Lower back pain after 6 months on mattress

Discussions
1

Hello,

I appologize for the long post so here’s the Tl;DR: My hybrid mattress (6" foam, 4" latex) was amazing for the first 6 months, and in the past couple months has been causing sinificant lower back pain. I think I’ve narrowed down the issue to one of the latex layers being too soft, but I want to make sure before I spend hundreds of dollars replacing it).

In June of last year we purchased a hybrid latex mattress from Majestic Sit and Sleep. We initially ordered the firm option, and although my wife and I didn’t experience any pain, we found it more firm than we preferred so we took advantage of the layer exchange to swap a 30 ILD latex layer for an additional 20ILD layer.

So the current configuration (as per the specs on the website) of our mattress from top to bottom is:

  • 2" 20 ILD dunlop latex
  • 2" 20 ILD dunlop latex
  • 3" 31 ILD 2lb HD foam
  • 3" 40 ILD 2lb HD foam

Both my wife and I are side sleepers and are generally not too picky when it comes to mattresses as long as they’re not rock hard. The first few months on the mattress were sublime. On most mattresses I find I will half-wake at some point as my natural sleep cycles progress, but on this mattress my head would hit the pillow and I would sleep deeply until I woke up.

After about 6 months on the mattress, my sleep quality started to deteriorate rapidly. I started experiencing significant back pain which reduced the amount of quality sleep I’m able to get from 7-8 hours to 4-5 hours at best before I’m woken up by discomfort/back pain.

Here is a summary of the variables I’ve tried to isolate to determine the source of my sleep issues:

  • One of the most common causes of pain issues seem to be lifestyle related but I haven’t experienced any significant lifestyle changes, changes in health, or changes in fitness. I’m moderately active and my overall activity levels have declined a bit over winter, but not significantly
  • To further pinpoint the issue as the mattress I travelled over Christmas and slept on 4 different mattresses of varying types and firmness with no lingering back issues.
  • The mattress does not have bonded layers so I’ve tried flipping/re-orienting the layers (beyond the normal rotation that we’ve been doing)
  • I switched our bed slats from 1/2" thick to 3/4 inch to see if a stiffer platform would offer more support. I feel like it’s helped a little, but I’m still experiencing back pain.

In all of this troubleshooting, one thing I noticed is that one of our 20 ILD latex layers is significantly softer than the other. The are both labelled as 20 ILD, but one is uncomfortably soft. I never noticed this when we initially switched layers since we (unknowingly) placed the firmer of the two layers on top.

For clarity’s sake, here is the current configuration of the mattress:

  • firmer 20 ILD dunlop layer on top
  • softer 20 ILD dunlop layer
  • 31 ILD foam
  • 40 ILD foam

So after all this, my theory is that although the firmer top layer continues to adequately meet our preference and pressure relief needs, it no longer provides adequate postural support. From what I can tell, the rest of the mattress is constructed of materials of decent quality (from what I’ve read, 2 lb HD foam and dunlop latex shouldn’t be breaking down and losing support after 6 months), and should meet the general needs of a side sleeper (6" of firm support with 4" of softer comfort layers). Thus, it seems like I should be looking at replacing that softer layer.

My specific question is threefold:

  1. Does my current conclusion that I should be looking at replacing the softer 20 ILD layer make sense?
  2. Is it normal for latex of the same nominal firmness to have such a significant difference in feel? I also noticed that the two layers are different in construction (see here, the softer layer has a much denser hole pattern https://photos.app.goo.gl/dwmA8yTY9sfdqcP2A)
  3. Does latex soften significantly in the first few months? I don’t want to buy a replacement 20 ILD layer only to be in the same situation 6 months down the road.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for bearing with the long post. I really appreciate your help.

2

Hi ltilley,

My hybrid mattress (6" foam, 4" latex) was amazing for the first 6 months, and in the past couple months has been causing significant lower back pain. I think I’ve narrowed down the issue to one of the latex layers being too soft, but I want to make sure before I spend hundreds of dollars replacing it).

Sorry to hear your Restore Hybrid is no longer quite meeting your expectations. As you know, the comfort of your mattress is unique to you and your wife based on your Stats (height, BMI, sleeping position(s) and any underlying health conditions) and your PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief and Personal preferences). Since you haven’t provided any Stats, it is difficult to assess where you may need different comfort levels…let’s see what we can ascertain with your current layers.

As you have likely seen in the Mattress Durability Guidelines, latex is one of the most durable mattress materials available, and while it can take 3-5 weeks to ‘break in’ a mattress, latex should hold up for many years.That being said, due to the way Dunlop is produced, molded in 6 inch slabs and ‘slit’ down the sides to create 2 or 3 inch layers due to Dunlop manufacturing processing, the material/particulate ‘settles’ during the injection process resulting in the bottom piece/layer of these slabs to have a different density from the top and feel firmer ….as in your pictures, the ‘firmer’ piece at the bottom piece has larger pinholes and the ‘softer ILD 20 piece with the ‘grid’ or ‘pinhole’ pattern has slightly narrower pinholes, (Pinholes are cone shaped) thus the 2 different ‘feels’ for the same ILD.

latex

(I added your photos here in case you clean up your Google Photos page)You can read more on Latex densities from @Phoenix in post 3 here and in post #5 here

In June of last year we purchased a hybrid latex mattress 1 from Majestic Sit and Sleep. We initially ordered the firm option, and although my wife and I didn’t experience any pain, we found it more firm than we preferred so we took advantage of the layer exchange to swap a 30 ILD latex layer for an additional 20 ILD layer.
So the current configuration (as per the specs on the website) of our mattress from top to bottom is:
• 2" 20 ILD dunlop latex
• 2" 20 ILD dunlop latex
• 3" 31 ILD 2lb HD foam
• 3" 40 ILD 2lb HD foam
Both my wife and I are side sleepers and are generally not too picky when it comes to mattresses as long as they’re not rock hard. The first few months on the mattress were sublime.
After about 6 months on the mattress, my sleep quality started to deteriorate rapidly. I started experiencing significant back pain which reduced the amount of quality sleep I’m able to get from 7-8 hours to 4-5 hours at best before I’m woken up by discomfort/back pain.
Does my current conclusion that I should be looking at replacing the softer 20 ILD layer make sense?

