Hi Phoenix, You have helped me tremendously with a mattress education, and I need a little more guidance. Just before coming across your site, I had previously purchased a brand new top of line continuous coil Serta bed labeled as “firm” with some poly and memory foam in the top layers, and which proved to be quite painful on my pressure points, but which I could not return. (It was a top of line bed in the Serta lineup). After perusing your site, I consulted with you and decided to purchase a 2" pure Dunlop latex topper from a Phoenix Arizona store you recommended (can’t remember the name).There was immediate relief and it seemed to also provide the support I needed (I have two unstable discs in low back). It also relieved neck and shoulder pain and numb hands that go along with sleeping on a too hard surface pressing on those points. For about 6-9 months I was in heaven All of a sudden, same sacroiliac pain/ hip returned. It would disappear when away from home in hotels (pressure pain returned though), and as soon as returned home to sleep in the latex topped bed, it came back immediately. I tried flipping the topper, etc but from what I have read, that shouldn’t be necessary. I am not sure what’s next. I have had better luck with good quality memory foam and an now thinking of purchasing a memory foam topper to place on top of the latex — or start over with another bed. Any thoughts? If you are able to back through my emails-you may locate the original specs of my Serta bed- one thing certain it is brand new with a good surface to use toppers as you had recommended. thanks much
Hi Mamie,
Unfortunately it seems that something has either changed in you or in your mattress
I looked through your earlier posts and it appears that you have a 3" Dunlop topper that you mentioned here.
It also seems that you have a firm Serta that we talked about in post #8 and #9 here.
Your mattress contains at least 5.5" of lower quality polyfoam in the comfort layers and based on your description of your symptoms (which seems to indicate you are probably sinking down too far in the hip/pelvis area) and on your mattress’ description the most likely “culprit” is the thick layers of lower quality polyfoam on top of your mattress.
Since the odds are fairly high that the underlying cause of your symptoms are alignment it probably wouldn’t be that effective to add another topper which will only add more soft foam to the top of your sleeping system. A topper can be effective for helping with pressure relief but isn’t usually an effective way to deal with support/alignment issues.
If your mattress still has a firm even surface and hasn’t softened under the heavier parts of your body and since your topper is latex which is likely to still be in good condition then the next highest odds would be that something in you has changed and since your symptoms appear to be alignment related I would consider a thinner topper which would reduce the amount that your hips/pelvis sink down into the mattress and may create better alignment (although this may not be effective if the foam in your mattress has softened)
It would also be worth turning your mattress 180° (or 1/4 turn if it’s king size) which may put firmer foam under your pelvis and see if it helps.
If that doesn’t help it may also be worth trying to flip your mattress over (even though it’s one sided and not designed to sleep on the bottom) and using the topper on top to see if that makes a difference as well.
Phoenix