I thought I’d give an update on our mattress(es)…
As I reported earlier, we got a split king all latex mattress from The Mattress Factory in Ft Worth, TX and had a great experience there. Both twin XLs had a 6" core with an approximate ILD of 36 and a 2" “comfort” layer on both sides (so it can be flipped) with an approximate ILD of 28. So we got approximately a 28/36/28 configuration.
From the very first day I felt like mine might be too firm. It felt subtly like the mattress was “pushing up” on my hips - I finally understood some posts I had read where people complained about their latex mattress having to much “pushback”. I also would wake up a couple times a night and have to switch positions to relieve pressure on various pressure points. And every morning I would have some minor soreness in my lower back, which would luckily only last for 30-60 minutes. I loved the support the mattress provided, but it was obvious pretty quickly that the mattress was too firm for my hips and pressure points.
I decided to give it a few weeks to see if things would “soften up”, and/or for my body to adjust to sleeping on a proper mattress with proper support - since I had been sleeping on an underinflated Select Comfort mattress for a long time my body was “used to” a complete lack of support. But even after several weeks the issues still persisted and it was clear that the mattress was to firm for me.
(We enjoyed our split Select Comfort and were satisfied with it for over 10 years, but in the last couple years my mattress had gotten to where it would only inflate so far. I’m sure Select Comfort would have worked with us to fix that, but I just didn’t want to hassle with it as it seemed “fine” sleeping on it to me - although I now realize I should have done something sooner because it was so unsupportive. But at least I finally decided to do something about it, and recently decided to start researching what to look for in a mattress… and found this site!)
Peter at The Mattress Factory was great about it when I asked about modifying the mattress, and since it was so shortly after we had purchased the mattress he was willing to modify the mattress for me at no charge. At first I was thinking I just needed it overall “softer”, so I took the mattress in and was going to have him change it to 28/24/28. But after hearing myself talk it through with him and my wife I realized the issue I had with the mattress was not the “support”, it was the “comfort”. In fact the support was great, but I just wasn’t getting quite enough relief on my hips and pressure points. So I instead had him slightly modify just the outer (“comfort”) layers by replacing the outer layers with an approximate ILD of 24, to change the mattress to a configuration of 24/36/24.
Well… after picking it up just a few days later and getting it home…
From the very first night it was an obvious improvement!
When I laid down on it for the first time it was a clear improvement. My hips no longer felt “pushed up”, and yet they also didn’t sink in too far to take my spine out of alignment. I didn’t wake once that night, and my back was fine in the morning. I decided to sleep on it several weeks again for things to settle and/or soften, etc. before I decided it was definitely the right configuration for me.
Well… I can now say this 24/36/24 configuration, as Goldilocks said, is “just right” for me. Not only has it continued to feel as good as it did that first night, but it has gotten even better as my body has gotten used to sleeping on a properly supporting mattress - rather than an underinflated Sleep Number mattress. I’m sleeping much better with this mattress than I had been on that mattress for the last couple of years.
I can definitely say I’ve personally had a good experience purchasing our mattress(es) from The Mattress Factory.