Hi Chad,
The first step would be to identify whether your mattress is too soft or too firm and the underlying cause of your “symptoms”. Both of these can lead to alignment issues that can lead to back discomfort and pain when you wake in the morning or during the night. You can see examples here of how a mattress that is too soft or too firm can both lead to alignment issues although too soft is a more common source of lower back issues (if that’s the location of your back pain). It may be helpful if you can describe the location of your back pain.
If the mattress is too firm then there would also likely be pressure point issues as well particularly on your shoulders or other pressure points.
If your mattress is too firm and there are no soft spots, impressions, or hills and valleys in the mattress … then a topper can be an effective solution for adding extra pressure relief/comfort and the topper guidelines in post #2 here and the posts it links to can be a useful guideline.
If the mattress is too soft then “fixing” it would be much more difficult and would normally involve removing layers and replacing them with thinner or firmer versions rather than adding to them. Post #4 here has a few suggestions that can be partially or temporarily successful with a mattress that is either too soft or has developed some sagging or soft spots but these are not what I would consider long term solutions and it’s much more difficult to “fix” a mattress that is too soft than one that is too firm.
I personally like relatively thin layers of latex over relatively thin layers of memory foam because it can provide a more resilient and “movement friendly” surface feel and performance to the mattress while at the same time you can feel yourself more slowly sinking into the softer memory foam underneath. The latex would isolate the memory from your body heat to some extent so it would respond more slowly and/or be firmer than if you were sleeping directly on the memory foam. This can create a very interesting “feel” that some people like.
In most cases … it’s not the material itself that leads to back issues but the design of the mattress and how well that specific design and combination of materials works for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). Materials are usually a preference choice and while it’s true that different people have some strong preferences for and against any material … in most cases any material in the right design can provide good alignment if the design is suitable for your body type and sleeping style.
Hope this helps … and the first step would be to identify whether the underlying cause of your symptoms are too much softness and thickness in the upper layers of your mattress or a support layer that is too soft (which can both lead to your pelvis or hips sinking down too far) or whether the issue is a mattress that is too firm either from comfort layers that may be too thin to isolate you from the firmness of the support layer possibly in combination with a support layer that is too firm and you are not sinking in enough to fill in the recessed gap in your sleeping profile (usually the waist or small of the back) or your shoulders are not sinking in enough which can also cause alignment issues and possible twisting away from pressure which can also lead to back discomfort or pain.
Phoenix