Hello! My boyfriend and I moved into a new apartment a little over a month ago. We were previously subletting a furnished apartment so the mattress we became accustomed to and loved wasn’t ours to keep (a Sleep to Live Kingsdown). When shopping for a new mattress for our new queen size bed frame, we went straight to mattress Firm where a sales associate sold us on a Stearns and Foster medium plush mattress. As soon as we started sleeping on it we both agreed it had a weird foam sensation and it felt firm and soft at the same time - we didn’t like it and I started waking up with a sore lower back right away (something I hadn’t experienced in years). We exchanged it for a more expensive Kingsdown Malbec medium plush mattress with a pillow top and have been sleeping on that for two weeks. While it’s definitely more comfortable than the Stearns, it’s not a good as the old Sleep to Live and unfortunately my lower back is still sore from it. The lower back discomfort kicks in 10 minutes after I get into bed, and I toss and turn all night. What gives? Two mattresses in a row? We spent $3000 on this “luxury” mattress and are locked into a contract with Mattress Firm, they don’t have much else in stock we’d like but I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since the night before we moved out. Attaching a photo of the Kingsdown mattress we now have. Any insight would be appreciated!
Unfortunately what you are going through now is what many of us have also gone through in search of a mattress that provides the lumbar support that some people (depends on weight and body shape) desperately need along with a decent level of pressure relief to be able to get a good night’s sleep. Many of us have been trapped by those same predatory big box stores making all sorts of promises only to be pointed to the fine print on the contract after you’ve handed your money over (typically you can exchange for one other mattress then you’re on your own). Most of what the big box stores carry is lower to middle range products with outrageous profit margins on them. Mattress manufacturers are also famous for changing materials year-to-year and adding a gazillion different models to make it deliberately hard to compare products. It’s become an experience worse than used car shopping and that’s why so many on here have decided to venture into DIY mattress territory.
It’s hard to see a cutaway of that Kingsdown Sleep to Live mattress (you also didn’t say what model, there are 300/500/700/900 versions…it was likely one of the upper end 700/900 models though) that you liked but the cutaways I did find seem to show the upper ones do have some fairly high end features inside. It’s a hybrid bed design (coil spring) but the two biggest features that stand out are that it does use a decent amount of latex foam in the comfort layer and it also seems to have a lumbar support area built into the bed. I suspect this has alot to do with why the other ones you chose don’t seem to live up to expectations (the S&F and Malbec both don’t have any of these features). If this bed really felt great to you, it looks like they do still sell it so I would suggest finding a showroom where it is sold and trying one in person to check if it still feels like the one you used in the other apartment. If it does you may want to pick one up instead because honestly finding something that works is one of the biggest battles you run into.
Hope this helps.
Hi Sidesleepernyc11,
I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having lower back pain with the 2 mattresses you’ve tried. I’m not an expert, but I have a few suggestions based on personal experience and things I’ve learned from this forum.
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Try changing your pillow. Your pillow and mattress need to work together to put your spine into proper alignment. The first thing I’d try is changing your pillow (if it’s a high loft one, switch for low loft, and vice versa). This exact thing happened to me when I bought my last mattress - I purchased a new pillow, too, and experienced lower back pain while sleeping on the new mattress. It turns out that this pain was entirely because I had too much shredded latex in my pillow, which was raising my head up too high, putting my spine out of alignment. Reducing the fill in my pillow quite significantly entirely alleviated my lower back pain.
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Make sure that the foundation your bed is sitting on has proper support, is appropriate for your mattress type, and is not sagging. If any doubts, try sleeping with your mattress on the floor for a few nights and see if that makes any difference.
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Give it a few more weeks. It’s common to experience some aches and pains when changing mattresses, while your body gets used to the new mattress. Some minor to moderate aches in the first few days or even weeks of a new mattress is not uncommon, and many times they will go away once your back muscles adjust. A common recommendation is to give a new mattress 30 days.
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Search the form for other posts on lower back pain. For instance, Phoenix recently responded to another post about lower back pain here, and that post contains links to some other posts on this forum where lower back pain has been discussed. You may want to have a read through of those to learn more about what can cause lower back pain while sleeping, and other recommendations for helping the situation.
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If none of the above helps, you may want to reply with some more details about your sleep preferences/habits and the pain you’re feeling. For instance, do you experience lower back pain on your back, side, or stomach? Are you feeling any other sorts of pain? Is your boyfriend also experiencing pain with the 2nd mattress?
Welcome to the forum, and keep us posted of your progress towards a good night’s sleep!
Best,
Emily
Thank you for your replies so far. I am really frustrated and don’t know what to do. The people at Mattress Firm are probably sick of us by now given this is the third mattress we’ve gone through since November. I cannot sleep through the night and the second I get into bed the lower back pain kicks in and by the morning it’s beyond stiff and sore. Besides the pain, I just can’t get comfortable. I miss the days where I didn’t think about how uncomfortable I was and just fell asleep easily and stayed asleep. I used to spend mornings in bed catching up on the news or reading and now I can’t imagine laying in it any longer than necessary. My boyfriend thinks I’m crazy and that it’s psychological. He agreed the first mattress we got wasn’t comfortable but he doesn’t have complaints for this new Kingsdown one and he’s not experiencing back pain. The salespeople at Mattress Firm look at me like I have two heads when I tell them my back hurts. Is there any chance this is psychological and my body just isn’t used to the change? I just find that hard to accept given we stayed at a friends house a few weeks ago and the bed was rock hard and so uncomfortable but I woke up without pain.
Also, just to give some context. We ordered the first Stearns and Foster in November and started sleeping on it Dec 10 when we moved in. Switched it for the Kingsdown Malbec the week of January 1 due to discomfort and back pain, then switched it for the same Kingsdown model but different mattress two weeks ago because we thought we got a lemon. My lower back ache has been an issue since December 10 with all of these mattresses, and I had no issue on my old bed - I used to sleep like a baby.