Hi Phoenix,
I have now officially spent more time thinking about mattresses than I ever thought I could. Thanks for a wonderful forum. I am however completely confused as to which direction to go. We live in Salt Lake City and have spent the last 3 weekends mattress shopping. We were about to settle on a name brand memory foam, but hesitated. I have some back/neck issues and really want to find a comfortable mattress with support. My husband finds memory foam a little too restrictive and prefers a firmer, but the latex ones I tried out were too firm for me. I like a softer feel but not too soft. We both liked the feel of the Optimum Radiance but hesitated after reading your posts. Also, I’d prefer to be greener if possible, but most of the green mattresses seem really expensive. We have a company nearby that sells Brooklyn Bedding and I was intrigued by Dreamfoam Bedding on Amazon, but am worried about their no return policy. Are there comparable feel mattresses to the Radiance with member companies that you would recommend?
Thanks,
Nel
Hi nel,
The first place I would start is post #1 here and the information it links to which will arm you with the basic information you need to be successful in your search for your “perfect” mattress.
The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Salt Lake City area are listed in post #2 here.
One of the most important parts of mattress shopping is to eliminate all your worst choices first so you can focus on the better ones.
The “feel” of a mattress is very subjective and varies from person to person based on their preferences, body type, and sleeping position so the only way for most people to match the 'feel" of a mattress is usually through direct side by side comparisons in real time and this is often not possible. There is more about matching mattresses in post #3 here. Generally it’s much more effective to “rate” each mattress against a common set of goals and standards such as those in post #46 here than it is to try to match one mattress to another.
When you are starting out with mattress shopping … deciding who you work with and their level of knowledge and experience can be even more important than trying to decide what mattress to buy in the absence of meaningful information that is the “norm” with most major brands and larger mass market retailers.
One of your options of course is R&S mattress which sells Brooklyn Bedding mattresses (and are the ones I would tend to lean towards there) but they are not the same as the ones they sell on Amazon so as in all cases … your personal testing for PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) and spending enough time fully relaxed on each mattress to accurately test for it’s “feel”,pressure relief, and support/alignment is one of the most important parts of knowing which mattress is “best” for you. If you are “stuck” between two mattresses it’s also a good idea to remember that a mattress that is a little too firm can be “fine tuned” with a mattress pad or a topper but a mattress that is too soft is much more difficult to fix so a slightly firmer choice is usually better than a choice that is too soft.
Hope this helps
Phoenix