I have tried to be a good student, read all of the materials, but didn’t necessarily grock all of the concepts.
Here is my situation.
I have nerve damage in the back of my heel. I will wake up if the back of my heel touches the mattress. Contact with the inner side of my ankle and the back of my lower calf can also triggers the same sensation. Prior to this damage, I fell asleep on my side or stomach and woke up on my back. Now, I mostly sleep on my side, with short spurts on my stomach with my feet off the bed. That position hurts my back but helps me with my foot.
To make side sleeping work, I twist one foot around the other. This caused sciatica which is now chronic. I have upper back/neck issues from an old car accident but my Oxygen Pillow has really helped. (I have psoriatic arthritis, but that is not currently an issue).
So, onto the new mattress search. I live in Oakland, CA. I’ve tried several mattress stores: Berkelely Ergo, Nest , Essentia, Savvy Rest , and European Sleep Works. I focused on latex and innerspring with microcoils.
I like the idea of being able to change out layers to get things right, and am leaning toward a few different mattresses at ESW (European Sleep Works).
The initial feel test directed me to Calico, and Alpine HDM, both in A softness.
So, yesterday, I went beyond initial feel to trying out each of the mattresses for pressure points. I had purchased an Oxygen Pillow from them earlier this year, so they gave me an equivalent pillow to use for my testing.
After several minutes on the Calico, I had problems with both heel and sciatica with and without pillow between my knees. I’ve pretty much ruled it out. The Alpine also gave me pain, but less. Next, I tried Nordic HDM A. This began to be my frontrunner. By then, however, I hurt so badly that I took a break from the store and came back in the afternoon. I decided to try the Nordic HDM B and latex… I spent the next hour or so trying different positions on the Alpine A, the latex classic hdm A, and the Nordic HDM B and A. Clearly, this was a mistake. I ended up being so confused that I purchased nothing. My preference at the end was for Nordic B or latex A. Which made me think I should reconsider the Savvy Rest Serenity Bed (all dunlp, soft top layer, soft middle layer, medium bottom layer).
I came home and had a horrible nights sleep on my mattress.
Any advice on how to move forward?
Jennifer