DIY new latex mattress and very unhappy - How to start to fix?

[phoenix]

Hi relay700,

Here is my thoughts after a few nights on each layer. The soft is nice but has no support at all. The medium is a little too firm for my taste and seems to offer very little pressure relief compared to my daughters 12" store brand memory foam mattress. The firm is out of the question too hard.
When all 3 layers are combined, you can almost push your hand all the way to the wooden frame below them. There is no way this is enough support to properly support the body. if you sit on the edge of the bed, you can feel the wooden foundation.
It’s strange, on the one hand there is very little structure and support overall and on the other hand, it’s too firm or too soft.

There will be a break in and adjustment period for any new mattress or sleeping system as the mattress loses any of it’s “false firmness” and the cover stretches and loosens a little and your body gets used to a mattress that is different from what it is used to sleeping on (see post #3 here).

I’m also not clear from your comments whether you are trying each layer separately or if you are sleeping on the combination of all three layers since your comments seem to be more about each layer individually and not the combination of all three. Each individual layer has a different function inside a mattress so assessing each layer by itself will have little to do with how the combination works together “as a whole”.

“Support” is also often misunderstood and many people believe incorrectly that “firmer is better” or “more supportive” or that one type of support system is “better” than another when the real goal of a “supportive” mattress is to keep the spine in good alignment and this requires the type of contouring support that allows some parts of the body to sink in more and some parts of the body to sink in less and this will vary on an individual basis. There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support/alignment” and “comfort/pressure relief” and “feel” and how they interact together.

You also didn’t mention any of the specific symptoms you are experiencing when you sleep on your mattress because how a mattress feels and responds when you push on it with your hands or sit on the side is very different from how it will feel and respond when you sleep on it over the course of the night.

SleepEZ and several other reccomend vendors sell this type of configuration, 3x 3" layers, so I am not sure how it’s working for them when I am so unhappy?

Your mattress (soft/medium/firm … hopefully with a suitable cover) is certainly inside the range that would work well for most people in your weight range but each person is unique and a mattress or a combination of layers that works well for one person or even for a larger group of people may be unsuitable for someone else to sleep on.

So, on to fixing if possible. Perhaps i need to look at a proper support layer? I was going to order a 6" latex core but is looks like the 6" cores are simply made of 2 - 3" layers bonded together so I figure it was better to order different firmness than a core. not sure how that would fix my issue.

Based on your comments you already have a “proper support layer” (the firm) in addition to a transition layer (the medium) and a comfort layer (the soft) that would work well together for most people even though it may not be suitable for you (although you will need more time on all three layers inside a cover to know for certain). Both Dunlop and Talalay latex are made in 6" molds that aren’t two layers that are bonded together. There is also more about the pros and cons of a single 6" core vs two 3" layers in post #2 here.

Overall … I think that the “best” suggestion for now would be to put all three layers together with the firm on the bottom, the medium in the middle, and the soft on top inside your cover (assuming that you have a cover) and then sleep on it for a few weeks to see how it works out for you and whether you are experiencing any actual symptoms over the course of time.

Once you have a little bit more time on your current configuration then you can use any specific symptoms you experience on your mattress as a reference point and guideline to help you decide whether any changes will be necessary and if they are on the types of changes in your layering that may be most helpful.

I would also read the comments in the first part of post #2 here and the posts it links to about putting together a DIY mattress as well…

Phoenix