Hello all. I am 5’ tall, 105 lbs primarily back sleeper with military neck, congenital kyphosis, chronic migraines, bilateral occipital neuralgia and bilateral thoracic outlet. Basically, I’m a musculoskeletal mess from the chest up. I did really well for a long time on a basic temperpedic (they don’t make it anymore - basically just a block of temper material) with a 1 inch Berkley Ergonomics topper and a old style 02 oxygen pillow. That combo worked great for me because the temper was firm enough to keep my hips up (I can’t have my hips sink ) and have great alignment without pressure points. The oxygen pillow was also soft enough and low enough to keep my neck in good alignment. Those all went caput about 5 years ago and I’ve been struggling since then to find something that works. I gave up on the O2 pillow with the newer (ie about 6 years ago) design/manufacturer/design and now use a Noble Pillow. It’s the best I’ve used so far (I’ve bought probably thousands of pillows at this point), but it’s still no quite perfect (possibly because I’m still not on the right bed).
I’ve tried a lot of mattresses - we went back to TemperPedic but they don’t have the basic anymore and within 4 months with the new model we purchased the hip support collapsed and I had to get rid of it because I lost that alignment. We went to European Sleep Works and bought one bed that was a disaster (poorly made, uneven support, too much motion transfer) and the customer service was horrible, so we crossed them off the list. I’m currently sleeping on a latex mattress from a local store (The Natural Mattress Store) which is hard as a rock and not pleasant, but at least keeps my hips up. I can only sleep for about 5 hours before I wake up in pain from pressure points, but I can’t sleep at all if my hips sink lower than my shoulders, so it’s a trade off I’ve accepted for now. It’s too painful to sleep on my side on the type of hard beds I need for the hip support, so once I’m done sleeping on my back I usually just lay there awake and uncomfortable. I’d love to be able to sleep on my side again.
We most recently bought the top of the line Duxianna because in the showroom the bed seemed to work, but I think the floor model was about 6 years old and the production has changed since then so the product we received is not what we tested (even after nearly a year of sleeping on it). So, that sucks and we’ll have to get rid of it.
I’m not sure where to go from here. I do wonder if some kind of memory foam mattress is what will work best for me. My husband is 6’1" and 180 lb and moves a lot so motion transfer is a big deal for us. I was thinking of getting and XL twin for each of us with Berkeley Erognomics, but our local show room is pretty bare bones and I wasn’t super impressed with their beds. Plus, they are not memory foam. I’m not sure. I’m just wondering if anyone has any thoughts/tips that would allow me to get the support for the alignment I need for my back but with the softness for pressure points and to allow me to sleep on my side, even for an hour or two.
Thanks so much,
Ally