Iāve found this thread to be very helpful. Iām in a similar situation to mae67 and I think your recommendation for them might work for me. My question is how thick should the middle medium Dunlop and top soft layers be for someone weighing 160-165 lbs? I currently have a 6" firm Dunlop base. Thanks for your help.
Hello and thank you so much for the inquiry! As long as you are a side or back sleeper, the most common choice would be 3" of medium Dunlop and 3" of soft Talalay. The Talalay will provide all the contour and pressure relief needed to avoid pressure points, hip pain, and shoulder pain. The medium Dunlop and 6" of firm Dunlop will make sure that you get all the support needed to maintain proper spinal alignment and avoid back pain. If you sleep on this setup and find that itās too soft, the first change I would recommend would be to keep the soft layer on top and move the 3" medium layer under the 6" firm core. This will retain all the contour and pressure relief youāre getting from the soft Talalay layer, but will offer much more support for your lower back because the firm latex is closer to the surface.
Hello Sleep EZ! This has been a fantastic thread, and Iām hoping you can pass along some advice!
What configuration would you reccomend for us? I am 250lbs, mainly a side sleeper but sometimes end up on my back by morning. I have lower back and hip issues and currently wake up very stiff and in a lot of pain (on a very old innerspring mattress). We are planning on an adjustable base as well. My husband is 190lbs, a back sleeper, and can sleep on anything.
We have generally agreed on medium firm mattresses. I find I like good support, but with a soft upper layer that helps mold to my back and curves. I tried a few that had too soft of an upper layer though and I sunk right through to the hard support and it was uncomfortable.
I tried one today that supposedly had the following and it felt really nice in store (no density info, Iām trying to get that) It was 3200$ though and it seems like we can be more affordable:
3 inches of firm dunlop as base
6 inches medium talalay
2 inches plush (soft?) talalay
Does this look feasible for someone like me in the long term? Is it possible to recreate something like this?
Hi Needtosleep01, and thank you so much for the inquiry! Please keep in mind that even if you lay on a mattress for hours in a showroom, you still wonāt know if itās right for you until you sleep on it and allow your body time to adjust. Thereās always a chance that a person will put too much emphasis on the initial feel of something as opposed to how your body adjusts to it, and that information is something you can only get from time spent sleeping on a mattress. Our initial recommendations have a 90% success rate (we only have a 10% layer exchange rate) so thereās a 90% chance that our recommendation works perfectly for you. But, most importantly, if you try that set up and find that itās too firm or too soft, you can unzip the cover and rearrange the layers or request a layer exchange to adjust accordingly and get the mattress fine-tuned for your specific preferences & needs. As such, the best thing you can do is pick the setup that has the best chance to be successful for you and adjust from there (if needed). Based on the information youāve provided, for your husbandās side of the mattress I recommend medium Talalay over medium Dunlop over firm Dunlop. For your side, I would recommend medium Talalay over firm Dunlop over extra firm Dunlop for your side of the mattress. The medium Talalay layer will provide all the contour and pressure relief needed to avoid hip pain, and the medium Talalay layer will also provide what is called āsecondary supportā (it will help accomplish the goal you referenced when you said āI find I like good support, but with a soft upper layer that helps mold to my back and curvesā). The firm and extra firm Dunlop layers will provide all the support needed to maintain proper spinal alignment and avoid lower back aches. Just FYI, these configurations are for our 10" mattress which is our popular model. If you end up getting the ILD ratings for the mattress you tried in the store, please note that our soft is 19-22 ILD, medium is 30-32 ILD, firm is 37-40 ILD, and extra firm is 44 + ILD. If I can be of any additional assistance please let me know, and if youād like to discuss this in detail please feel free to call our office at 480-966-9282, and we can quote you our bundle price for adjustable bases at that point as well (normally the bundle discount includes a few hundred dollars off the price for the adjustable base).
Hello Sleep EZ. I have had a chance to try the configuration you suggested - 3" soft Talalay - 3" medium Dunlop - 6" firm Dunlop. I am happy to report that this is the closest Iāve come to a workable setup. However, Iām still having some problems that Iām hoping you can suggest solutions for.
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The soft Talalay is very ājiggly,ā a bit like sleeping on gelatin. Iām a 100% side sleeper and I need to prop myself up by leaning back against a pillow, otherwise I feel myself rolling back and my back muscles working hard to keep me on my side. I already use a lot of pillows and would rather not have to use yet another one just to stay upright. Is there a way to reduce the āslipperinessā or is this just an inherent characteristic of Talalay?
