Long-term Dilemma

[phoenix]

Hi Ruler2112,

the better options and possibilities I’m aware of that are within a reasonable distance of you are listed in post # 3 here. Some of these will require some further phone calls and research to find out what types of mattresses they have on their floor and to make sure they are transparent about the materials in their mattresses but you have some reasonable choices relatively close to you.

Other lists that are further away from you include the Grand Rapids area in post #273 here and the Detroit list in post #2 here but I don’t think you will need to travel that far.

Do you have any suggestions of how I might be able to alter my sleeping style to be less strenuous on a mattress? I don’t want to continually looking for a new bed and am willing to try new things in order to make one last longer. To be honest, I never knew that there was such a thing as a sleeping style - you lay down and go to sleep.

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about the body you were born with and your sleeping style is partly dictated by your size as well. The best suggestion would perhaps be to consider a California King size mattress which is 72" x 84" and would allow you to sleep more straight up and down. Beyond that … it’s more a matter of using higher quality materials in your mattress (especially in the upper comfort layers) that are more durable and can do a better job of withstanding the greater stress you put on them.

I know I’m a big guy, but is 225 pounds excessive to expect a mattress to support?

Not if the mattress uses higher quality materials and components that are appropriate for your weight and sleeping style. Lower quality materials can soften and break down much faster … even for people with much lower weights. The weak link of most mattresses is in the upper layers and this is where it’s most important to use durable materials.

I know a few people who are well over 400 pounds and they aren’t nearly as tall as I, which I’d think would concentrate the pressure into a smaller area and cause more strain. Is this true or am I missing something?

Yes this is very true although some people have a larger surface area or sleep in “flatter” positions so the weight that comes in contact with the mattress is spread out over a larger surface area. Someone over 400 lbs would be very hard on a mattress regardless of how they slept and would have to pay particular attention to using good quality materials.

Any way to desensitize my body to the alignment issues caused by gradual softening of the foams?

No … the range of pressure relief or alignment that you are sensitive to is more of a medical or physiological issue. From the perspective of buying a mattress the best you could do is make sure that you do some careful and objective testing to make sure you are in good alignment on your mattress in all your sleeping positions. The kind of guidance that can help you with this is where an experienced retailer or manufacturer can be one of the most important parts of a mattress purchase. I would focus more on materials that soften less and are more durable than on trying to change your physiology (outside of course of the guidance of a health professional for helping with any health or back related issues that could affect your mattress choice).

I would choose a mattress that suits you in other words instead of trying to force your body suit the mattress.

Do you think that something like this would be of appreciable help?

A King size is the same length as a queen just wider so it may not make a lot of difference but a California King is 4" longer and would probably make a difference yes.

So would I be right in thinking that a bed with the swappable-layers would be a good idea for me?

Yes … this or a topper than can be replaced is certainly a flexible design and allows you to replace a layer instead of a whole mattress. Some local manufacturers will also replace just a single layer and rebuild a mattress.even though you would need to take it to them to have it done.

What about getting these split-layers only both in the same density and rotating each half periodically? That way the area on the middle of the bed would be on the side and vice-versa, allowing longer usable life out of the same amount of material. Likewise, I could cut it in half and have quarters, allowing me to rotate the top & bottom of the bed into the middle as well. All-told, this could feasibly quadruple the usable life of a given layer, assuming my thinking and views on how it works are correct.

I don’t think I would take this to the length of cutting it in quarters but the half and half layering would make some sense yes. I don’t think in real life you would double or quadruple the life of the mattress but you could certainly extend it if you slept more in the middle of your mattress.

What about a regular innerspring bed with a thick latex topper to soften it? I’d think the cheap foam of the innerspring would break down and cause problems, but you obviously know far more about beds than I ever will.

This can also work well but you would need good quality springs for your weight and I would only do this with a mattress that used minimal amounts of polyfoam. If this is done right it can be a very good design. I know a manufacturer who designed a line of mattresses (including latex) that have several different firm mattress base options (that are all flippable) and then offers a series of toppers for a comfort layer that can also be flipped and none of them have any “junk” foam in them at all.

If I understand this right, I could go with a firmer mattress in latex than I could in an innerspring and not have all the joints of my body contacting the mattress hurt and go numb. Would this be an accurate statement? If so, you’ve just given me a lot of hope!

In “theory” yes or at least possibly … but all theory needs to be confirmed in practice with your own personal testing.

I’ve heard of this from a couple different sales people, but thought it was just marketing crap/sales-speak. The beds they said have it felt no different when I laid on them than the beds that did not. Should there be a difference in feel or is it more exclusively related to the longevity of the mattress?

It will make more of a difference in how you feel in the morning (with or without back pain or discomfort) if they help you sleep in better alignment. Most of the initial feel on a mattress comes from the upper layers not the base layers. There’s more about this in the basic information post I linked earlier.

One last thing that I thought of after my initial post. Most of the latex mattresses say that they can go on a special foundation (most made of ‘spruce wood’ slats, in other words, thin pine boards) or on a platform bed. My present bed that I’ve altered has 3, 2x4s on edge and 2 pieces of steel angle iron going across it for support. If I were to build a plywood box to go on top of this as a base for the mattress, possibly with drawers for storage, would it be a suitable surface for the mattress to lay upon? (I’d probably use 3/4" ply supported by 4-5 uprights over the 80" length of the bed.)

You can read more about suitable foundation for an all latex mattress in the foundation thread here but the ideal choice IMO is a slatted rigid base which allows the mattress to ventilate better with slats no more than 3" apart to prevent the very elastic latex from sinking into the gaps over time. You can also read more of my thoughts about solid surface beds in post #10 here.

Hopefully this has helped … but I would focus for now on doing a little more reading from the first post I linked (which will probably answer more of your questions) and then it’s time to do a bit of phone research into your better local options and test some mattresses

Phoenix