I wanted to reach out to fellow side sleepers out there (especially tall/big/athletic ones) to hear about your experiences with DIY latex or latex hybrid mattresses. What layers did you choose, especially the comfort layer(s)? If you used coils for your support layer, did you go with zoned coils (e.g., Combi-Zone), and what is your experience with them?
Just hearing your experiences would be helpful to me, but in case you want more in-depth info about our situation, here you go!
Our info:
Me: Male, 6’4", 205lbs, lean athletic build (wide shoulders, narrow waist, large thighs). Side sleeper, though I move around a lot. Need a new mattress that helps with lower back pain.
Spouse: Female, 5’6", 175lbs, curvy build (wide hips). Also a side sleeper. Sleeps hot. Loves our current mattress.
Current mattress: King-sized latex. From top to bottom: 2" wool topper, 2" soft Talalay, 3" medium Talalay, 3" firm Talalay (I don’t know the ILD ratings, but we bought it from Sleep EZ in 2012). The mattress is getting old and has developed deep bowl-like impressions where we sleep, especially on my side, which makes it feel like I’m sleeping in a hammock. It’s time for a new mattress! (And a new, more supportive foundation.)
Even before our mattress developed the deep impressions, it was always “too soft” for me in the hip region, causing lower back soreness (I should have swapped one of the layers with Sleep EZ but didn’t!). I tried switching the layers on my side to S/F/M, which made the mattress feel more firm, but I don’t know if it actually helped my back.
Until finding TMU, I didn’t have the framework to understand why the mattress felt “too soft” for my hips (I just thought I needed a firmer mattress), but now I’ve concluded that it’s some combination of the comfort layer not being soft enough for my wide shoulders and the support layer not being supportive enough for my weight, particularly my large/dense thighs. Photos of my spine alignment confirm this, though surprisingly (to me), my shoulders seem to be out of alignment a lot more than my hips. Seeking a softer comfort layer and a firmer support layer also fits the general advice for my body profile on the Your Statistics page, so I’m pretty confident that this is the way to go.
Our goals:
When waking up with a sore lower back, I keep fantasizing about a nice innerspring mattress, which I usually find very comfortable in hotels and Airbnbs. On the other hand, my spouse loves our current latex mattress, and it’s just about perfect for her. So I’m thinking that a DIY latex coil hybrid might give us the best of both worlds. We’ll be doing a king-sized mattress.
Comfort layer: We’ve done some experimenting with our current mattress to figure out what would and wouldn’t work. We know we need at least a 3" of soft latex in the comfort layer, because we’re probably going to ditch the wool topper, and 2" of soft latex (on top of medium latex) without the wool topper isn’t enough for either of us. The Tips and Tricks page suggests a 4" comfort layer based on my shoulder-to-chest measurement. In our testing, 4" of soft latex feels comfortable, but it’s hard to say how that will feel on a coil support layer. I want to make sure that I don’t significantly change the feel of the mattress for my spouse, but at the same time I need something different enough to alleviate my lower back issues.
Support layer: From the beginning of my research process, I fell in love with the idea of zoned coils, which seemed to be the magic ticket for my lower back problems. The Tips and Tricks page recommends zoning for athletic people with broad shoulders (definitely me) and people who carry their weight in their hips (possibly me, though with large thighs instead of wide hips, and I don’t have narrow shoulders). However, I keep coming across the idea that zoned coils aren’t great for side sleepers, and the experience of TMU forum members seems to back that up, like Ken from Arizona Premium Mattress Co (a side sleeper), Spoonman01 (whose sleep profile/build are very close to mine), and Mattrebuild (who is built similarly but slightly larger than I am).
Our proposed DIY hybrids:
Currently, here is what we’re thinking for our new mattress:
Proposed hybrid #1:
4" soft Talalay (probably 2"+2" for maximum flexibility)
8" coils (unsure about Combi-Zone or not)
This proposed hybrid is sensible and straightforward, but it doesn’t seem right that both sides of the mattress should be configured the same, given that my spouse and I clearly have different needs/preferences based on our current mattress, but I can’t figure out a good alternative. We know we need at least 3" of soft latex in the comfort layer, so I guess we could put another 2" or 3" underneath that on each side, but then we’d have 5"-6" of latex on top of coils. That seems like overkill, and I’m concerned that a “comfort layer” that thick would cease being a comfort layer and start being a (poor) support layer, and we know that the progressive design of 2"/3"/3" S/M/F did not work for me. On the other hand, Mattrebuild (again with a similar but larger build) says that a 4" comfort layer isn’t nearly enough for a large athletic side sleeper. Plus, if we keep piling on the latex, we can probably mimic the feel of our current all-latex bed for my spouse. Which leads to…
Proposed hybrid #2:
4" soft Talalay (probably 2"+2" for maximum flexibility)
2" firm/medium split Talalay or Dunlop (firm on my side)
6" or 8" coils (unsure about Combi-Zone or not)
Thoughts?
I know that it comes down to personal PPP and that physically testing a mattress is the best way to go, but I wanted to see if fellow forum members could at least give me a reasonable starting point, especially if you’re a tall/big/athletic side sleeper. My biggest questions:
- Any insights about our proposed comfort layer configurations? If you have a similar sleep profile/build that I do, what did you choose?
- Any insights about zoned coils as our proposed support layer? If you have a similar sleep profile/build that I do (especially if you have lower back issues) and have coils, did you choose zoned coils or not, and what are your experiences with them?
- Any additional insights about something that I’m overlooking or misunderstanding?
Thanks in advance!