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While I do not experience any pressure points with this configuration, I still feel myself sinking in a little bit, which suggests that this setup may be on the cusp of being soft. I tried your suggestion of moving the medium layer under the firm core (top to bottom S/F/M), but I experienced tremendous pressure points with that, so I went back to the S/M/F configuration. I have been managing by using a knee pillow to get some alignment and prevent too much hip extension. Is there a downside to moving the soft Talalay layer under the medium Dunlop (M/S/F)? Firmer knee pillow maybe? Any other suggestions?
The soft Talalay topper was quite expensive and returning it would be a royal PITA, so, if possible, I would like to make this work and perhaps finally get off this mattress shopping roller coaster once and for all.
Thanks for your help.
Like you, my back is pretty delicate. IMO, a too soft mattress does not work well for back issues. Iāve had a Sleepez Roma queen for several years. Itās a reasonably priced mattress with natural dunlop and some versatility. One side is medium density and the other side is firm. The cover has quilting on both sides, so itās not a huge issue to flip the mattress. Sleepez lists their medium latex as 30-32 ILD and firm 37-40 ILD.
Until recently, I was using a 3" medium blended talalay topper (28 ILD) to add a little plushness, but lately, Iāve been waking up with a stiff back. I decided to try it without the topper and have experienced a dramatic improvement. Iām primarily a back sleeper, but often alternate to my side without any difficulty on the firm latex.
As far as propping myself up, Iāve used a foam wedge in the past with marginal success. Once I graduated to an adjustable bed frame, I was able to easily configure head and leg height to ease back pain as well as acid reflux.
Perhaps you should try using just your medium and firm layers and see if it suits you and give serious consideration to getting an adjustable bed frame.
[quote=ājustozā post=82030]Hello. I have had a chance to try the configuration you suggested - 3" soft Talalay - 3" medium Dunlop - 6" firm Dunlop. I am happy to report that this is the closest Iāve come to a workable setup. However, Iām still having some problems that Iām hoping you can suggest solutions for.
-
The soft Talalay is very ājiggly,ā a bit like sleeping on gelatin. Iām a 100% side sleeper and I need to prop myself up by leaning back against a pillow, otherwise I feel myself rolling back and my back muscles working hard to keep me on my side. I already use a lot of pillows and would rather not have to use yet another one just to stay upright. Is there a way to reduce the āslipperinessā or is this just an inherent characteristic of Talalay?
-
While I do not experience any pressure points with this configuration, I still feel myself sinking in a little bit, which suggests that this setup may be on the cusp of being soft. I tried your suggestion of moving the medium layer under the firm core (top to bottom S/F/M), but I experienced tremendous pressure points with that, so I went back to the S/M/F configuration. I have been managing by using a knee pillow to get some alignment and prevent too much hip extension. Is there a downside to moving the soft Talalay layer under the medium Dunlop (M/S/F)? Firmer knee pillow maybe? Any other suggestions?
The soft Talalay topper was quite expensive and returning it would be a royal PITA, so, if possible, I would like to make this work and perhaps finally get off this mattress shopping roller coaster once and for all.
Thanks for your help.[/quote]
Talalay is definitely bouncier, springier, and is a bit more ājiggly.ā As such, I would recommend trying either medium/soft/firm or replacing your soft Talalay with a soft Dunlop. Since latex contours to anything itās resting on, the pressure-relieving properties of the soft Talalay layer wonāt go away completely just because itās 3" down from the surface, so this may be the best middle ground between the configurations youāve tried.
Thank you for your help. I ended up going back to the soft/medium/firm configuration. I donāt know if this is normal, but my soft Talalay topper didnāt have as many holes on one side. Turning the topper so that that side faces the bedsheet has made a big difference. Thereās much less jiggle now, but Iām still getting great pressure relief.
I just want to add that over the last 6 months or so, I tried numerous combinations of pretty much EVERY firmness and thickness of latex layers, and Iām happy to say that i think Iāve finally found what works. Iāll give the good folks who are responsible for this website a lot of credit because It wasnāt until I spent many hours reading the posts here that I started making progress in my quest. I think one of the main reasons for my lengthy and very expensive process was that I blindly trusted the information that many mattress purveyors, review sites, sleep blogs, etc. put out, which is that side sleepers should sleep on a soft mattress. While that may work for a very small percentage of people, that piece of advice leaves so many details out!
To summarize, Iām 5ā10", 163 lbs, side sleeper, athletic build, and female and the most comfortable configuration for me is a 6" firm Dunlop/3" medium Dunlop/3" soft Talalay. The Dunlop layers are from Sleep on Latex. I hope this helps someone.
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Hi again justoz, thank you so much for the update and for the additional information as well! Iām sure it will help someone in the future make a more informed decision on the mattress purchase or on adjusting their layers. If thereās anything else we can do please donāt hesitate to ask. Happy 4th of July!