I would be very cautious about considering any major brand mattress that likely uses low quality/density materials in the comfort layers (regardless of how it “feels” in a showroom) or any mattress where you don’t know the quality of the materials inside it unless the durability and useful life of a mattress and how quickly you will need to replace it isn’t an important issue for you (see the guidelines here).
A blind purchase like this is one of the most common reasons for buyers remorse much too quickly after a purchase.
There is more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that can help you make more informed choices and make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses.
More power to those of you who can get a good night’s sleep on memory foam. I tried the entire Tempurpedic line for two hours in a store, and felt like I was either in quicksand or on a slab of concrete depending on firmness. Pressure points on every mattress - the only difference being WHERE the pressure points were. I walked out of the store feeling like I had a broken rib or two by the time I gave up.
In comparison, Latex just feels like it was made in Heaven. But hey, live and let live… To each their own! And all that.
[quote=“LJGMDAD” post=50175]More power to those of you who can get a good night’s sleep on memory foam. I tried the entire Tempurpedic line for two hours in a store, and felt like I was either in quicksand or on a slab of concrete depending on firmness. Pressure points on every mattress - the only difference being WHERE the pressure points were. I walked out of the store feeling like I had a broken rib or two by the time I gave up.
In comparison, Latex just feels like it was made in Heaven. But hey, live and let live… To each their own! And all that.[/quote]
I too initially tried all the Tempur Pedic models and ended up buying the Rhapsody (as I mentioned in the start of this thread).
It turned out to be way to hard/firm for me. After being told by the salesman the first two months it will soften up, it did not. I went back and tried them all out again. Even though I could have done an even exchange for a Cloud Luxe, I decided to return it and look for something else.
After a few weeks of mattress hunting, I did like the Aireloom Meribel and the S&F MacClesfield. The memory foam on those do not have the “quicksand” feel of Tempur Pedic or Optimum. But I decided to try the SleepEZ latex after trying out a Savvy Rest latex in a store. Now after havingit for 5 days, again my back and sides are in pain when trying to get to sleep. The last two nights I’ve woken up in pain and had to transfer to the couch for relief.
At this point, I’m wondering if latex just isn’t for me.
Well I think that’s the advantage of layered latex like the Sleep EZ… now you can start to tune it to your liking. I’m not an expert but if you’ve got pressure points, maybe you went too firm and need to soften it up. The ability to swap out a layer or rearrange existing layers and essentially create a brand new bed is the appeal to me. I’d be surprised if I could never find some combination of layers that worked! I’m curious how much you weigh, and what type and firmness each layer of your SleepEZ is.
BTW, I tried the Airelooms too. I really like the one with the latex comfort layers which is what steered me towards all Latex. While I liked the Aireloom, I felt it was time to get rid of springs and as I’ve been sampling all latex mattresses, I’ve been very happy with what I’ve found.
I have the layer as soft/medium/medium. I’m 6’3" 160lbs and am getting pressure on my back, and even worse when on my side.
In order to try a SSM or SSS, I’d need to have two soft layers sent out.
In the same way that your experience on the Rhapsody wouldn’t be an indication of how you will feel on every memory foam mattress … it’s unlikely that your experience on a single latex mattress would exclude a whole category of material. It’s more likely that the specific combinations you’ve tried aren’t suitable for you rather than the latex itself.
There is some information in post #2 here about the different types of “symptoms” that people may experience on a mattress and some of the most likely reasons for them.
I’m not sure of the specific symptoms you are feeling or where you are feeling them or which sleeping positions they tend to happen but the most common (although not the only) cause of back pain on a mattress is that the mattress is too soft. Pressure points also aren’t nearly as likely for back sleepers with a soft layer on top and the odds are higher (although not certain) that they are coming from alignment issues. Your couch would also almost certainly be firmer than your mattress.
All three layers are Talalay. When I spoke to Sleep EZ before ordering it, I was told they recommend the talalay since it is more uniform ILD than the dunlop, as its ILD is only tested in a few places.
So it’s on the soft side overall. When I talked to SleepEZ yesterday, they recommended SOFT-MEDIUM-FIRM in Talalay for my wife based on her weight of 130 and her sleep style of being a side sleeper. You weigh more and have a softer mattress than that. Based on our in-store trials thus far and what I know about the ILD of SleepEZ Talalay - I tend to think this was the right recommendation for my wife.
So my guess, and it’s just a guess, that your mattress isn’t providing enough support and you are sleeping with improper alignment. So I tend to think you need more support, not less. What you should do next, is call SleepEZ. But my first idea would be to upgrade your bottom layer from medium to firm. Can you have someone take a picture of you laying on the current mattress on your side? It might help you determine if your spine is aligned properly if you can visualize your body position.
Sorry I didn’t give enough detail. Its a Cal King, one side has a firm on the bottom, the other side is medium on the bottom, both sides have medium in the center, and soft on the top, which gives it SMF and SMM on each side. The top soft layer is glued together so there wouldn’t be the split seem in the middle. I’ve gone between both sides (SMF and SMM) and the only side I can bare to lay on is the SMM. My only option for a layer exchange would be to have a soft sent out to try SSM.
