Hi Phoenix,
My wife and I just purchased our first new mattress as a married couple – we’ve been married about 18 months (we’re both 25), and until two days ago had been sleeping on the full-size mattress (a Sealy Posturpedic Hallcrest II) that I had before we got married, which I had been sleeping on since I was a junior in high school (although it went unused for 4 years while I was away at college, so only has about 6-7 years of use, I think). The old one wasn’t actually in that bad of shape; we both slept fairly well, with no major pain or other issues. But, I’m sure you’ll agree that two grown adults in a full-size mattress is a bit cramped – and with my wife being 3+ months pregnant with our first, it was time to upgrade to a queen post-haste
I’ll spare you all of the details of our search (unless you want them, in which case say so and I’ll write it down), but we ended up getting a queen Simmons Beautyrest “Dreamwell” (‘exclusive’ to the retailer we purchased from, but I’m fairly certain it’s equivalent to their Elite series on their website… same coil count and other ‘features’) Black Rock, Extra Firm. We had almost gone with a plush pillowtop on our first shopping trip, but decided to think it over before buying and I’m glad we did – all the stories of folks whose pillowtops develop body impressions after only a couple of years and Simmons refusing to warranty them (‘they’re supposed to do that, we swear!’) made me decide that pillowtop was not for us. Plus, we’re both side and stomach sleepers (although my wife will be strictly left-side sleeping for the next 6 months), so a super-soft comfort layer didn’t seem like a great idea, even though it felt nice in the showroom for 10 minutes. Anyway, we went back a week or two later with the intention of focusing only on non-pillowtop mattresses, and ended up really liking the Black Rock, so we went with it. We also figured that we could always add to the top to make it softer, but wouldn’t be able to do the opposite to make a soft mattress firmer. At the time I didn’t realize it was labeled “extra firm”, but it felt good.
When it was delivered two days ago and I checked the tag to make sure it was the right mattress, I saw the “Extra Firm” label and thought for a second that maybe they sent me the wrong one (perhaps the same ‘model name’ but with a different comfort level), since I couldn’t believe that I would’ve chosen an ‘extra firm’ mattress. It also felt firmer than the one we tried in the store. Still, we slept on it the first night, and while I slept OK (not great but not terribly), my wife said she didn’t sleep well at all, and complained of lower back pain later in the afternoon. We decided to try putting the cheap foam pad that had been on our old mattress on the new one, and tried it that way last night – I slept about the same, and my wife says it was only marginally better. Granted, the foam pad we added is only about 3/4" thick and surely broken down and almost useless from 6+ years of use, so I’m not surprised that it didn’t help much. I also stopped by the showroom to feel the bed we tried before buying, and it is indeed labeled “extra firm” (so I didn’t get the wrong mattress) but it does feel a little bit softer, though not by much, so I assume ours will soften up just a little bit over time.
Regardless, we’ve got to do something about it in the immediate term, so we’re wondering whether a latex foam topper on top might do the trick? My thinking is that an extra 2" or 3" of foam on the top would make the comfort layer thicker, and thus we’d be able to sink in a little more and have our recesses more supported, while still getting the full-body support from the mattress itself. What do you think?
If you think it’s worth trying, I’ve got a few more specific questions:
– How thick? Would 2" suffice, or would 3" be better? I’m concerned that 3 would be too thick for stomach sleeping.
– Softness/ILD? If I had to guess, I would probably pick a “soft” ILD, maybe low-to-mid 20s, but again, maybe something a bit firmer would be better for stomach sleeping?
– Dunlop vs. Talalay? I believe most of your material says that Talalay is better for a comfort layer, but I think I read somewhere else that Dunlop would be more durable?
– Natural or blended?
– Where do you suggest purchasing from? Any particular online retailers that you recommend? I’ve looked at the websites of NorthernNaturals, FoamSource, FoamOnline, FoamOrder, Absolute Comfort On Sale, Arizona Premium Mattress Company (they have several different websites, yes?), and some others. I’d prefer someplace where I can send the topper back if it ends up not working out.
– Do you know of any places where we might be able to try different foams locally (we’re in State College, PA) before ordering? This is especially important if we can’t return something we order.
– I gather that most latex foam toppers come raw, without any sort of cover, or can be ordered with a cover for additional cost. Do we need to get a cover, or can we just lay it on top of the mattress, put the mattress protector overtop, then sheets?
I realize there are a lot of questions there, but I really appreciate whatever insight you can give me on how we might make the best of this situation. I’d really hate to have to resort to trying to resell the mattress third-party to recoup whatever portion of the cost we can, eat the rest, and have to start this whole thing over again.
Thanks again!
Matt