Grateful, overwhelmed, stuck in bed...

[phoenix]

Hi Adrienne,

Hope it doesn’t irk you to hear, but I’d still love to hear–and add the requisite oversized grain of salt to–more (super subjective) general observations from BME owners who’ve had more firsthand experience with 100% latex than I (comparing/contrasting the two or otherwise).

Hopefully some of the members here that have experience with sleeping on some version of a 100% latex mattress (and there are hundreds of variations that would be different from each other) and the BME will see your post and share their comments and experiences. My only caution would be that you fully realize just how subjective this really is and that their assessments of how any two mattresses compare may be very different from your own experience (assuming that they are even comparing the same mattresses in the same firmness levels that you are considering).

Because of my situation (and my multiple health conditions that will extend beyond these bed-bound months), this is one decision where I honestly can’t afford to settle or compromise, and as I’ve thought about what’s keeping me from going with the BME, I’ve (somewhat reluctantly) recognised that the low price tag is a point of concern rather than a selling point. As you’ve said, the free return policy is built into the price, so it’s even lower in real terms. But BB sure seems to have had us especially indecisive types in mind, knowing that choosing between Talay and Dunlop is tough, that most of us considering different latex densities are hoping to achieve a happy “medium”, and that determining which base layer is best suited both for durability/support and to feel the full benefit of the upper comfort layers is downright daunting.

No matter how much you may agonize over “theory at a distance” … the only way you will know for certain whether any mattress will turn out to be suitable for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP will be based on your own personal experience. Assessing a mattress for durability is relatively simple because it’s less subjective and all you need to do is know the “quality specs” of the materials in the mattress (and in the case of the BestMattressEver there are no lower quality materials or weak links that would compromise the durability and useful life of the mattress) but knowing how a mattress will feel or perform for you is very different. This is the reason that the return policy can be so important so you can test the mattress in your bedroom instead of a showroom so if it’s not “good enough” in terms of PPP (however you may define or experience that) then you can just return it and you have lost nothing except the time you’ve spent sleeping on it and returning it.

Unless you have a great deal of knowledge and experience with different types of mattress materials and specs and different layering combinations and how they combine together and can translate them into your own “real life” experience that can be unique to you (which would only be a very small percentage of people) … I would avoid using individual specs such as layer thicknesses or ILD numbers or other complex combinations of information or specifications to try and predict how a mattress will feel or perform for you or how it will compare to another mattress and focus more on your own actual testing and/or personal experience and if this isn’t possible then on more detailed conversations with a knowledgeable manufacturer or retailer. While knowing the specs that can affect the quality and durability of the layers and components in a mattress is always important … when you try and choose or compare a mattress based on complex combinations of “comfort” specs that you may not fully understand then the most common outcome can often be “information overload” and “paralysis by analysis”. Even the best mattress designers in the industry are often surprised at what a mattress they design “should have felt like” when they design it and what it “actually feels like” when they test out their new design.

All that said, after my marathon reading sessions here and given my particular circumstances, I can’t help but suspect that 100% latex is the better “match” for me. Threads about Sleep EZ’s “soft” being equivalent to other retailers’ “medium” (as measured by ILDs) have added another wrinkle to my already badly wrinkled thought process, but I understand that a phone conversation with one of the experts from Sleep EZ or Flexus will make the (markedly personally distasteful) idea of a component mattress more of a “simplified choice”, and I’ll resume my sleep-deprived rambling here ( ) after I make those overdue calls.

You will also find others that say the opposite and that will tell you that even firmer latex feels softer than they thought it would.

There are no “standard” definitions or consensus of opinions for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can also have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.

The best idea of all would be the “overdue” conversations on the phone.

Phoenix