After sleeping on a waterbed for 35 years I am now having serious issues with pressure pain in hips and shoulders as well as back pain from misalignment. I am a 5’ 8", 190lb 65 year old side sleeper and wish to have as soft, cushy a bed as possible while of course maintaining proper spinal alignment. I have been researching for months and have found The Mattress Underground to be the single best source of good, thorough, unbiased information available! Kudos to you Phoenix!
As well as online research, I have been to various vendors to try mattresses out and am feeling pretty confident of making good, informed decisions before purchasing. For various reasons an all latex mattress with separate, switchable layers is the way I want to go. My choices have been narrowed to the Natural Select Sleep Latex from SleepEZ or the Natural Comfort Latex from Flexus Comfort. I have yet to talk to representatives of these companies to make final choices.
My biggest question at this point is whether a 10" three layer or 13" four layer mattress would best meet my needs. Given similar layer choices, is the extra layer worth the cost for the sake of comfort and will an extra layer make changing sheets significantly more difficult due to the added weight? I will get info on this when I call the companies, but I would like input from the forum users based on real world experiences.
Welcome and thanks for the kind comments … I appreciate them. It’s great to hear that the information here has been helpful
As you probably know … both SleepEZ and Flexus are members of this site which means that I think very highly of them and I believe that they both compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, knowledge, and transparency. They would both make great choices.
[quote]I have yet to talk to representatives of these companies to make final choices.
My biggest question at this point is whether a 10" three layer or 13" four layer mattress would best meet my needs. Given similar layer choices, is the extra layer worth the cost for the sake of comfort and will an extra layer make changing sheets significantly more difficult due to the added weight? I will get info on this when I call the companies, but I would like input from the forum users based on real world experiences.[/quote]
While you certainly wouldn’t “need” 12" of latex in your weight range … there are some people that may prefer it. There is more about the pros and cons of having more layers in post #2 here and there is also more about the effect of thickness (more layers would make a thicker mattress) in post #14 here.
When you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart (which would include both of the manufacturer you are considering) and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
Once you have narrowed down your options to a list of finalists that are all choices between “good and good” (which they are) and none of them have any lower quality materials or “weak links” in their design relative to your weight (which they don’t) and if at that point there are no clear winners between them (which is usually a good indication that you have done some very good research) then you are in the fortunate position that any of them would likely be a suitable choice and post #2 here can help you make a final choice based on your local testing or mattresses you have slept well on, your more detailed conversations about each of them, your confidence about PPP and the suitability of each one, the quality and durability of the materials, their prices, your preferences for different types of materials, the options you have after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or exchange or return the mattress or individual layers, any additional extras that are part of each purchase, and on “informed best judgement” based on all the other objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding
