Latex did not work....looking into hotel beds

[phoenix]

Hi mirpags,

I’ve been doing research for a new mattress and read that latex has a tendency to sink. Is this true, is that why I’ve had issues?

Good quality latex (natural or blended talalay or natural dunlop) is one of the most durable materials available in a mattress and is more durable than memory foam or polyfoam. It is the least likely of all foams to develop impressions and takes much longer than other materials to do so. Some examples of latex mattresses that are still useable after decades of daily use are here.

I think your experience helps to confirm why it is so important to know the layers in your mattress. Stearns and Foster (Sealy) is one of many manufacturers who sells mattresses that their outlets will call a “latex mattress” but have layers of much lower quality polyfoam above the latex on the sleeping surface which becomes the weak link in a mattress. They also tend to use lower quality blended synthetic Dunlop latex in their mattresses. I hear the stories all the time about how what someone believed was a “latex” mattress developing issues and believe that the latex was the issue when it is more often than not an issue of the polyfoam in the mattress. A quick look at the law tag will generally show that what many larger manufacturers are selling as a latex mattress is not all latex and in some cases only has very thin and meaningless layers of latex hidden in between the polyfoam layers.

The good news is that costco is great with returns. The bad news is that in these cases … latex takes an undeserved “rap” which really should be connected to the use of lower density polyfoam in a mattress.

I’ve also looked into hotel beds. I’ve stayed at the Ritz, and they sell their mattresses with a great 10 year warranty. Also I’ve read the W Hotels do the same. Thoughts?

Hotel mattresses aren’t a single type of mattress but in general they are a thicker layer of soft foam over a firm support core and have a feel that as much as possible falls into what “average” people like (a combination of softness on top and firmness underneath). In general they also use too much soft lower quality polyfoam which can feel great but the feeling doesn’t last over time because the polyfoam just isn’t as durable as other materials.

Here are a few more thoughts about “hotel” mattresses from another post.

Hotel mattresses are not a single “type” of mattress and have a wide variety of different feels to them. They do however tend to be in the general category of what many would call “medium firm” which means that they have a fairly plush layer over a firmer support core. This “feel” tends towards the average preference of a wide cross section of the population and that in combination with the fact that a huge majority of people are sleeping on a “bad” mattress means that any “change” in combination with good support (firmer support layers) and good pressure relief (better quality comfort layers) means that the “hotel experience” is generally perceived as being an improvement. In the same way a huge percentage of people see improvement in the short term with any new mattress purchase because almost anything is an improvement over what they have in the short term. These feelings of “improvement” along with the change in subjective perceptions that come with sleeping in a different environment and the reasons behind the hotel visit in the first place lead to sometimes subjective perceptions being interpreted as objective perceptions. It is also common that people sleep better on friend’s mattresses as well. The other side of this same coin is that some people hate hotel mattresses just as much as some love them … even though hotel mattresses as a group are not a single type.

White Dove for example is an independent manufacturer which may use different materials than Simmons in their consumer mattresses … but when they bid on supplying a hotel mattress they will be targeting a certain type of construction that the hotels know works well for the majority of the population in short term use. This again is typically a firm support layer with a comfort zone which is both soft and thick enough for most people “on average”. So the answer is that in comparison to what they are used to … most people that sleep on a “good innerspring” with a comfort layer that is both thick and soft enough for the average person will feel like their sleep experience is an improvement over what they have even though hotel mattresses as a group have a variety of different materials and types of construction inside of this main “average” type of construction.

A few more thoughts about the W hotel mattress are here.

A topper added to a mattress is a good idea as long as the mattress has thin firm layers in the comfort layers and the mattress needs a softer pressure relieving sleeping surface. If the mattress has comfort layers that are too thick or soft (either by design or because the foam on top has degraded) … then the topper would put the softer layers deeper into your mattress deeper and they would effectively become part of your support system and because they were too soft for this could create alignment problems and back issues. Toppers are great to “fix” a mattress that is too firm on top but if the foam on top has softened and/or is too thick, then it’s much more difficult to “fix” without causing another problem.

Even the firmest “standard” mattresses have several inches of polyfoam in the top layers and while buying a mattress with the firmest and least amount of polyfoam on top and adding a topper is better than buying a mattress with too much polyfoam … it still isn’t as good a choice as buying a mattress that is either a “choose your own layer” type of mattress where the layers can be exchanged or just buying a mattress which is designed to be used with a removeable or exchangeable topper. Both ways you avoid even a few inches of polyfoam and have a mattress that only has quality materials.

Phoenix