Last summer, my husband and I bought a Presto Latex mattress from Mario at MFC. Shopping for a mattress was a HUGE headache, and since I spent hours researching on this site and others, I wanted to leave a review and share my experience about the mattress.
Spoiler alert: We LOVE our mattress. But we didn’t always. Here’s the whole story.
Husband: 6’2”, 180lbs, side and back sleeper.
Wife: 5’4”, 130lbs, stomach and side sleeper.
We both prefer firm beds.
Early Considerations and my Bear Mattress
It was important for me to get an eco-friendly mattress made of natural materials. My husband was not really sold on this, and felt we could get a better deal in the ~$700 range for a “normal” mattress. My biggest issues:
- We think of “normal” mattresses as spring mattresses, and there don’t seem to be many of those around anymore.
- I cannot stand foam mattresses like Caspar, Purple, Tempurpedic, etc. I find them unbearably hot and squishy.
- I had actually purchased a Bear cool mattress before we married. I bought it because of some reviews/listsicles that said it was the coolest of all mattresses. I’m sorry to say that I found it unbearably hot. I frequently woke up in a pool of sweat.
I needed a mattress that was both cool and firm. I bought my Bear in firm, and my father, who has now inherited it, complains that it is too soft.
(I don’t mean to shade Bear. I actually think they are a reputable company and was pleased with my purchasing experience from them. I just didn’t love my mattress.)
Deciding on Latex
Shelling out ~$3000 for a latex mattress is an expensive upgrade. Is it worth it?Here are a few more factors that pushed us to buy latex:
- I don’t like using mattress covers, and the Bear, for example, got … disgusting.
- With the swappable layers of a latex mattress, I knew that even if the top got dirty, I could swap it with the layer beneath or change it. The price is around $200. That’s much cheaper than buying a new mattress.
- For whatever reason, Latex does not really get that dirty. It comes in a cover that can be removed and washed.
- You can keep Latex forever, you don’t need to buy a new mattress every 5-10 years.
I really recommend latex for settled people who will keep it for decades. If you’re about to go off to college, join the army, or get married and move to a new country you should probably just buy a “regular” mattress (like me with the Bear).
I also think if you were really in a bind financially, and had to buy a secondhand mattress, a latex mattress would be the top choice. You can wash the cover and move the layers around so you wouldn’t even be sleeping on the same layer as the previous owner.
What Firmness Should I Get?
Allow me to reiterate that latex mattresses are VERY firm. They hold their shape VERY well. I am someone who, in my youth, would sometimes sleep on the floor just because I felt it was more comfortable. A carpet maybe with an extra blanket below was enough for me. Now that I’m a bit older, I can’t really do that anymore, but I still like a firm bed. So does my husband.
I think this caused me the most grief in my mattress search. How firm is too firm? I like a firm mattress, but I don’t want to feel like I’m sleeping on a board every night. And how am I supposed to know what I like, when I haven’t even slept on it?!
Here is my advice:
If you KNOW you like a firm bed, you are the person who often thinks to themself “This bed is a bit too soft” when sleeping in a hotel or a strange bed, you ever enjoyed sleeping on the floor, you have the belief that sleeping on the floor is good for your back, etc… get a MEDIUM.
If you are the person who looks longingly at the tatami mats of Japan and thinks “That looks so comfortable”, if you FREQUENTLY sleep on the floor because your bed is too soft, if you think stereotypically “uncomfortable” beds are fine… get a FIRM.
If you think both of the above sound like crazy people, and you like a bit of squish, but you still want to try latex, get a SOFT.
The good thing about latex is you can always swap the layers around! It feels overwhelming trying to get it right, but just go for it.
No Return Policy
This brings me to the next issue that caused me grief… not being able to return the mattress. Lots of companies offer a 30 day trial period, but MFC didn’t and none of the latex mattress companies I looked at in Canada did.
It’s A LOT of money to spend when you don’t even know if you’re going to like it, so it caused me a lot of nervousness. What if I didn’t like it? What if my husband didn’t like it? What were we going to do?! This was probably the biggest agony before we pulled the trigger and bought the mattress. Some things that helped me to remember:
- You can always swap out the layers. If you buy it and it’s just WAY too soft, or WAY too hard, you can purchase these and swap.
- MFC sells wool toppers and although we didn’t end up buying one, it was at the top of my list to consider if I had any problems with the comfort of the mattress being too firm.
- If you absolutely hate it, you will be able to recoup some of your loss on it selling it on Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji. No, this isn’t convenient. But people who are shopping for latex have come to the same conclusions that I shared above, and are willing to buy secondhand more than any other mattress type.
I think you have to go in to buying a latex mattress knowing it’s a commitment, and commitment is scary. It’s SO WORTH IT, but it’s very scary, feeling like you are going in blind.
Now that all points had been analyzed and debated, we bought the mattress!
The mattress came in these weird rolled up packaged sections, and expanded when opened. Latex is HEAVY! It’s also unruly. It’s like trying to wrestle a noodle.
