I agree with you that their toppers are very soft (either 14 ILD for the blended Talalay latex or 15 ILD for the Talalay GL fact response) and a firmer topper may be more suitable. The advantage of trying a specific topper that the store has available is that you can test it in person in combination with your mattress to know whether it works or not and it may take some trial and error to find the best combination without testing it first but there are many other sources of toppers which can give you a much wider range of options and have better value than the PLB toppers even though a purchase that you haven’t tested in person carries a higher risk unless there is a good return or exchange policy.
If you are confident that the Beautiful is a good choice in terms of PPP and that your testing will reflect your actual long term sleeping experience then it could certainly be a good option.
Again you could test this in person (if the store puts a Nature mattress on top of the base) but in general when you are dealing with pressure relief issues then the softness and thickness of the layers closer to the top of your sleeping system will have a much bigger effect than the layers and components underneath your mattress.
I went back to the store yesterday to check my alignment, and it is better on the Beautiful then on the Nature. My hips and shoulder have maybe 2 inch difference (in heigh when I’m on the side) with the Nature, and 1 inch with the Beautiful (My shoulder sink in more and it make my body more in line).
But this morning it was the first time I did not wake up sore on my Nature mattress. Let’s wait and see.
The Beautiful is still 450$ more + shipping and taxes, so it’s quite expensive to exchange it. Already the Nature was really expensive.
It can be surprising to some people how much the feel and response of a mattress can change over the first month or so with the initial breaking in of the mattress and as you go through the adjustment period that is common with any new sleeping surface … especially if it’s quite different from what you have been used to.
As one of the “expert” members of the forum mentioned in another reply a few days ago … sometimes the best approach at first is to do nothing for a while and see what changes happen on their own.
Post #4 here has a list of some of the better value options I’m aware of for latex but I’m not sure which of them ship to Canada so it may take some searching on their sites or a few calls to find out.
There is also a list in post #21 here of a few of the better sources I’m aware of that I do know ship to Canada including some of the members here that were included in the first link.
Dunlop and talalay are two different methods of making foamed latex and either of them can use ether natural or synthetic latex or a blend of the two. Dunlop is a simpler production process than Talalay so it tends to be less costly and natural latex is more costly than synthetic so the raw materials would also affect the price of the latex.
You can read a little more about the different types of latex post #6 here and there is also a little more about how Dunlop and Talalay compare in post #7 here.
The choice between then would be a matter of personal preference rather than a “better / worse” choice.
When a new mattress is significantly different from what your body is used to and your “sleeping memory” then it can certainly take a little longer to adjust to it and this wouldn’t be unusual at all.
I just bought the Pure Latex Bliss Nature split king mattress and decided to get 2 twin xl 3" toppers to put on it in case it might be too firm for me. This might be a better way for you to go. Received the toppers today, waiting for mattresses to arrive sometime this week. Currently have the toppers on old mattress(feels very comfy may be too early to tell just yet) . . Got a great deal on them @ Matt -To - Go.com. Might be worth checking out for you.
A 2" 25 ILD topper would be firmer than the top layer of your PLB Nature so in terms of ILD and the firmness of the actual sleeping surface it would be firmer but you are also increasing the thickness of the comfort layers which would make the mattress feel softer (thickness and firmness work together to create the “feel” of softness) and it would also be softer than the second layer in your mattress which is 28 ILD and is also part of the pressure relieving layers of your mattress that you would feel … especially on your side.
Overall … I think both of them would make your mattress softer (depending on the type of softness you are most sensitive to) but the 21 would of course feel softer than the 25 ILD. this would also depend on the sleeping position you were using to evaluate it and on your specific body type and how far different parts of your body sink into the mattress and the depth of the pressure relieving cradle in each area of your mattress.
When you have a firmer layer over a softer layer it’s called a “dominating layer” which is similar to the type of layering that’s used in the PLB Nutrition (see the specs here) which has 3" of 27 ILD over 2" of 19 ILD and is only a small increment firmer than the Nature which has 2" of 21 ILD on top of 2" of 28 ILD even though the ILD of the top layers would tend to suggest it would be firmer than it is.
Some people would “feel” like the Nutrition was softer than the Nature because of the extra thickness of the comfort layers in spite of the higher ILD of the top layer in the Nutrition.
The weather here has turned chilly and I put our heated mattress pad on the bed. We have a PLB nature. I noticed that it made the latex seem a tad softer. Not much but enough to notice. Maybe that would help as well. We just preheat the bed and don’t actually sleep with the heated part turned on. We do leave it on all day for our feline companions.
Finally I did not buy the topper, it was a bit hard to justify on a mattress of this price.
Today I went to the store and I did the exchange of my mattress for the Beautiful.
After nearly 3 months, the Nature was still too firm for me, causing some blood flow problem mostly in my shoulder when I was sleeping on the side. I should get the new mattress in 2 weeks from now. I will report back.
I had my first night on the Beautiful and so far so good. In fact it was one of the best night a had since while. The only down side it’s that it’s so comfortable that you don’t want to get up.
No more pressure on my shoulder as well when I’m sleeping on the side. I don’t feel that the mattress is soft and I don’t sink very far into it, I would rate it mid-firm (I least it’s how it feels to me).
I will report back after a couples more nights, but so far so good.
Thanks for the update. Your feedback seems very promising so far
Wow … the Beautiful is close to the softest mattress they make (they rate it a 9 out of 10 on the softness scale with 10 being the softest) and most people would call it very soft. I would be curious about a mattress that you would call “soft” but of course each person can be very different in terms of how they “rate” softness/firmness and the only thing that is important is that it feels “right” to you.
