I have a Tempur Pedic Contour Select mattress that is about 5 years old. Honestly, it hasn’t been comfortable for a long time. It’s too firm. I’ve had this https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-2275891/the-big-one-gel-memory-foam-mattress-topper.jsp on my my bed for about 8 months. Neither of us liked it. So now it’s on the bed folded in half on my side. It was ok for a couple months, and it still makes the bed better than it was before, but it’s no where near good enough.
I’m a stomach sleeper. I wake up at least once every night with an arm that has fallen asleep. My neck and shoulders ache every morning. I have a pillow meant for stomach sleeping to make sure I’m not angling my neck in a weird way. Sometimes I don’t even use the pillow, but that hasn’t helped with the pain. I’ve tried a bagillion different pillows and this one is the best. I’ve finally accepted that the mattress is the problem.
I know sleeping on my stomach is bad. I’ve tried to sleep on my side, but it isn’t comfortable at all and I end up on my stomach before long. This past week, I was on vacation and I was able to sleep on my side on the mattresses in a couple of the hotels. Which leads me to believe that my mattress is just too firm for anything but back sleeping. My husband sleeps on his side and back. He wakes up with shoulder and neck pain too and thinks the bed is too firm.
So long story not short, I’m at my wits end with this mattress. Ideally, I’d like to find a topper that will make this bed comfortable since a new mattress will cost so much more money and this thing is only 5 years old. Do you have any recommendations?
I’m sorry you’re having issues sleeping comfortably on your current memory foam mattress.
Usually, someone who sleeps in the prone (stomach) position needs a surface that is firmer and less forgiving. There’s a bit more information about common sleeping positions and appropriate sleeps surfaces here.
The information you’re providing seems to indicate you’re desiring more plushness on the top of your current mattress. While certainly not the norm for someone sleeping upon their stomach, if you do desire a more substantial plush topper, you may wish to investigate latex instead of convoluted 3 lb memory foam (like your topper from Kohls), or a solid (non-convoluted) memory foam topper of at least a 4 lb density. There is more information about choosing a topper in post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to that can help guide you through selecting a new topper for your mattress.
Thank you! I will look all of this over. Ultimately, I want to become a side sleeper. I know from the hotel beds I was recently on that there is a mattress out there that makes this comfortable for me. So I’m hoping a topper will help with that.
Hotel mattresses, while not a single “type” of mattress, do tend to be in the general category of what many would call “medium firm” which means that they have a medium plush layer over a firmer support core. This “feel” tends towards the average preference of a wide cross section of the population.
A more recent trend has seen hotels choose items that are a bit firmer feeling and then customizing their mattresses with various “top of bed” products such as plush mattress pads and polyfill toppers. These are easier to replace and launder, and offer a more cost-effective solution to add a bit of plushness to a mattress, and the items closest to your skin – the sheets and pillows – can have a dramatic impact on the overall impression of comfort made by a hotel mattress.
I finally got around to trying out a topper. A 3" queen-sized 20 ILD topper from Sleep On Latex. While this definitely was much better than anything we’ve tried before, it still isn’t good enough. I sleep on my side more, which is what I wanted, but now I wake up with my shoulder sockets hurting. It’s not just the side I’m sleeping on, but both of them. Occasionally I’ll wake up with a numb arm while sleeping on my side. The pain subsides after shifting positions, and I am in little to no pain after I get up for the day. But I wake up often in pain and needing to change positions. Laying on my back is very comfortable, but I am unable to fall asleep like that. My husband is also waking up often needing to shift positions and is finding that he rolled onto his stomach in his sleep which he doesn’t want to do because it causes him neck pain.
I’m not sure where to go from here. Sleep On Latex doesn’t have anything thicker. Should I try to find someone who has a 4" latex topper? Do we just need a little more thickness?
I am glad to hear that your comfort is improving and I hope that with a little bit of topper twitching you can achieve a desirable level of comfort for both you and your husband. As you did not mention for how long have you used the new topper in combination with your mattress I would first make sure that you gave your body enough time to adjust to the new configuration.
The uppermost layers of a mattress will have the most dramatic impact upon your comfort and any topper (or top layer) will interact with all the other layers in the mattress you have and the same topper can feel quite different on different mattresses and the same it goes for different toppers. Technically, limbs “going numb” are usually caused by a lack of pressure point relief.
If you allowed enough time for your body to adjust to the new configuration then given the information you’re providing seems to indicate you’re desiring a little more plushness.
One thing that you may wish to investigate right now is your pillow. Issues in the upper back with a new mattress/topper configuration and the shoulder area are commonly the result of using a pillow that may have worked for on old mattress, but with the way you sink into the new topper may be different and require a pillow that is thicker or thinner than your old one to maintain a more neutral alignment.
If that still does not work and as you maxed out on the level of plushness, and thickness of the Dunlop toppers that Sleep On Latex provide, at a quick glance I could find some of our trusted members that offer latex topers, but most of the talalay toppers that are offered come in 2"-3" (rarely 4") thickness. You may consider giving the manufacturers a call as they would be the best ones to give you specific information about the toppers they sell that you are considering can help you make the best choice for your personal circumstances, Keep in mind that a Dunlop layer feels a little firmer than a Talalay layer of the same thickness and ILD (in case you are reconsidering the topper material change from Dunlop to Talalay.
I would not rule out another conversation with Sleep On Latex as they would be the best ones to know if you exhausted all the choices and solutions they may have for your own personal circumstances
If you are considering one of our Trusted Members here I suggest that you reach out to them directly through the new section TALK TO THE EXPERTS on the Mattress Underground which is now open. Clicking on an Expert Questions & Answers article you will be able to post a question and discuss it with a particular expert. This will create a new topic which will be accessible both on OUR FORUM and through the Expert Member Section.
Note: As this this is a new section and still in beta testing, only a few Experts are at the moment fully functional and able to answer questions but we are working at adding new Experts and areas of expertise and also more features to make the navigation easier.
We are on day 29 of our 30 trial. We’ve both tried numerous different pillows as well. I did speak with a representative at Sleep On Latex. He suggesting I try adding an additional topper. However, that means that I cannot return both if doing that doesn’t work. So, I’ve decided to return the 3" and try to find a new topper that works for us.
I’m thinking/wondering if maybe a 3" talalay in extra soft might work better than the 3" dunlop soft? I definitely want to stick with a trusted member so I’ll ask that in the Talk to the Experts section you mentioned and I will check out the links you provided. Thank you!
That is certainly a good direction to go into.
I am at the moment working on the back end on the Experts areas which will allow you to connect with specific Expert members.
Allow me to set things up and I’ll drop you a line when things are good to go so that you can connect with them through the “Talk to The Experts”
