this summer my DH and I realized our tempurpedic original had had it’s day. i knew i didn’t want another tempurpedic though. they didn’t even offer that model anymore. it had become too soft and we were getting very uncomfortable. this is an update of what we think is our final bed.
we decided to build our own mattress. it took trial and error. for a few months we thought we had completely resolved our sleeping issues. but we were wrong. this past week we became uncomfortable again. we both decided that even though we love the idea of latex, it was the ideal base - 28 ild raidum nr talalay – but not the ideal topper for us. he was using a 1/2 queen 2" radium 100% nr 23 ild radium talalay topper. he was sick of the jiggling (we cut it in half ourselves). and i had 2" of extra soft latex green naturalux dunlop (which came that way) and somehow it wasn’t giving my upper body pressure point relief anymore that it had given me for a few months. we had both halves in a single zippered 2" cotton encasement.
we were wondering if the whole thing hadn’t been a huge mistake.
surprisingly this week we found ourselves extremely happy on our 6" radium 28 ild 100% nr talalay with a 2" queen sized memory foam topper that we bought off amazon called Memory Foam Solutions Queen 2-Inch Thick 5-Pound Visco Elastic Memory Foam Mattress Pad… we tried the tempurpedic 3" topper first, but unlike our original tempurpedic bed it was lumpy and took way too long to conform. it is at least 68 degrees in our home. i would turn in bed and wait for it way too long to reshape to my body – it would wake me up. it was awful. the original bed seemed to be much more temperature sensitive to our bodies than this new topper.
it was weird we no longer liked our bed at all with latex and even less with a tempurpedic topper on top. we didn’t like the 6" base alone either. we quickly returned the tempurpedic topper. then we decided we wanted to buy a memory foam through amazon prime because if we hated it we would have a no hassle return. we bought the same one a friend of ours recommended which worked for him (he is has some severe disabilities and he likes it) and we knew all the caveats. it turned out that what we bought had a 4.7lb density not 5.3 as advertised. and all the reviews said that within a year it would go flat. but amazingly we both found ourselves incredibly comfortable. we no longer needed separate halves. and seriously all our discomforts and complaints melted away. for me this bed is every bit as good as our original tempurpedic because with this combo as with that bed there was zero break in. it just works…the latex required a break in period and then it seemed good and then it was bad again. our next 2" topper most probably won’t be the amazon one. we will probably get the sensus from rocky mountain. but who knows maybe that won’t feel as nice. it’s really strange how those two inches of support make a world of difference helping us with alignment and pressure relief that latex sadly couldn’t offer.
i never buy shoes i have to break in. for years i have been buying shoes that immediately feel really nice. and after the tempurpedic experience and hotel sleeping experiences i believe a bed should be that way too. and it looks like we found something that we are both equally satisfied with and requires no “getting used to.”
after 4 months we are pleasantly surprised that we can love the same mattress.
since we don’t use a quilted cover two other perks are that unlike with latex we are barely aware of the person getting on and off the bed. before you couldn’t miss it. and now it’s a like a distant thump. we still can’t place a cup on the bed and expect to balance. and because the latex is the base it’s still bouncy in that it’s actually almost the same getting out of the bed as when we had latex on top. definitely less work than with a the 3" tempurpedic topper or our old bed (which we loved). so it this latex memory foam hybrid doesn’t fully conform to the properties each offers but gives you something between the two
i am so happy with it. finally.
after reading that most memory foam beds have a base of 30 or so. it seemed like we had inadvertently recreated our old tempurpedic. but with a much higher quality base. and an easy to replace topper. at this point a durable topper is secondary to get a great night of sleep. at least we know our base will last ages and ages…
we tried many latex beds in stores (omi, savvy rest, berkeley, naturepedic, coco-mat (coir rug and latex)). and we thought they were all too hard (my arms would go to sleep if i lied on my side) or too floppy because of the talalay and we were too aware of each other’s movements. we went to try spring beds and memory foam too and nothing seemed right except we did like the $19,000 firm aurora at hastens but i would never spend that kind of money on a bed. but after spending 2 hours on it and actually almost falling asleep in a store i seriously considered it. this is what actually inspired me to do it myself.
in another post i talked about the trial error. and the wonderful people i worked with through the process, specifically latextoppers on ebay, diynaturaldbedding sleeplikeabear, ktt and the clean bedroom…and amazon. in the end i am using a 6" nr talalay piece – 28 ild – by radium from ebay seller latextoppers, a 100% 6" cotton mattress encasement from sleeplikeabear and one 2" one from diy and wool puddle pad from diy and this memory foam topper from amazon. and i did lots of returns and i have some extra pieces that i’ve put aside and will be using for guests and i think they will be happy.
i now have an understanding of materials and it was still less than buying any of those ready-mades and not much more than if we had gone through sleepez.
