My wife and I have been searching for a new mattress. We have been sleeping on a TempurPedic that is about 11 years old, and it just no longer has its support. We are both waking up with lower back / sciatic pain, and we can see when lying on the mattress that our spines are out of alignment. After doing quite a bit of research on the subject, including a good deal of lurking here on this forum, we have narrowed down our choices and are looking for a bit of feedback and advice before we pull the trigger. We are located in Southern NH. Price is not an obstacle. We will be buying an all latex mattress and placing it on a platform bed, and are aware that it will sleep a little more firm because of the base we are placing it on.
I would like to preface this by saying that we have thoroughly read through this site, and understand all of the underlying factors in the decision making process (weakest link in the mattress, IDL measurements and inconsistency, quality of materials, Support, comfort, etc.) Please take this as a given when responding, as we have read, quite literally, thousands of pages of material between the two of us over the course of the last several months on everything from mattress construction to the chemistry of latex production to reviews of various manufacturers and suppliers, etc.
We are both 70-80% side and 20-30% back sleepers. We are both very physically fit and athletic. I am 6’, 185 lbs, broad shoulders and have had shoulder issues and surgeries in the past. My sleep profile is a good distribution, but with high pressure on my shoulder and then hip when on both my back and side. I have a good lower lumbar curve, and need solid support under that lower lumbar curve. I prefer a medium-firm that is right on the edge of the firm line. I have some moderate neck issues, and so I often do the dance of trying to get my hips supported and in line, while taking pressure off my shoulder without misaligning my neck. I sleep with a support pillow between my legs.
My wife is 5’9", 160 lbs. Her sleep profile has no red, high pressure areas at all. She literally floats on the mattress, and prefers a softer mattress, but has a lot more flexibility in what she can sleep on. She likes a medium firm right on the edge of soft.
We are also aware that Phoenix will probably look at our choices that we have narrowed down and say “Those are good mattresses, but there is better values available for those materials/ prices”. We know this. However, we are out of both time and the willingness to travel the long distances to try those other options and/or order without being able to fully test them.
We have visited many stores and tested many different mattresses from innerspring to latex on top of innerspring to full latex to everything in between. We have ruled out PureLatexBliss and Royal-Pedic. We have narrowed our search down to these choices and suppliers:
I. Jordan’s Nashua NH:
Normally, would not even set foot in this store for a mattress, but they carry the Natura Twilight, which we liked very much.
( http://www.naturaworld.com/products/naturalatex-twiligh-mattress/ )
II The Clean Bedroom, Wellesley MA:
This store had the largest number of mattresses that we liked:
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Greensleep Dolcezza ( http://www.greensleep.ca/en/ergo-hevea/products )
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OMI Lago http://www.omimattress.com/Lago.php
These are our preferences / dilemmas and concerns about these mattresses:
- Natura Twilight: Mostly Talalay with some Dunlop
VERY comfortable mattress that has excellent support and alignment for both of us. Shoulder and hip are perfectly aligned with no need to raise my head with larger pillow to take pressure off the shoulder. One of our favorite in terms of lying on it for testing. It just feels perfect for us both. Our concerns are several: Natural has been through bankruptcy several times, and has been sold and under new ownership 3 times within the last 10 years. Several suppliers that we spoke to mentioned that they do not carry them any more because of issues related to this. That is why we can only find this mattress at Jordans without travelling an inordinate distance.
I also located a thread on this forum where a seller noted that Natura had a good product, but that the core of the mattress was made of pieces of latex laminated together that appeared to be of differing densities (rather than a solid slab of latex). He also noted that most of the complaints about these mattresses had to do with the cotton and wool comfort layer compressing and becoming too soft over a short period of time.
The wool comfort layer on this mattress is only a 4.2 lb, and there is a vagueness to whether or not there is a poly foam mixed in with the comfort layer that I could not get a clear answer about (I believe that there is). Therefore, although there is a lot of high quality latex in the mattress and it is probably the first or second most flat out comfortable that we have tried, I am unconvinced that the top 3-4 inches of comfort layer are not going to break down, and if they do, that the company will stand behind their product.
