Latex Mattress is too hard; seeking advice

[phoenix]

Hi ommama,

Thanks for the additional information and I’ll make a few comments about the configurations you’ve tried based on your feedback. It would also be helpful to know more about your sleeping history and normal sleeping positions since this can also make a difference (based on your comments it seems that you spend at least some time sleeping on your stomach and stomach/side sleeping is a very challenging combination because each one has very different and “opposite” requirements).

First we tried the soft foam and the hard springs. It felt the most comfortable in the store. No pressure point issues and still felt a firmness below the foam. I tried it for nearly 30 days as that was the amount of time the retailer recommended in order to adjust to the bed. I became increasingly uncomfortable in my spine. Sometimes I would wake up feeling like my spine was rotated. My hips/butt sank into the bed more than my shoulders and I just didn’t feel well supported. I felt worse and worse. Sometimes I would actually feel some discomfort from the springs that felt too firm that I could feel through the soft foam. The foam just didn’t seem to give me enough support. When I lay on my back, I could feel an ache in my mid back midline that I experience when the mattress isn’t giving enough support.

Based on your comments here it seems to me that the primary support was fine but that the secondary support and pressure relief may not have been and it may be “pointing to” a comfort layer that isn’t thick/soft enough to “fill in the gaps” in your sleeping profile and relieve your pressure points. A mattress that doesn’t have enough “thickness/softness” in the comfort layers may not be evenly supportive enough in all your sleeping positions even though the firmness and primary support from the innerspring is fine. It sounds like you may be “going through” the comfort layers and feeling more of the firmer innerspring than you are comfortable with and you may also be “twisting” away from your pressure points which can compromise rotational alignment issues (which can cause back pain). If this is the case and I am guessing correctly then adding a topper to this configuration may have worked well (but I don’t see any comments that indicate if you have tried this).

So next I tried the firmer foam and the hard springs just for a week or two. I had a lot of shoulder pain and neck pain. Pressure points over my shoulders and hips. My neighbor who is a chiropractor took a look at my alignment on the bed and suggested a higher pillow to create more space between my lower shoulder and neck when I was lying on my side. Still the pillow felt very hard with the hard foam under my head. The hard foam also really hurt under my head when I lay on my belly and didn’t use the pillow. It really wasn’t comfortable and I now had only about 10 days left on my 60 day comfort exchange. I didn’t know what else to try. I spent a lot of time in the store trying to figure it out. The only thing left to try seemed to be…

The shoulder and hip pressure points in this configuration would make sense because of the “firm/firm” combination which may not be the best combination for a side sleeper that is a lower weight. Your chiropractors suggestion to use a higher loft pillow was also a good one because having your head and neck in better alignment can also reduce shoulder pressure but with this type of configuration it’s not surprising it didn’t provide enough pressure relief … especially on your side. When you sleep in multiple positions it can also be helpful to use a pillow that can be “scrunched” so that it can be higher when you are side sleeping and flatter when you are sleeping on your stomach (back sleeping would be more in the middle).

[quote]the firmer foam with the softer springs. Swapping out the springs required an additional $75 delivery fee and a wait of several weeks for the springs to be ready.
Pretty much the same problems as above with the harder foam and harder springs. Pressure point pain over my head (when lying prone), my shoulders and hips. We were about to give up but the owner suggested trying their 1 inch soft foam topper. She lent it out for a week. For 4 days it felt good. The pressure points were relieved. But then I started having upper back pain midline and the usual sensations I get when my body doesn’t feel well supported so I didn’t feel comfortable investing an additional $600 in this topper since I wasn’t comfortable on it.[/quote]

I’m not sure which of the “same problems as above” you are referring to (combination #1 or combination #2) but since you are still using the firmer comfort layer then it wouldn’t be surprising that you are still experiencing pressure issues even with the softer spring (even though it would generally help to “some degree”). The softer springs may not be firm enough to keep you in good alignment … especially on your stomach … so you may have been “sagging” into the softer support system more than you should be. When you added the topper then it would make sense that your pressure points were relieved but this still wouldn’t have solved any issues that came from the softer coils and reduced primary support. I’m not sure which sleeping position the upper back pain was coming from but it seems to me that this could be from a pillow issue, the firmness of the comfort layers, or the softness of the innerspring.

Out of these 4 configurations (firmer innerspring/softer comfort layer … firmer innerspring/firmer comfort layers, softer innerspring/firmer comfort layers, softer innerspring/firmer comfort layers and a topper) … it seems to me that you may have “jumped over” the combination that may have been the most worthwhile testing (firmer innerspring/softer comfort layer and a topper).

If you did decide to keep the mattress there are also other sources for a latex topper that would be less than $600 in any firmness or thickness you decided to use. Post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to has more information about choosing a topper and includes a link to some of the better topper sources I’m aware of as well.

So based on guesswork and your feedback … it seems to me that the firmer innerspring/softer comfort layer and a topper would be the next “logical” thing to test and it’s quite possible it would be successful. If I was going to take the risk of keeping the mattress I would likely keep the version with a firmer innerspring and either the softer or firmer latex on top of it. The firmer comfort layer may need a thicker/softer topper than the softer comfort layer but of course all of this is mainly speculation and would need to be confirmed with your own testing or sleeping experience.

Phoenix