Dear TMU,
I need some expert advice please after a mattress purchase gone wrong! I wish I had found you before purchasing!!
I am a back sleeper. I used to have a Harrison Spinks Middleton Mohair firm mattress and after a few months in, and regular turning, once my body started to mold into it, I would get back pain. This led me to believe that as a back sleeper, I do not like a compressed upper layer or I like my mattress to hold its shape. After 5 years, which was too soon to change mattress, I had to change as I was rotating and turning the mattress every 3 -4 days! Madness! But this was the only way to not have any dips in the mattress surface and relieve my back pain.
I went to a local showroom in Cambridge (UK) and I told the salesperson exactly what I said here, that I need a mattress that will not mold to my body as that is what causes back pain and I was directed to the extra firm Hypnos Orthos Support 7. Extra firm made sense to me as I hoped that would hold its shape in the upper layer more than the firm mattress I had. I lay on it for about an hour and it was very comfortable and so I purchased it. I had to wait 8 weeks for delivery and at the point of delivery they took away my Harrison Spinks to be recycled.
On the first night of sleep, I had a terrible night of discomfort! I work up in the morning to find that my body had molded into the mattress after 1 night and I had really bad back pain!
I can return after 30 days if not suitable, luckily. I am now nearly 2 weeks in. I have changed pillow (with the firm mattress I used a panda memory foam pillow which works perfectly when there are no dips in the mattress but is not working with this new molded mattress) and I am getting some relief but I am sleeping on my side and back and waking up constantly in the night and in the morning I have shoulder pain. This mattress needs to go. It is not for me.
I know Brand shopping is not good but now I am stuck with this retailer who only sells Relyon and Hypnos. I can exchange my mattress for another mattress and I need to get it right this time. I don’t trust the salesperson to know as much as you people do as I was obviously sold a dud that was not in line with my PPP’s as you call them! I reached out to Hypnos last week too and I have not heard back.
The top layer of the Orthos Support 7 is made of wool and it appears that this layer compresses even though the firmness is extra firm. I assumed extra firm to mean that the top layer holds its shape. But what do I know?! Mattress purchasing is a mind field and I wish I had come across your forum before I purchased!
I know you can’t recommend particular mattresses, but I think you may have had this issue yourself and wondered if you know of a mattress with these brands where the upper layer does not compress around your body and holds its shape and is firm too, to match my PPP’s?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Yours,
A distressed, back pain suffering mattress purchaser!
I dont know much about Hypnos amd Relyon. But for back pain, firm isnt always the answer.
You want to make sure the spine is straight and supported while on your side. On your back, you should have a nice S curve.
Most people like a medium firm.
Make sure to lay on each mattress for at least 20 minutes.
John
Hi John,
Thanks so much for coming back to me.
I only say firm because my last mattress was a firm and the back pain only started when my body started to sink into the mattress.
Since, I posted the question, I found this from reading an earlier response on here, on good alignment: “thinner comfort layers put you closer to the support layers of the mattress and stop you from sinking into the mattress”.
Second on pressure relief, “some athletic or younger people prefer slightly firmer or thinner comfort layers which can provide more freedom of movement and a feeling of being less “in” the mattress”.
These are exactly my issues. Everyone has their own unique personal preference but for me, as a back sleeper, I need a thinner comfort layer so stop me being “in” the mattress and where a mattress holds its shape too.
Since I posted I also did more research on Relyon. They have a terrible rating on Trust Pilot with 63% of customers giving them 1 star with the majority of cases complaining about premature dipping in the mattress. The contacts page on their website doesn’t work and on their Instragram account, when I posted a query on their specifications I got an automated response to contact your retailer if you want to complain about a purchase. Looks like they get a lot of complaints! So they are off my choice list now, I’m not willing to take a risk on them.
With Hypnos, I also contacted them to ask them for their specifications, which are also not on the website, details of how thick the layers are and how many springs. I told them the issues I had and they steered me towards the Legacy III or V without sending any specs. Seems like basic info and I had back and forth on email a few times with customer services like I am asking for the location of the crown jewels!
They finally sent me a datasheet, which still does not explain the depth of the layers. Link below:
Don’t know if this link will work but will explain the layers here just in case:
The Legacy has a layer of wool at the top (3kg, whatever depth that would be??!) and then a layer of “Adaptiv comfort springs” 700 springs, (2 layers top and bottom, turn able mattress), another 3kg of cotton, silk and wool and then the “reactive pro 8 turn pocket springs”, of which there are 1400 in the middle, then the cotton, silk, wool, adaptiv comfort springs again and wool layer, so that’s 2,800 springs in total, which I got from google AI!
The sales rep did say when I purchased the Orthos 7 that all mattresses have a comfort layer now to allow for people who sleep on their side as this is necessary for them, but not great for me.
Question is, if my issue is that my back doesn’t like feeling “in” in the mattress and I prefer a thinner comfort layer, would the adaptiv comfort springs on top of the main spring section mean that I would not mold so much into the mattress or mold more?! I will ask Hypnos but no doubt I won’t get a straight answer again.
The holy grail quest continues…
Noelle.
Noelle,
Go try to lie in some Hypnos mattresses. They might all be bad. Or you might find something great.
Consider starting over with another mattress. Stay away “sunk cost fallacy”. If you were starting out again, would you even consider Hypnos? No? Maybe ask for a small cash settlement and move on.
John
Maybe get a firm mattress and then buy your own topper that would be thinner.
John