Ok, it’s honestly not that bad. Neither of us are particularly strong or athletic, and we managed. But it’s definitely a chore beyond what we were expecting…
My husband called the latex mattress a monument to his love for me.
Early Pain Points
We put it together on a wooden frame with slats (~3 inches apart).
Then we slept on it.
This was the part that was so difficult for me.
It was TOO HARD!
My shoulders hurt so much in the morning that they burned and my husband said his ankles bothered him.
For the first few nights, I could barely sleep, mostly from nervousness.
There are so many stories on here and reviews on other sites of people in their mattress journey saying how many they’ve returned, how unhappy they are, how they’re never getting a good night’s sleep. I was so worried. Was that about to become me?
Not to mention we’d spent a lot of money on this thing. And we couldn’t return it! What the hell are we going to do if we both hate it?
I mean let me tell you, I was really nervous.
The Fix
You need to sleep on a new mattress for 30 days for your body to get used to it. You really need to give yourself at least 30 days. (My understanding is that most mattresses you can return WITHIN 30 days, so I don’t know how you’re supposed to manage that.)
We were coming up on 30 days, and I still didn’t love it. I was pretty consistently waking up with pain in my shoulders while my husband felt pain in his ankles and hips.
Then I had an idea: We would go on a weekend away together and stay in a hotel with nice beds. If we felt that the hotel bed was really amazing, we’d figure out how to get rid of the latex and buy an expensive “normal” mattress. If we really loved it, we could even possibly check whatever the hotel bed was and buy that.
The Hotel Beds
We stayed in a very nice hotel and the next morning were concerned with how saggy the bed was. It literally felt like there was a hole in the middle of the bed. We couldn’t feel the hole with our hands. Just with our bodies in the middle of the night.
We came home with relief to our latex mattress. This seriously surprised me, since I’d been debating getting rid of it.
(I’ll skip ahead in time for this part of the story.) Just a few months later, we went on a trip that had us staying at 3 five star hotels. In one hotel we got upgraded to their best suite and in another we were in the room next to the best suite.
Every. Single. Bed. Was. JUST OK! They were not great. They were firm, but plush. I can’t describe them as too soft. They were just… not that comfortable.
I think we just missed our latex mattress.
While we never again encountered a bed with a “hole” like at the first hotel, they all just felt too… squashy. They were fine for a night or too but they just weren’t that comfortable.
I also think that what happened at the first hotel was that after nearly a month of sleeping on the super-firm latex mattress, we were hyper-aware of any “sagging” in the hotel mattress, which latex doesn’t do. I think someone with a few-years-old regular foam or spring mattress wouldn’t have even noticed, but with a latex mattress, we did.
We’ve since slept away from home a few more times, and while other beds might be fine, we usually wake up and don’t have anything nice to say about them. We are always so happy to come home to our latex mattress.
My Theory: Adjustment Period
I think when you get a new mattress you really have to sleep on it for 30 days. It was pretty much right on the 30 day mark when both of our pains went away. We’ve been pleased with our mattress ever since.
I think with latex, because it doesn’t sink down like a plush mattress, you’re working on your “sleep posture” when you sleep on it. Of course the mattress is supporting you, but you’re holding yourself up more. It’s not a hammock. This activates new muscles that are working all night. This probably happens with every new mattress. But because latex is so firm, you’re really sleeping on top of it, and not sinking down into it. This can translate into a tough adjustment period.
It becomes REALLY comfortable after you adjust, because you’re holding yourself with good posture, but cushioned by the soft layers at pressure points. For me, that was my shoulders. For my husband, that was his hips.
It’s like slouching versus standing up–of course slouching initially feels more comfortable because it’s nice and lazy. But when you move out a slouched position, it often really hurts. All the blood runs back to some area you were putting too much pressure on. If you’re standing up straight, it’s kind of annoying because you have to use your muscles to hold yourself. But when you move from that position there’s no pain.
Because you’re using your muscles to hold yourself, it’s kind of like exercising. The first two weeks of a new exercise routing are torture. But after that you can push yourself and start really working out. You wonder why you even felt pain.
I never feel pain anymore, and neither does my husband.
Pillows
A final note on pillows. My husband sleeps on a big fluffy wool pillow and I sleep on a flat latex pillow. The pillow is important for the position of your neck and contributes to your comfort. Definitely try both styles because the pillows make a big difference!
Final Score: Excellent
I wouldn’t trade my latex mattress for anything. We’re so happy with it. I highly recommend them to everyone. If you’re unsure, I recommend sleeping around on a few different beds like I did because after latex, you can feel the difference in a whole new way. Give yourself some time and push through that adjustment period, trying different pillows, positions, and layering or toppers before deciding if it really isn’t for you. There is a reason so many people rave about them. I truly believe they are the healthiest mattress.
Almost everything you wrote, from 5-star hotel beds to hunting for that perfect firmer mattress, is exactly what I talk about. And yes, pillows really are a critical piece of the sleep puzzle!
Do you just use sheets and no cover/protector now or what is your set up like? Reading posts like this makes me feel like I’m not crazy after all the time, money, and stressful nights that went into fine tuning my latex experience lol