Hi Burrito5 and new appointed MUGster,
Welcome to the MattressUnderGround!
I am sorry to hear about your pressure smart issues. Fortunately, or Unfortunately depending how you look at it, I am intimately familiar with the pressuresmart mattresses. I sleep on one every time I visit my brother in Florida.
I very much understand where your hip and lower back pain caused by the mattress. This may also translate into your occasional neck and shoulder pain.
I have found that the PS mattress is what I describe as having the “swimming pool cover effect.” Pressure smart uses a “beautyedge” support system. This system is basically a high density perimeter edge foam that is formed around the entire spring support portion of the mattress to offer a firmer edge support. It actually does this, but at the expense of the rest of the sleeping surface.
The dense edge foam is intended to allow sleeper to not roll of the mattress, be able to sit on the edge of the mattress and put their shoes and socks on without sliding off. While it does accomplish this function, there are other consequences that often arise. The firm dense perimeter foam is usually 3-5" in width. 1st thing is, when you consider a king mattress is 76x80" and the edge foam is 3 even 3" that removes 6" of sleeping area of your mattress sleep surface. This is important to sleepers such as myself who sleep on the edge of the mattress. Half of my body is on the very dense perimeter foam and half is on the spring or main support/comfort area of the mattress.
Additionally, the firmer edge, causes the sleeper to roll into the mattress drawing them toward the center of the mattress. Thus the swimming pool cover effect. Tight on the edge, stretched and sinking toward the middle. You always seem to be fighting the mattress for support. I would image this is the reason they have redesigned the mattress several times since the PS was introduced as the complaints were consistently the same on most of the individual personal reviews, blogs, reddit and TMU.
The other issue that develops is the edge support foam begins to collapse over time. Think about sitting in the same spot of the mattress every day to put your socks and shoes on, you will eventually wear that area down, like you would with any item that gets repeated wear in a particular area. The design does not lend itself to distribute the weight evenly as pocketed springs would. Even sitting on a padded chair, the padding will wear down over time. And it is a chair! Your mattress is not a chair, it is meant to lay on with proper weight distribution throughout your body.
Sorry I took a tangent, but it should make it easier to understand, if you know what is going on “under the cover.”
You are 5’3 114lbs, What is firm to me 6’ 220 is going to be wildly firm to you. When the PS memory foam starts to sink your body, it causes your head to angle up, thus adding to your neck and shoulder. So you get the double whammy. Hips and lower back bending in one direction, and head and neck muscles angling in another direction.
It would be wise to have your PPP’s posture and alignment (first thing you want to look for) personal preferences, and posture and relief addressed in coordination with your body profile.
I would look to something like a @DLX classic DLX Classic which uses quality mattress materials to create a classic quality mattress without all the viscoelastic slow response memory foam, a typical weak link in a mattress. The support system is excellent and the quality of foam and quilting is consistently reliable.
You could also go the route of a more natural mattress, that being all latex or latex combined with other materials such as wool or cotton.
@My_Green_Mattress offers a couple options in that area. You could look @Sleep_EZ or @Latex_Mattress_Fact1 who offer latex hybrids that again offer solid quality support, with the correct latex foam ILD to support your back and hips. All of these TM’s are experts at analyzing your body profile and PPP’s to come up with a zoned or non zoned mattress to fit you sleep style. At your height and weight, a non zoned mattress should be very accommodating.
If you budget allows and you want to go luxury, @TheCleanBedroom has a lot to offer in this area too, from their proprietary lines to upper middle luxury range Royal-Pedic as well as other lines with very premium luxury materials.
The thing is you could do very well with a basic classic mattress design. You need to match the mattress to your profile and then match the pillow to your mattress once the mattress is selected.
I would offer that even the more modestly priced mattresses offered by the Trusted Members here in the under $1000-$1500, (which in a king is the same range or less than the PS mattress). These TM mattress offerings are intended to last substantially longer than a couple of years, at your profile 7-10 years is the goal, if not more when looking toward the latex hybrid options.
If you have any questions for a TM just use the @ before their name and they would be happy to guide you. I will move your topic question to the Talk to the Experts section so they will see this and can respond.
I wish you the best of luck getting out of your miserable mattress situation and into a better one.
All the best,
Maverick