Though you “aren’t ‘too picky” when it comes to mattresses’ you were probably on the threshold of what you need for support …as you have found out a difference in firmness can be enough to put you on the threshold and result in a sore back.The pain could be caused several different aspects of your mattress; you switched out the 30 ILD for the 20 ILD –

  1. have you tried laying on one layer on top of the HD foam?,
  2. then the other latex layer, and
  3. a third option is to switch layers from your current configuration

You say you felt no pain sleeping on the 30 ILD, so it’s likely you need to experiment to ‘dial in’ the right mix of comfort and support for the latex Ideally a visit a local showroom to try out a few different configurations and firmnesses … but I doubt they’d have exactly the same materials and configuration you use in your mattress… from what you describe the support is not appropriate to keep your spine in a neutral position. (you are missing most likely the secondary support from your layering that will hold up a bit the recessed areas of your body and would not let them collapse. It may be that the initial comfort “lulled” you to sleep in the first 6 months and then the body started to catch up with working through the night by trying to compensate for lack of support. You can have your wife check your profile while you are laying on the mattress; your back while laying on your side should look as it does from behind when you are standing. If you are sinking too far into the plush comfort layers this could be causing your back pain. The HD foam support layer of a 3" 31 ILD and 3" 40 ILD of 2lbs/cuft density are considered medium firm; unless you have a higher BMI or health issues this should provide good primary support for you both.

switched our bed slats from 1/2" thick to 3/4 inch to see if a stiffer platform would offer more support. I feel like it’s helped a little, but I’m still experiencing back pain

Good call! This would have been my first suggestion to see if something under the bed is not affecting how the mattress performs as a sagging or flexing foundation is often the culprit for back pains. To check this I’d recommend you place the mattress on the floor and sleep on it for a few nights. The foundation should be solid and have a center support. The gap between slats should be around 2.5"- 3" (with polyfoam core you should be OK having a little larger gap) and should not affect how it feels to sleep on 4" latex and 6" HD foam. For bed sizes larger than twin you should have a support brace in the center, and also check that the slatted frame adheres to the mattress manufacturers recommendation so that you don’t void any warranty or return policies. If all checks out with your frame then this should not be a source of your pain.

You may even want to consider an additional layer of medium firmness below the 2 soft layers, but only you and your wife can judge what will be comfortable for you. If Majestic does not have the firmness of latex you desire you can check with Trusted Member MFC, as well.

Let us know what you find through your further testing and process of elimination.

~ Basilio

3

Thank you so much for your detailed reply!!

To add further context for the sake of anyone who comes across this in the future. My wife is 160lbs with a BMI of 24 and I’m 170 lbs with a BMI of 27.5. We are both 32, side sleepers, healthy and have no underlying health issues.

These are some great suggestions. I’ll try these and report back

From everything I’ve read on this site, I think we should be in the ballpark in terms of the overall firmness and durability since we are side sleepers with a BMI <30. Hopefully this means we just need minor tweaks.

We visited several showrooms in our search for this mattress before we decided that we preferred something in the medium-firm range and much preferred the feel of dunlop over talaylay. Majestic is actually local to us, so we could likely try the exact mattress with different firmnesses, but based on what I just learned about dunlop densities vs ILDs it seems like with dunlop latex there’s no guarantee that what we experience in the showroom will match what we get at home unless we are able to purchase the exact product we’re trying.

Our foundation has 3.5" slats spaced 2.75" apart with a centre support which is exactly within the specs required by the warranty, so based on your info, we should be able to eliminate that as a variable at this point.

I don’t know the exact relationship, but majestic sit and sleep and MFC share the same warehouse in Delta BC. They both sell unique products but as far as I know they both use the same supplier(s) for latex.

Thanks again for your help and I’ll report back once we’ve tried your suggestions.

4

Hi ltilley,

Thanks for the Stats and clarifications…it sounds like you definitely just need some minor tweaking. I believe you are correct, MFC does source their latex from the same place as Majestic- still a good source if Majestic is out of the specific latex firmness you are looking for, or if you decide to try another type of foam. Great job in research, It’s obvious you have taken advantage of all the information we have here!
As the best customer is one who is well informed, there’s no doubt you’ll be able to get that last finishing touch completed successfully.
Please let us know how you complete the project and your experience with it once you and your wife have spent some time on it.

~ Basilio

5

Hi ltilley,

I spoke with Tyson at Majestic about your issues and he’s happy to help you find a solution. Please contact him by email at [email protected] please keep us posted on any developments,

All the best!

6

I am no expert and don’t pretend to be one. I have noticed for myself that using 1" toppers helps me dial in the refinement that I need. For example, i have a firm, a med and am adding a soft topper…each 1". It is more expensive doing it that way. But for me, it’s worth it because of the fine tuning.
Best of luck
hester