Cool + isolating = Impossible combo?

[phoenix]

Hi Eulogy37,

I’m assuming you’ve read this already but just in case you haven’t … post #1 here is the “best” place to start and has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that you will need to make the best possible choices … and avoid the worst ones. When you start testing mattresses or “flopping around” on them … it’s important to make sure that the people or businesses you are dealing with are able to tell you what is in the mattresses you are testing or your time will be mostly wasted and you won’t know what types of mattress materials or combinations you tend to prefer.

If the retailers or manufacturers you are dealing with can tell you about the specifics of what is in each mattress that seems to be suitable for you … then you will be able to make meaningful comparisons about the things you can’t feel when you test a mattress and you will know which type of materials are in the mattresses that work best for you that you can feel.

My initial research here led me to Latex on Latex, which should give a cooler sleep while minimizing movement conductivity, with at least 3" of comfort layer which should help reduce the frequency of my numbness-induced movement.

I would completely avoid choosing a mattress based on “comfort specs” which includes the thickness of the layers or the softness/firmness of the layers. While they can be useful to help you understand some of the basic concepts involved in mattress design … with careful and objective testing your body will tell you much more about which mattresses are more suitable for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, pressure relief, and Personal preferences) than any3specs. The quality specs (foam density for polyfoam and memory foam and the type and blend of any latex) are the specs that are important so that you can identify any weak links in a mattress and make more meaningful comparisons in terms of quality/durability and value when you are comparing mattresses. You can’t “feel” the quality/durability of the materials so this is the part you need to know … for the rest careful and objective testing will give you the best odds of making the most suitable choice. You may be overthinking this

My initial research here led me to Latex on Latex, which should give a cooler sleep while minimizing movement conductivity, with at least 3" of comfort layer which should help reduce the frequency of my numbness-induced movement. What we found in the stores we visited was that the Pure Latex Bliss did reduce her perception of my movement, but, soon after, when we tried the Memory Foam, my wife noticed zero of my movement…which made the latex seem terrible by comparison. My concern with the Memory Foam is that I will sweat all night on a Memory Foam comfort layer. They also felt like laying on a cushioned rock, but that’s best saved for steps 2 and 3.

These are all part of the tradeoffs that each person or couple needs to decide on. There are also many factors involved in the sleeping temperature of a mattress besides just the type of foam used in the comfort layers and there are also many versions of each material that sleep cooler or warmer even if they are in the same category. Post #2 here has more information about the many factors that can affect sleeping temperature and if you go in the direction of memory foam then the other factors involved in sleeping temperature would become more important to help “offset” the warmer nature of most memory foam compared to other types of foam. This would include the cover of the mattress, any quilting in the cover, your mattress protector, your sheets, and your bedding as well as the thickness and softness of the upper foam layers.

I don’t know if the movement isolation is largely from the Memory Foam support layer or the comfort layer.

There are no memory foam support layers because memory foam is too soft to be used in the support layers. Memory foam is a comfort material used in the upper layers of a mattress not in the deeper support layers. You can read more about the pros and cons of memory foam in this article and the pros and cons of latex in this article. Memory foam absorbs energy so it is more motion isolating than other materials but if you have a thin layer of memory foam over an innerspring for example then you will still feel the larger movements that “reach” the innerspring even though the smaller movements will be absorbed by the memory foam.

My concern with the Memory Foam is that I will sweat all night on a Memory Foam comfort layer. They also felt like laying on a cushioned rock, but that’s best saved for steps 2 and 3.

There are many types of memory foam and some are more temperature sensitive and take longer to soften and others are less temperature sensitive and respond more quickly. There are also many memory foam designs and some of them are very soft and some are firmer. This is true of all types of mattresses.

I’m hoping that a Memory Foam Support / Latex Comfort mattress would give us exactly what we need, but I don’t know if that’s true.

Again … there is no such thing as a mattress that has a memory foam support layer … it’s just too soft a material to be used in the deeper layers of the mattress. Memory foam mattresses all have other materials underneath the memory foam.

The man in Mattress Firm (who seemed knowledgeable) said that no one would make a mattress with memory foam support layer and latex comfort layer “because the foams would cancel each other out.” Really?

He’s certainly right although I don’t know if I would describe it by saying they would “cancel each other out” but he was probably just trying to find a simple way to say that no reasonable manufacturer would make it … which is correct.

Any ideas on how to achieve a cool mattress while completely isolating movement?

I would focus on all the parts of a mattress that contribute to sleeping temperature and if you are looking at memory foam then I would consider faster response, less temperature sensitive, and “cooler” memory foams or gel memory foam (which can have some benefit when you are first going to sleep but not generally over the course of the night when moisture wicking and ventilation is a more important part of temperature regulation over the course of the whole night.

Some of the better options and possibilities in the Atlanta area I’m aware of are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix