I’ve recently realized that it is time - past time - to give up on making friends with my current bed, which is a Sensa soft-sided waterbed that’s a bit more than 5 years old. Two years ago I wasn’t comfortable in it after tumbling down some stairs, having to surround myself with multiple down pillows for support while I healed, so I added a featherbed topper - the wrong one, I suspect, since it’s 50% down and not as supportive as I apparently need. Over the last year, more and more the contents shift to the edges in spite of it being baffled, and it’s to the point that I have to unmake and then, hours later, remake the bed every day to give the contents time to re-loft. In the mornings, my bed looks as though I’ve been in a night-long battle and my body feels the same, even though when I first get into the freshly re-made bed I feel comfortable. When I wake, most of the time one or both arms exhibit numbness/tingling - I sleep alone in a queen size bed and feel like I spent too much of the night looking for a comfortable spot in the bed.
The most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in, other than my first hard-sided waterbed with a lot of motion, was my father’s old latex bed he bought at Sears back in the 1960s. I thought Talalay was the superior latex, only to learn that his was almost certainly 100% Dunlop latex. He let me “steal” his bed on occasion after I’d left home and was back for a visit, and sleeping in it was always a treat. I could sink down in it and hardly move all night long.
When I thought about replacing the featherbed, and realized how costly the one I think would be better cost, I started thinking more about either a latex bed or a latex topper.
I’ve spent the past few days reading everything here before deciding to create a post of my own looking for advice or information, and I’m glad to have found this forum where such questions might at least be considered appropriate.
For background - I’m a 62 year old female, 5’3", 140 pounds, with a horrid case of restless leg syndrome, chronic pain from fibromyalgia and other rheumatologic issues, and insomnia to the point where I’m lucky if I sleep before 3 am and lucky if I get 6-7 hours of often interrupted sleep a night. Unmaking and remaking that heavy waterbed is a chore I’d like to make a thing of the past.
I prefer a soft bed, liking the sensation of sleeping “in” a bed rather than “on” a bed.
Even a Westin so-called heavenly bed didn’t feel like my notion of heaven. I’m a side sleeper 90% of the time, and I sleep hot, so not interested in anything like memory foam - as an allergy sufferer, I’d prefer to avoid things like that or an innerspring mattress anyway.
I don’t know whether something like a 3" Talalay topper would do the trick, or if I need an entirely new bed, and haven’t been able to figure out if I could use the waterbed foundation with a new latex mattress. I do know there’s nothing wrong with the foundation I have and it certainly supports a good amount of weight now.
I moved away from the hard sided waterbed style because I wanted a bed I could use to prop up and read or watch movies/TV, and for that reason I’m not interested in going back to that style bed. I’m unsure if a latex mattress or topper would let me get in a comfortable position to read or watch video.
I’m not opposed to online shopping (Amazon loves me, and so do lots of other online sellers), but I would like to go somewhere that has latex mattresses on display to check out, and hopefully someone informative with whom to talk. We live halfway between Greensboro NC and Roanoke VA, and I’d be happy to go in either direction. The only storefront with latex I’ve been able to find so far is The Bed Gallery in Greensboro, and their website contains precious little information about what they sell.
So - any advice, information, etc., would be much appreciated.
