Feeling stuck in my research

[Otterworks]

Hi, I’ve kind of hit a roadblock in trying mattresses so I thought I’d try to put some information about myself and what I’ve tried here and get some advice on what I should do next.

I’m 6’2" 270 (weight is slowly, consistently falling and I expect it to continue at least until 225 or so) and sleep by myself; historically I’m a very mobile sleeper which has led partners to want separate quarters, though in my forties that has been reducing. Even so I’m in a situation where I don’t really expect to be sleeping with anyone regularly. I do, however, want a large bed because I’m spoiled; I’m headed for a Cal King here. Mostly I go to sleep on my side though I end up on my back often during the night.

I sleep cold and live in MN so will want something that can handle a heated mattress pad. I’m dedicated to having an adjustable base. I’m weird in that I like variety in how I sleep, and I like the idea of having a two-sided bed with one firm side and one soft side. (If nothing else having a sleeping side and a reading side would be nice.) I also like the idea of being able to fiddle with it over time. Price isn’t a major concern.

At this point you’re probably thinking customizable latex, which is the trajectory I thought I was on. I started off just by going to Slumberland to try a lot of beds and see how I felt about support and firmness, and ended up liking the most support and on the firm side of medium. But I didn’t specifically like many of the beds there and started reading a lot here, and being attracted to latex options. To try one I went to Original Mattress Factory and tried their Serenity latex hybrid, the only latex they make, which is 1" of talalay 19 and 2" of talalay 24 over a 4.5" 2.5lb foam layer, with a stretch cover. I liked the feel and bounciness of the latex but this was very close to too soft for me and they don’t do split mattresses at all. (They rate it as 44/100 softness, for whatever that’s worth.) So I thought, ok, I’ll try more latex, I’ll find something I like, it will be ok.

So I took a trip up to Moss Envy to try some things and ran into less clarity than I had hoped. They have four versions of their customizable latex Savvy Rest beds, which were… ok? None of them were as happily bouncy as the OMF bed, possibly because of the 1" wool top layer, possibly because the OMF mattress was on a box spring. Of these the MFF dunlop was a little too firm, the two SMF versions (t top, d top) were fine but not thrilling, and the S(t)SM(d) was softer than I would like. None of them had much wow factor for me. The folks there said that they don’t carry any talalay other than soft because it’s hard to distinguish from dunlop at those levels.

So now I don’t really know what to do next. I enjoyed having that kind of bouncy resistance on the first latex bed I tried and was hoping to be able to get more of that in a slightly firmer bed, but I’m not sure what the path to that would be. Would it help to do just a stretch cover? I was tempted to get a 13" custom from @Sleep_EZ and just get a wide variety of layers and have fun playing around with organizing them on each side of the bed, but without having tried a satisfactory example configuration in person that feels harder. And I’m not even sure what I would choose or if that fourth layer would be wildly overkill.

So anyway what I really need is direction on how to think about this from here, I think. I’m not sure there’s anywhere else worth going to test beds. Circling back around to hybrids seems like it’s just going to lead me to more uncertainty. But I also don’t feel as ready to take a dive into ordering something as I expected to.

[Sleep_EZ]

Hi otterworks and welcome to the forums and thanks for the inquiry! I think the Sleep EZ organic would be a great choice! The organic and natural mattresses (the Select Sleep mattresses) are our flagship products. They’re fully customizable, meaning you can order the mattress to be as soft or as firm as you’d like. They’re also fully adjustable, meaning you can change the softness, firmness, back support, pressure relief, etc. AFTER you get the mattress in your home. To be more specific, the 10” is our most popular, and these mattresses normally go out with three 3" layers of different firmnesses - normally the softest layer (or the cushion & contour layer) is on top and the supportive layers are on the bottom. This helps ensure our customers get the right balance of contour for their hips and shoulders but also support for their lower back. If you start with a certain setup and find that it’s too soft, you can unzip the cover and rearrange the layers to get a firmer feel out of the mattress, or you can exchange a layer to make it softer. Additionally, latex mattresses typically last 20 years. If, in 5 or 10 or 15 years you decide you want a softer or firmer mattress you would only have to buy a new layer instead of an entirely new mattress. Lastly, if the mattress starts to break down in 15 – 20 years, it’s normally the top layer that breaks down first, and at that point you can likely just buy a new top layer of latex instead of a whole new mattress and get an additional 8-10 years out of the mattress.

Furthermore, queen, king, and cal king mattresses are available with what we call “split layers,” which means you can have us cut the layers down the middle (from head to foot) so that you can have a different feel / firmness on your side versus your partner’s side, and you can adjust each side independently over the 20 year lifetime of the mattress. About 95% of our mattresses go out with all split layers from top to bottom, and we get zero complaints on being able to feel the split and we get zero complaints about the layers shifting or anything like that, even if you sleep right on the middle of the mattress.

If you’re wondering how to pick the layers for this mattress, you can go to the natural or organic mattress page, click the green button that says “Build Your Mattress Now,” then click the gray oval that says “Personalized,” and you’ll be able to enter your information. The website will then make a personalized recommendation based on your information (the layers in the mattress diagram will reflect the recommendation after you click the “Apply” button. Please note that our initial recommendations have a 90% success rate (we only have a 10% layer exchange rate) so there’s a 90% chance that the recommendation turns out to be your perfect setup!

Although it’s not likely that you’ll need to rearrange layers or exchange layers, you certainly have the option to adjust the mattress according to you and your partner’s specific needs and preferences, both in the short-term and long-term. We have a 90 day exchange and return period, so you can exchange a layer within the first 90 days for a flat-rate $30 fee for the first exchange and the full cost of shipping for any subsequent exchanges. We will ship your layers first, and we will ship them with extra plastic that you can use to package your current layers, and we will ship it with a pre-paid Fed Ex return label. Also, if you will please call us when you are ready to ship your layers back we will schedule a free Fed Ex pick up for you. You will have 30 days after its arrival to return a layer of your choosing, so you’ll have plenty of time to try a few different combinations with the layers you have and the layer we will be sending you so that you can get your comfort and support levels just right.

Regarding the height of the mattress, the 10" is our most popular for sure. The 13" is more money than you need to spend unless you weigh 300 pounds or more or just want a taller mattress.