomfortably arch into the mattress. This gets exasperated when two people are on the mattress. It’s not awful- but it seems to have taught me to be more of a back sleeper.
To be honest not sure whether the mattress has softened up more over time since the 120 day trial period, or I’ve just gotten better at critiquing it.
In any case probably the takeaways here are probably to not keep a mattress you are borderline on, and probably err on the side of firmness- since it’s impossible to firm up a soft.[/quote]
All mattresses will soften to some degree over time but if a mattress uses good quality and durable materials (which it does) then once you are past the initial break in period any further softening will be much more gradual over a longer period of time.
Outside of specific health conditions that would specifically indicate otherwise (such as fibromyalgia for example) … spinal alignment is the most important factor that determines the quality of your sleep and the ability of your body to rest and recover over the course of the night and if a mattress is too soft for your body type and sleeping positions then it can certainly compromise your alignment to different degrees.
If you choose a mattress that is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and isn’t close to the edge of being too soft when it is new then small amounts of very gradual foam softening wouldn’t make a meaningful difference because you would still be in a comfort/support range that would be suitable for you but if you choose a mattress that is “close to the edge” of being too soft when it’s new then even a relatively small amount of foam softening can put you outside of the comfort/support range that would be suitable for you (see post #2 here). Because of this if you are choosing between two mattresses that both seem to be suitable firmness choices then I would err on the side of choosing a mattress that is slightly firmer rather than slightly softer because as you mentioned you can always “fix” a mattress that is too firm by adding a softer topper but it’s much more difficult to “fix” a mattress that is too soft because you would generally need to remove and replace the layers that are too soft with firmer layers.
Thanks for taking the time to share an update and for reinforcing the importance of choosing a suitable firmness level that isn’t “too soft” as well.
There are also some suggestions that can sometimes help (at least to some degree) with a mattress that is too soft in post #2 here that may also be helpful.
Phoenix