Like numerous other posters, I am in the market for a new mattress. I have been lurking on the site for quite some time, reading about the different types and configurations of mattresses available. Based on the reviews and recommendations of people on this site, I am heavily leaning towards the possibility of an “all latex mattress” from one of the members of this site (probably Sleep EZ). I have a few questions and am seeking some recommendations on what to purchase.
I like the idea of the mattresses in a zippered case, where different layers can be swapped around, allowing you to change the feel of the mattress after purchase and also to split and layer each side of the mattress differently. My wife and I have tested several different latex mattresses locally, but unfortunately there is not much available in the way of the adjustable layered types mentioned above. Most of the ones we have tested can be ordered with different layer ILD’s in any configuration you want, but are in sewed covers with varying thicknesses of polyfoam on top of the latex. Through reading on this site, I have come to realize that the polyfoam will definitely be the weakest link and think I prefer to stick with “all latex”. There is only one option locally that offers all latex in a zippered cover.
A little about us ……I am 6’-0" and weigh 160 lbs and my wife is 5’3" and about 120 lbs. She can sleep on most anything although she says she prefers a “softer” surface. (although after testing, this does not always seems to be the case, more on this a little later) She sleeps mostly on her side and back. Probably 80% side and 20% back. On the other hand, I prefer a firmer mattress. I have always preferred sleeping on my stomach and I tend to wake feeling more rested when I do. Due to a back injury about 4 years ago, sleeping on my stomach is now next to impossible except in the rare instance when we stay in a hotel with an extremely firm mattress. I have learned to sleep on my back and side mostly. Probably close to 60% side, 30% back and 10% stomach. The last several months it does not seem to matter which way I sleep, it seems I wake up every hour on the hour with lower back pain. After getting up in the morning and moving around for 15 minutes or so, my back ache subsides. Again, from research on this site, I believe majority of this pain is due to lack of support on our current 7yo cheap innerspring mattress and 4 lb memory foam topper. I have tried different thicknesses of toppers, from 3 inches to 6 inches with seemingly no relief. Since I now believe this is more of a support issue, this makes complete sense.
Ok, a little about preferences from local testing….In stores with the combo latex / polyfoam mattresses, our preferences always seemed to stay pretty consistent. For example, One store had a double sided 9 inch mattress. It was made up of a 6 inch blended talalay latex core, 1-1/2" inches of polyfoam on each side and it was covered with a quilted cotton cover. They could not give me much information at all on the polyfoam used (density, type, etc.). I think she told me the latex was ordered from Tennessee. Anyhow, my wife preferred a latex core of 32 ILD and I preferred the firmer version with 38 ILD. The saleslady told me that the quilted cover was stretched tighter on the higher ILD’s to make it feel firmer. Again, I don’t know much about the polyfoam and don’t intend to go this route anyway. I just wanted to put it out there in case it could possibly help with getting better suggestions from the mattress gurus.
We were able to find one store that carried Savvy Rest. They had 2 mattresses set up, one with layers of organic natural Dunlop and one with all natural Talalay layers. I was expecting us to prefer the Talalay based on what I have read on this site. Much to my surprise, this was not the case with my wife or myself. Both mattresses were set up originally from top to bottom as: 3" soft, 3" medium, and 3" firm. The owner could only provide me with the basic ILD ranges of the soft, medium and firm latexes. I assumed I would be able to find this online so I didn’t fret much over this while in the store. After searching their website, it seems that Savvy Rest does not like giving this information out. They state something similar to the following on their webiste: “using ILD is not a good way to compare mattresses. You should try each mattress configuration and not let the ILD’s of the individual layers keep you up at night.” This makes sense, but bothers me a little that they are not even willing to share the actual ILD’s, even though I know they can vary slightly.
The tallalay mattress seemed way too soft for our liking so we focused on the Dunlop for the rest of our visit. The original configuration of soft / medium / firm was too soft. (again top to bottom) Next they had us try firm / med / soft. As I suspected, this was about lying on a rock. I mentioned to them that I had heard it was not a good idea to have the soft layer on the bottom anyway. They didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with putting it on the bottom. It was not to our liking anyway, so we next tried med / soft / firm. This ended up being the best configuration we could come up with, but still seemed a little firm. My wife and I both agree that this is close to what we are looking for, but in a perfect world, we would prefer it would be just a tad more cushy. As mentioned earlier, this doesn’t seem consistent with my wife’s preferences on other polyfoam / latex mattresses. The ones she preferred at the other stores seemed way too soft for me and on Savvy Rest mattresses she seems to be inline with my preferences. Since I wasn’t sure about getting away from the progressive layering system and placing the soft layer below a med. I got them to let us try med / med / firm to see how much difference there was. Unfortunately, this was too firm.
- Does anybody know the true ILD’s of Savvy Rest mattresses? Do their soft, med, firm correspond closely to online companies such as SleepEZ? I am thinking about the 10,000 series, which is also made up of 3 - 3" layers.
- Is it a bad idea to put soft layers deeper down in the mattress? I think I remember reading on here that it is ok to place it in the middle layer, but that putting it on the bottom is a bad idea. Somebody please straighten me out on this or tell my why it is a bad idea.
- Based on all the above information, are there any other layer configurations I should have tried at Savvy Rest. I think we would both prefer a mattress that is a little firmer than soft / med / firm, yet a little softer than med / soft / firm. Again, the entire mattress was organic Dunlop. I think I have read that Med Talalay would be in between soft Dunlop and med Dunlop. Would it be worth trying in the place of the soft dunlop layer?
I have been thinking about just taking the plunge and ordering a SleepEZ 10,000 series in the following configuration.
Wife (like we tested) Me (similar to what we tested, trying to get a little cushier)
3" Med Dunlop 3" med Talalay
3" Soft Dunlop 3" med Dunlop
3" Firm Dunlop 3" firm Dunlop
This way we could both play around with the med Talalay and compare it to our tested configuration. Although I would obviously prefer to pick out the layers right the first time, I am thinking that ordering this way we should have all options available to us at least on one side. With the 90 day layer swap that SleepEZ offers, we can trade layers out as needed.
Sorry my first post ended up being so long. I look forward to any feedback or suggestions.