I apologize if this is prominently highlighted somewhere, but I’ve looked through various tutorials and articles here so far and have not found an article about evaluating an already purchased mattress.
I happen to have a mattress now with very good return or exchange policy, which I have been sleeping on for two nights so far, and I have not yet been able to decide whether it is uncomfortable (and perhaps too warm vs my old spring mattress) or whether I need to continue sleeping on it for at least another few weeks to really tell how much we fit each other. It feels like my bottom is too low, but then it’s quite probably because I got so used to sleeping on an old firm spring mattress, which propped it up. I am waiting on my husband to come back from a trip and evaluate my spinal alignment, since I can’t quite do it on my own 
I know many mattress selling companies have a rule that you cannot return or exchange a new mattress for a different one for at least 30-60+ days, to get a good feel for the mattress first and properly adjust from the old mattress. Do you happen to have an article going over this issue of adjusting to a new mattress: what signs of discomfort to truly pay attention to in terms of knowing whether a mattress is a good match or not?
From what I’ve read–and unfortunately many of these articles I’ve found have been written by people who sell mattresses themselves–it takes time to adjust to a new mattress, and initially even a good mattress for an individual can be uncomfortable for that individual until after some period of initial adjustment. I don’t know how much of that is to discourage people from returning new mattresses, seeing as the longer we keep our new mattresses, the more inconvenient it is to store them and our old back-up mattress concurrently, and also the chances of accidental damage to the new mattress increase, making a return or exchange more difficult. Or is this initial period of adjustment taking anywhere from a week to a month or two a true phenomenon? Especially going from an old spring mattress to something entirely different, like a memory foam mattress or latex mattress?
(I was very torn between a memory foam mattress and a specific latex mattress, but due to price and excellent return policy, I went with my memory foam candidate first. And of course I still have options to explore, like adding a couple inches of latex or foam toppers to fine-tune whatever mattress I end up with; it’s all a bit overwhelming).
Thank you!!
Hi TidalWave,
A new mattress will go through an initial break in period over the first few weeks and you will also go through an adjustment period over the course of the first few weeks as well.
There is more about the initial break in and adjustment period in post #3 here and post #2 here but I would give it at least 30 days whenever possible.
Phoenix
[quote=“Phoenix” post=51978]Hi TidalWave,
A new mattress will go through an initial break in period over the first few weeks and you will also go through an adjustment period over the course of the first few weeks as well.
There is more about the initial break in and adjustment period in post #3 here and post #2 here but I would give it at least 30 days whenever possible.
Phoenix[/quote]
Aha, I knew I must have missed some informative posts on this topic. You have been so incredibly thorough. Thank you so much again for your hard work–it has been very helpful.
I have a question regarding temperature regulation.
I’m getting to like the feel of my new memory foam mattress, and the top layer is a lower density sort with gel for supposedly cooler sleep. What I notice, however, is that I wake up with my spine feeling like it’s on fire. I’m overall not too hot myself, but the parts that sink into the foam can really overheat in a localized manner. Is that what people mean about sleeping hot on memory foam mattresses? I was under the impression that they were just overall warmer–sort of like having a comforter that’s too warm for the room temperature. But this is the third time now I wake up either in the morning or from a nap feeling like I absolutely must get up ASAP, because my spine is just burning up (I’m a side and back sleeper). As I sit here typing this post, I’ve been up from a nap for 20 minutes, and my middle spine area still feels like it was slow-roasted for a while.
Should that issue improve after some initial break-in of the mattress? Or does this mean memory foam and I will not be friends? I specifically went for a gel-foam to start with, thinking I’d be better with that than high density top layer foams to reduce the heat issue I’ve read people complain about, statistically more with high density foams. My next choice will be a firm/medium type Talalay latex mattress if this doesn’t work out.
(My thicker blanket might be exacerbating the issue where the mattress doesn’t get to breathe as much, but it worked fine for my spring mattress in another room. I’ll be trying a thinner blanket. I do wonder about the summer, when all I use is a cotton sheet for a cover and room temperature will be much warmer at night).
EDIT: something else I’ve just realized–maybe it’s the high thread count cotton sheet I have over the new mattress at the moment! It’s very densely woven and might not be very breathable. I’ll try a different sheet to see if that improves the situation.
Hi TidalWave,
Most people that talk about sleeping too hot would be describing either a local sensation where part of their body is sinking in to a softer insulating material and producing more “localized” heat (similar to sitting with your back against leather) or an “overall” sensation of sleeping too hot. Both of them would involve more of a sensation of being too hot in terms of temperature and would produce the perspiration that goes with it and wouldn’t be the type of “burning” sensation that you seem to be describing that may be pointing to something else (possibly muscles or ligaments that are out of alignment and the burning sensation that can go with muscles that are being stretched outside of their neutral position).
If it’s just in your spine then I would suspect that it could be an alignment issue more than a “sleeping hot” issue. If your mattress uses thicker layers of lower density memory foam then this would also increase the possibility that you are describing an alignment issue (see some of the comments in post #10 here).
It’s also possible that it could be some kind of sensitivity to the materials in your mattress which is causing the “symptoms” you are experiencing (this would tend to be more of a “prickly” heat).
Of course it’s also possible that it could just be the type of temperature regulation issues that most people experience on some types of mattresses (even though your description isn’t “typical”) and there is also more about tracking down some of the potential causes for temperature regulation issues in post #2 here.
I would certainly try different sheets because some cotton sheets with very high thread counts are not particularly breathable and can contribute to heat issues and if you are using a mattress protector that has a semi breathable waterproof membrane then this could also contribute to temperature regulation issues as well.
I would also keep in mind that in very general terms memory foam tends to sleep warmer than other types of foam materials that are more breathable. Gel memory foam can sleep a little cooler when you are first going to sleep but the benefits of the gel tends to be temporary and doesn’t normally last over the course of the night and once temperatures equalize they can often sleep just as warm as “regular” memory foam (see post #2 here).
Phoenix