- Greensleep Ergo Hevea Dolcezza:
This is a gorgeous mattress that we like very much. Extrememly comfortable and great alignment. It is also customizable. The interior will be made of 3 layers of varying density Dunlop : Bottom layer always firm: middle two layers customizable, and top comfort layer 1" of soft dunlop covered in another 3" of wool and cotton.
Once again, it is this top layer that I am concerned about. The wool is a VERY high density (13 lb as compared to the 4.2 on the Natura), and is not free floating, but sewn into horizonal strips of quilting in the comfort layer, so that there is very little room for it to spread out. It also claims to be “pre-compressed” for minimal compression over time.
I am obviously more happy about the comfort layer on this bed, and less concerned about early compression and degradation. The main issue that we find is that they have the bed set up with two side configuration…one firm and one medium. Even on the softer configuration, the bed feels VERY firm, and even though our lateral spine alignment is excellent, our back alignment is a little off (head too high), and I find it hard to get my shoulders right without raising my head up too far to misalign my neck, so I think that we would have to go with the softer configuration, which we would not be able to test in store before we buy it. I feel that if the softer configuration were to get the alignment right, this would be the slam dunk choice, but can’t verify that first. Could always do a topper because it’s firm enough.
- OMI Lago
Very nice mattress. 6" of firm Dunlop in core. 3" of Medium Dunlop on either side for a dual sided mattress which is nice, because we can flip it. NOT customizable. Less firm than the Dolcezza, but more firm than the Natura. Like that it’s a solid slab of latex. Top comfort later is 1" of soft Dunlop with 2" of wool and cotton. Density of wool is not available…called the manufacturer and they did not have that info. Hips very supported, shoulder a little high, and so have to go to a higher pillow to take pressure off the shoulder, but much less than on the Dolcezza. Feel like it may need a topper to fix this, but is capable of taking a topper because of the firmness.
- OMI Duo:
This is the mattress that we “keep coming back to”. It is a mattress case with NO comfort layer that EASILY zips and unzips to customize layers. The inner layers are all Dunlop and they have all of the configurations in the store to mix and match and try before you buy. After trying several layering options, my wife and I found that her side is FIRM, MEDIUM, SOFT and mine is FIRM, MEDIUM, MEDIUM. With these configurations, our hips and shoulders and necks are perfectly aligned on both our sides and back. There is no pressure on my shoulders, and no need to raise my head with a pillow.
The benefit is that we can each have our own side customized. In terms of sheer feel and comfort, it’s a winner. On paper, the alignment and pressure relief is just about perfect. We also like the fact that there is no comfort layer, so that we know that the feel of the mattress is the feel, and that if we need to put a wool comfort layer on top to buffer, we can…and that if it wears down we can chuck it and buy another without having to replace the mattress. We also like that the swapping of layers literallly takes 20 seconds, and that if a layer wears out over time, or our bodies change, we can swap layers out for about $1,000.00 per layer rather than having to replace the whole mattress.
Our concerns have to do with the fact that the layers are not attached to each other, and are ventilated (they have holes in them, so that they layer looks like swiss cheese, rather than a solid block of latex) , and we don’t know if the free floating design combined with the holes will be less stable or compress over time because of that, or if that will be an issue as compared to solid blocks of latex. Looking at it, seeing three separate sheets of perforated latex stacked on top of each other as opposed to three solid blocks of latex laminated together for stability, raises questions. Of course, because of the construction, we could technically contact a latex manufacturer or supplier directly have a solid slab of latex ordered, and it would be easy to further customize that mattress because of that (in the eventuality that the integrity of the stock layers did not hold up over time).
Any information that you can give about these mattresses and the concerns that we have about each one would be greatly appreciated!!!
Many thanks to all here who contribute and to this site for existing. It is truly an awesome resource!
