Hi gianos,
Yes … but it is a little more difficult and because most people focus more on comfort (pressure relief) than support (spinal alignment) it is easily forgotten or not tested. Many people will also not have a clear sense of what they are testing for and will either go by more subjective “overall” perceptions or will not spend long enough on a mattress to really get a clear sense of how it may feel and perform in “real life”.
First of all … it’s important when you are testing for pressure relief or alignment to make sure you lie on a mattress for long enough that your mind and muscles are fully relaxed. A mattress can feel very different when you are fully relaxed than it does when you are tense. For most people this means spending at least 15 minutes on a mattress that you are seriously considering and focus on the relaxed feeling that you have when you are going to sleep.
The second key is to focus specifically on testing for alignment and its symptoms rather than comfort in all your sleeping positions. There are several things here that can help.
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Try to sense whether your muscles are able to completely “let go” and allow the mattress to support your natural alignment rather than using muscle tension to keep you in alignment. This means that you can sense your body and muscles fully relaxing without a tendency for any area to be tense.
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Next is to pay particular attention to any tension or discomfort (or even pain) in the areas where poor alignment tends to produce symptoms for you. This can be different for different people but is usually in the lower back or lumbar curve, and the upper back and neck where the spine also curves. Test in all your sleeping positions making sure to move slowly when you change position and stay relaxed. Bear in mind that minor discomfort when you are testing can be amplified when you are sleeping for longer periods of time.
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Next is to make sure that all the inner curves of the spine are filled in so that there are no “gaps” in between your body and the mattress. It should be fairly difficult to slide you hand under the lower back or waist (if the mattress is too firm then this area will not be filled in well enough and sliding a hand under it will not have enough resistance and will be too easy).
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Finally you can use the help of someone who can see you on the mattress to make sure there are no obvious issues of alignment such as those that are in this diagram. If you stand up with “good posture” then your “helper” will be able to get a sense of your natural curves from the side and back and this can help them see if your posture is close to what it is when you are standing up and whether any part of your body is sinking in a little too far (usually the hips/ pelvis) or not enough (usually the upper body and shoulders). They can also make sure that your head and neck is also in good alignment when you are testing because this can affect how a mattress feels in the upper body area.
On your side … your spine should be relatively straight (like it is when you look at someone from behind) and your body profile along the side of your body should be similar to your standing position (shoulders and hips in roughly the same relative position). On your back … the spine and body profile should be similar to the side view when you are standing with no obvious areas where parts of you are sagging or sinking in too far or not enough (within reason).
If you test more objectively and specifically for alignment using these suggestions and the more subtle cues from your body in conjunction with some help then you should be much closer to your ideal than if you only test for more subjective ideas of “comfort”.
I should also mention that there are certain layering and material combinations that can be suitable for two people with different body types and sleeping positions even though they may be very different. In other cases … a side by side split layering can also be helpful to accommodate different body types and sleeping positions. In other words, I wouldn’t make assumptions about what may be best ahead of time and use the “evidence” of your testing to determine what is best for each and both of you more than “theory” which can sometimes be misleading or counter intuitive.
Hope this helps
Phoenix