Feeling overwhelmed

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

I have spent the last couple of weeks lurking on this website, reading loads of information, and am very thankful for all the information here! But I am getting close to making a decision, and feel like I need help.

I currently have an old tempurpedic mattress, and my dh sleeps hot. We will never go back to a spring mattress - foam has been good to us as far as back/shoulder pain relief and comfort is concerned. We are both on the heavy side - 200-225 lbs - he’s 6’2 I’m 5’5.

This website has made me want to look more at latex mattresses, but the only ones I could find were Nature’s Rest, and I hated both of them. I felt like it was a fluffy pillow on top of a hard/springy base. I like the “in the mattress” feel of tempur/memory foam mattresses. I have tried a Kingsdown Select Enchantment mattress that lists a 6" 32ILD Latex Core along with a bunch of other layers - Kingsfoam, Memory foam, Arctic Wave, et cetera. Loved that mattress, hated the huge pricetag. I tried the Tempur line - liked the Cool Luxe and the Cool Luxe Cloud (I think those were the names) and we also tried the iComfort line and like the Epic model in the Directions line. I also tried the Blu-Tek line and loved their softest model, seems I like them soft or plush. These all had some sort of gel/cooling mixed in with memory foam in the comfort layers. I would be a lot happier with a price closer to $1500 than $5000…

So my questions: Is it possible to find a showroom where you can try a bunch of different latex mattress configurations? I am in northern VT and Phoenix has said it is a “mattress desert” up here, I would agree… I can consider driving to St. Jean Quebec or even Montreal, but have fears regarding a language barrier, also wonder about trucking a mattress back across the border. Based on my experience with Nature’s Rest, will I have a hard time finding a latex mattress I like? I hate to keep chasing down a dream if it’s never going to come true… I feel like I could be happy with a mattress from an online retailer if they can help pin down a comfort level for me based on what we’ve tried out.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!

Laura

2

Hi Laura1965,

I’m not sure exactly where you are in Northern Vermont but some of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in about a 50 mile radius or so of Burlington are listed in post #4 here (you may have already seen this).

Unfortunately there no way for me to know this. There is a wide range of different “feels” in latex mattresses and if you’ve only tried one or two that you don’t like there certainly could be others that you do (see post #17 and 18 here for an example) but there is no way for me to know what you may prefer outside of your own testing. If you test many different types of latex mattresses and none of them work for you then it may be that you just don’t prefer the overall “feel” of latex but this would be difficult to know if you’ve only tested one or two. I would also keep in mind that much of the “feel” of a mattress comes from the comfort layers not the support layers so testing a mattress where you don’t know the specifics of all the layers can be very misleading if the comfort layers include a mix of different or unknown foams (such as in the Kingsdown) and I wouldn’t consider this to be a good example of sleeping on latex.

The better online retailers or manufacturers can certainly make an “educated guess” based on a more detailed conversations that includes information about what you have tested and information about your body type and sleeping style that they can match to “averages” but with an online purchase the options you have after a purchase (to either rearrange or exchange layers) can be an important part of your personal value equation because the first try may not always be the best one for any particular person and “averages” don’t include what is best for everyone … they are only the choice with the “highest odds” of success.

Phoenix