Well, after lurking around the forum for almost a month and testing out dozens of stores and dozens of beds of all styles I have finally narrowed my mattress choices down to either the 10’’ Total Latex bed by Brooklyn Bedding or their 14’’ Aloe Adelle Hybrid Memory Foam/Latex combo bed. I realize these two beds are different and sleep differently as well so my comparison between the two isn’t necessarily a 1:1 idea.
Background:
Before coming here I was initially looking at the icomfort line as tempurpedic’s pricing is absolutely outrageous and at the time icomforts looked like a bargain in comparison. I really liked the Cloud Supreme by tempur as its comfort level and firmness really matched me well and thus I was juggling between icomforts savant and genius models of their memory foam to find a similar comfort layer support. Luckily having found this site I have found Brooklyn and plan on purchasing through them for a higher quality mattress and at a more reasonable price as well. As a background I am 5’'10 and weigh around 155lbs. I was diagnosed with late stage cancer last year and unfortunately a mattress which has historically been doing just fine for me (i used to be able to sleep fine on anything) just isnt cutting it anymore. Because of this I sleep primarily on my back although I do shift to my right side from time to time. Due to where the tumors are located and the chronic pain I experience it has severely disrupted my sleeping; from full back aches and tension, soreness, and the fact that laying completely flat anymore is an extremely uncomfortable thing for me. I also plan on buying an adjustable frame from Revierie the D5 Deluxe model I believe it is labelled as my base (I am looking forward to this quite a bit!). As everyone knows you need to sleep well for every other facet of life to function optimally.
In terms of whether I pick the full Latex or the memory/latex combo really is up to me as both do things slightly differently and results will vary, I just need to make a decision on that, although Chuck did mention that being only 10’’ on the full latex might offer greater results from using the adjustable bed rather than the 14’’ adelle. The thicker the mattress the more it takes to get an effect from the adjustable range as its not going to want to bend and adjust with the inclines etc, which makes sense, bending a small 10 page book like a mattress is much more responsive than trying to get the same bendyness in 500 page Yellowbook. At least it feels like it makes sense to me, I hadnt thought about that until he mentioned it.
I guess the few questions I have are as follows:
(I am not looking to buy the Beautiful model, just using it as a comparison)
Recently to better get an idea on just how a complete latex bed feels and sleeps I stopped by and locally tested the Pure Latex Bliss line of mattresses. I was very impressed by the Beautiful model in terms of its comfort level IDLs, they werent too squishy for my weight and body size but they weren’t too firm either. I was receiving good comfort from the comfort layers and also good support and alignment from the lower layers, which I had not experienced on some of the lesser Latex beds with HD foam support cores I had tried at other stores. My biggest concern here is that although I liked the Beautiful model, it is 12’’ and offers 6’’ of comfort layer compared to the 10’’ Pure Latex by Brooklyn which only offers 1+3 inches of their comfort layer which are placed directly onto the 6’’ heavier IDL support core to hit that magic 10’’ mark. So, 1+3inches vs 6inches of comfort level latex.
As a lighter individual will I notice a large difference between the loss of those three additional inches of support layering or am I fretting over nothing? I also realize that with the savings in cost between these two mattresses I can easily and always order a 2’’ topper of either memory foam or latex and customize to my hearts content as long as I dont make the initial mattress too soft (although with a zipper and the ability to freely swap the comfort layers on the Brooklyn bed make that problem moot). This question also comes into play with the Aloe Adelle memory/latex hybrid. That model is 14’’ and also comes with a 1+3+3 comfort layering option which I can set up as either the hybrid or make it a total 6 inches of latex if I so please later. I guess my big concern is will I be noticing a huge difference between only having 4 inches of dedicated support layering and the 6 or 7 the other models offer even if the adelles base is a lesser Omalon HD core rather than latex.
Right now I am leaning toward purchasing the complete Latex bed at either their level 6 or 7 comfort range and from there deciding if I should either firm it up slightly if it is too soft after a few weeks or even firm it up more and put a latex/memory foam topper on top of it if I need to.
Such a difficult decision to chose between the Latex/hybrid because I have two 3 inch layers I can play and swap around with if need be as opposed to the the single 3’’ layer I will have available on the pure latex model. I guess I just need to be reassured that the single 1+3 inches that the all latex model has will be adequate for supporting my 155-160lbs (which I am sure it will), we are just always led to believe “bigger numbers oooh must be better” when in this case it may just be complete overkill for someone of my size and weight to need 6 inches of support layers.
Also I just wanted to thank you all in advance and especially you Phoenix for this site, without it I would be another random shopper lost in the nightmare of mattress buying and would have likely spent thousands more than necessary for a product that would have likely been on par or inferior to what I am purchasing now.
Fingers crossed I get a response quick I plan on buying one of these suckers either later tonight or tomorrow at the latest, after a month of hunting I am ready to finally make the plunge once my fears are expunged!!! Also sorry for the thesis of a forum post