I am looking at a 13" foam sweet foam mattress. The rep suggested the following: medium talalay, firm dunlop, firm dunlop, firm dunlop. I am 5’6 and 190lbs with a stocky build I have lower back pain and constant problems falling and staying asleep. I wake up constantly. Several friends suggested I look into a latex mattress and foam sweet foam seems to be among the best, albeit a bit expensive.
Any suggestions or will this combination work?
Hi jahranking,
While I can certainly help with “how” to choose, it’s not possible for me to make specific suggestions or recommendations for either a mattress or combinations of materials or components, because the first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress. There are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), sleeping positions, health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more reliable than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
When you can’t test a mattress in person, then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences or to other mattresses that they are familiar with than anyone else. They will generally make suggestions that they honestly believe have the best chance of success based on the information you provide them when you talk to them on the phone because this is in both your own and their best interests but again … at the end of the day the only way to know for certain whether any specific mattress is a good match for you in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP will be based on your own careful testing and/or your own personal experience so if you can’t test a specific mattress in person then the options you have available after a purchase to either exchange the mattress or individual layers or components or return the mattress for a refund (and any costs involved) would generally become a more important part of your personal value equation just in case a mattress you purchase doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for.
As you may be aware, Foam Sweet Foam is a member of this site which means that I think very highly of them and that I believe that they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, knowledge, and transparency. I would have confidence in the suggestions that they have offered to you, and there certainly objectively isn’t a reason that such a configuration wouldn’t work for you based upon your BMI, but just in case it doesn’t work out as well as you would have hoped, they do offer an exchange/return policy to help you fine tune the product after your initial purchase.
Phoenix