So after the swap you could also try SMS in addition to SSM. I’m not sure what to say. How long have you had this mattress? Is it beyond the recommended break-in period?
How much sinkage should I have on the SMM side (6’3" 160lbs) ?
My friend came over and we tried to measure it and I’m only getting about 1/2" down in the top soft layer when laying on my back.
But I’m so “straight” on it that I feel like I’m laying on the floor…by upper back/shoulder get a lot of pressure, as well as my hips and legs.
When on my side, I’m going down about 1", but again even more pressure on my shoulder/arm, hip and legs.
How much sinkage should I have on the SMM side (6’3" 160lbs) ?
My friend came over and we tried to measure it and I’m only getting about 1/2" down in the top soft layer when laying on my back.
But I’m so “straight” on it that I feel like I’m laying on the floor…by upper back/shoulder get a lot of pressure, as well as my hips and legs.
When on my side, I’m going down about 1", but again even more pressure on my shoulder/arm, hip and legs.[/quote]
I do find it interesting that SMM feels too firm at your weight. And I wonder if the mattress cover needs to be stretched out more so than the latex needing to soften. Either way, you need to give it time. And I doubt there’s an answer that can be given to the question “how much should I sink?”. I’d think it depends on your anatomy. In other words you should have proper spinal alignment on your mattress, and how much you should sink to achieve that will most likely vary from person to person.
For a side sleeper:
Again, all orientations:
People are reporting noticeable softening of SleepEZ mattresses after 30-40 days too. So, 6 days just can’t possibly be enough time.
You would need some very sophisticated measuring and testing equipment to be able to calculate that. It would depend on the shape and weight distribution of your body and once you had measured that accurately then it would take some very high level math to figure out an algorithm that took into account the response curve of the different layers of latex and the changing surface area of your body as you sink in deeper.
Just for reference the ILD of latex is measured on a 6" core with a 50 sq in compressor head and the ILD is the amount of force it takes to compress the 6" core by 25% (1.5"). There is a video here for Latex International which shows their ILD testing (at 3:00) and one for Radium here (click step 9) which shows their ILD testing.
50 square inches is a diameter of just under 16" so the compressor head would be “about” the size of a bum. If you had a 24 ILD 6" core then it would only take 24 lbs to compress the latex 1.5", if the core was 32 ILD it would take 32 lbs, and if the core was 40 ILD it would take 40 lbs. I would guess that there is probably more than 40 lbs of pressure under your bum. I just weighed myself lying on the floor with a flat scale under my bum and it was putting 79 lbs of force on the scale (I weigh about 200 lbs) so if you weight 160 and your weight was distributed roughly the same as me you would be putting about 63 lbs of force on the same scale so your bum would sink into a 6" core of 40 ILD latex more than 2" if you do the “rough math”. Using the same math your bum would sink into a 6" core of 24 ILD latex more than 3" and probably closer to 3.5". Of course this is very “rough math” because I don’t know your exact measurements or your weight distribution and that would take much more sophisticated equipment.
There is also a more complicated (and probably not very accurate) example of some “rough math” with multiple layers in post #26 here and you can see a similar “rough math” example that applies to pressure relief (rather than how much you sink in) in post #2 here.
Having said that … regardless of how much you are sinking in or how much pressure you would have if it was measured … all that really matters is that you sleep well and as LJGMDAD said I would give it a few weeks at the very least (and hopefully you’ve checked the other suggestions I made previously as well).
The math of bums! So would a 6" core have any more resistance than a 3" core at the same pressure and same ILD? I’m just curious. I had looked at the Botanical Bliss which is a 6" core and 3" comfort layer, and I had previously thought it’d provide a more solid foundation somehow. But I do think I favor the combination of 3 3" cores instead - just to have more options.
Oh and speaking of the Botanical Bliss - there’s one retailer that does make a big to-do about their certifications! But, again, how to put a price tag on that is questionable at best. I.e. if the latex is all natural, then what does an additional certificate on top of that do for me? But I digress…
If they were both on a solid surface then a single 3" core would be firmer than a 6" core because it would be compressed to a greater percentage of it’s total thickness (see post #14 here about the effect of thickness).
If you have two 3" layers that are both the same ILD as a single 6" layer they would be very similar. There is more about two 3" layers vs a single 6" layer in post #2 here.
I was going to try and contact SF and Aireloom next week to see what type of foam is used on their upper layers.
What classification questions should I ask…such as what type of foam, ILD, weight?
It was mentioned that maybe the cover was still to firm, so today I unzipped it and had the sheets right on top of the latex, but still felt the same type of “up pressure” that is making me soar.
I did that the two Magniflex dealers in my are actually home decor type of stores and only have one of those models on display.
So they recommend going down to the Miami Magniflex Gallery (an hour south of me) to try all of them out. But if I were to order one, there is no exchange or return since Magniflex cannot resell or recycle used mattresses. So that right there would probably prevent me from every buying one.
