I purchased the Dreamfoam Ultimate Dreams 13-inch Gel Memory Foam about 18 months ago and have loved it: no more back pain, and I sleep still all night, usually waking up in the exact position I remember falling asleep in.
My wife started out liking it, but has gradually found to lack of easy movement in it difficult, to the point where she wakes up with an achy back! She needs a new solution.
I pointed her to this site to learn and figure out what works for her. Assuming she finds a layering system that is better for her, I’m thinking of buying a Twin, then taking an electric knife to my current mattress… Bring them together under a single cover, and we have… Frankenmattress!
I know you can have 2-sided Kings made, but I’m obviously interested in not losing my investment in my perfectly good mattress.
Has anyone tried this? Any tips for success?
Or, if you want to buy an Ultimate Dreams for 50% off, let me know
It’s unfortunate that your wife doesn’t like your mattress as much as you do and it seems that your original concerns about temperature didn’t turn out to be as important as the movement restriction that can be part of the characteristics of mattresses that use slow recovery materials like memory foam.
In any case … post #2 here has more information that may be helpful if you are considering mattress surgery as a “last resort option”.
It may be worth considering just removing half of the memory foam layers (or even just the top 3" memory foam layer) on her side of the mattress and replacing them with a faster response material with the same thickness so that you don’t have to cut the whole mattress in half and can use the same base materials. I would probably try just replacing her half of the top 3" layer and then you can always replace the deeper 2" layer as well if you need to later on.
You may need to be work cautiously if the layers are glued together and if you are careful you may be able to use the same cover.
If you do decide to sell it then you would meet the forum rules about selling a mattress and you are welcome to start a new “for sale” topic if you wish to.
[quote]I tried doing some searching and reading for this, but couldn’t find specific posts: any ever tried putting a topper over memory foam?
I’m just wondering if there is a less intrusive approach than surgery, just in case it doesn’t work out and I do need to try to sell.
We could just go buy her a less soft topper and see if sleeping on that would help. But if it’s on the memory foam, will that be a waste of time? [/quote]
There really aren’t any great ways to firm up a mattress that is too soft because a firmer topper on top of softer comfort layers underneath it will usually just follow any soft spots or impressions in the layers underneath it and this can sometimes even make any alignment issues worse and can also create a separate pressure relief issues in addition to any alignment issues that may already exist. There is more information about mattresses that are either too soft or have developed soft spots or impressions in post #4 here that may be helpful.
Adding a topper on top of memory foam can reduce the amount of body heat that reaches the memory foam which in turn can firm up the memory foam or at least slow down the time it takes to become softer. The specific effect will depend on the type of topper and on the type of memory foam under the topper and its temperature sensitivity, firmness, and response time.
OK that makes sense; sounds like I’ll have to try searching for a comfort layer that works better for her and do the surgery, getting the memory foam out of the equation altogether. No idea on how to figure that out ahead of time; I had her read the forums, so I guess we’ll search for some similar in-store mattresses to compare.
Basically, something with 3" of ??? (Latex maybe?) on top of 2" of 5lb memory foam and 8" base of premium base foam. Or maybe a full 5" of alternatives to the memory foams. I’ll start my search in the morning!
It may be worth trying some of the other suggestions (such as zoning layers under the mattress) before trying the surgery.
[quote]so I guess we’ll search for some similar in-store mattresses to compare.
Basically, something with 3" of ??? (Latex maybe?) on top of 2" of 5lb memory foam and 8" base of premium base foam. Or maybe a full 5" of alternatives to the memory foams. I’ll start my search in the morning! [/quote]
It’s unlikely that you will find a local mattress that uses the same materials as the layers in your mattress with the only difference being a 3" latex layer on top instead of the top 3" of memory foam in your mattress so while your local testing may give you some general idea of how different types and firmness levels of latex feel in the top 3" of a mattress … it would still be different from the final version of your mattress because the rest of the layers would be different and every layer in a mattress will have some effect on the feel and performance of all the other layers in the mattress and on the mattress as a whole.
If you do decide to go ahead with mattress surgery and remove just a 3" memory foam layer and replace it with a latex layer then I would make sure that there is a good exchange policy with the new layer you purchase so you can test it using your actual sleeping experience and still have good exchange or return options available to you and less risk of getting “stuck” with a layer if it doesn’t work out as well as you hoped.
