Mattress & Adjustable Base Recommendations in Idaho

Mattress Talk
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Hey Mattress Underground Experts!

My wife and I are looking at a new mattress due to our getting older and changing needs. We’ve purchased our last mattress from Mattress Firm and spent more money than I want to admit. After 3.5 years, our Cal King BEAUTYREST Beyond Pillow Top Mattress is hurting both of us in different ways.

The sag seems to be a recurring problem which has caused me to deep dive into what is happening. In my research, I’ve pretty much ruled out Sleep Number because while it would allow for some of our requirements. And I’m very aware now that Memory foam isn’t going to hold us for very long. My wife and I both agree that any gel or TemperPedic type mattresses aren’t for us because of the way it feels and the heat it traps.

First, I’ll give you our demographics so you can understand our situation:

Myself:

  • I’m 6’2" and 330 lbs.
  • I’m a stomach sleeper. I’ve tried other sleeping positions but I don’t have any success in getting to sleep in other positions. During the night at some points, I will flip over, somewhat like a dryer drum and can wake up on my back.
  • Normally I don’t have a hard time getting to sleep, but I can’t stay in bed for longer than 6 or 7 hours because of the pain it puts on my lower and mid back. If I’m in bed for more than 7 hours, its going to take a lot of hot water, Advil and a couple days for my back to unlock.
  • I want a cold to the touch bed to get to sleep. I don’t tend to wake up super warm, which is fine.
  • I tend to destroy normal pillows every year and have found some success with MyPillow in getting a long lasting and stomach sleeping friendly solution.

My bride:

  • My wife is 5’5" and 240 lbs.
  • She is a back and side sleeper.
  • In general she enjoys a softer feel, hence the plush top. She fights with bad acid reflux and is currently pregnant (woohoo!). She has a wedge pillow that sometimes she will use. Pregnancy has exasperated the acid reflux situation and she really has to sleep in a recliner chair now.
  • Pregnancy is also causing her hips to hurt tremendously even after 1-2 hours of sleeping on her side (which is supposed to be the primary thing now since back sleeping is not suggested). She wakes up feeling extremely sore.
  • Also she finds that her arms and hands end up being numb in the morning because something isn’t getting supported.
  • She uses a harder foam pillow when side sleeping to support the head and a softer pillow when back sleeping.
  • She freezes when initially getting in bed but then turns into an oven when she wakes up. So she wants layers of sheets or blankets (or a heating pad) to warm up but has to ditch them during the night.

Common info:

  • We are both turning 40 this next year.
  • We’ve got Cal King bed furniture and an adjustable base which allows us to raise the bed. When I’m traveling for work, my wife will use this feature which does help her acid reflux. But since I’m a stomach sleeper, its really hard to do this while I’m here. She is gracious to not push this too much.
  • We do use a mattress pad heater during the winter months to help her not freeze. Its also Cal King and supports the two halves of the bed. But it isn’t a true split in the sense that we could support two independent adjustable sides.
  • We want to sleep under sheets and a comforter to help us from moving around. We also adjust the temp in the house to support this - often times the house is 62-65F to get to sleep.
  • We DO NOT do TV or anything in the bedroom so there isn’t a requirement to support that.
  • A base that helps elevate the entire mattress slightly (without putting a bend in the head or feet) might help both of us when we’re sick.

Here are the requirements we’ve collected for our next bed.

  1. Keep the Cal King furniture.
  2. Want to get true Split Cal King adjustable bases to allow her to have the option to get help with her acid reflux. I might use the adjustable base when sick.
  3. Investigating how to get different levels of firm for each side. Again, I don’t think I can justify Sleep Number’s cost for what we’ve perceived to be a 50/50 success rate.
  4. Finding materials and solutions, such as DIY and/or Latex or Coils which might last longer than our typically 3 years with a $5k mattress! In my research, I’ve come across the value and longevity proposition of Latex and we’re not opposed to DIY. I’d like to NOT have to master something new but often find its worth doing the thing right yourself. I’d love a happy middle where I can buy a finished bed but still support future adjustments of a layer when needed.
  5. We live the Boise Idaho area and I cannot find someone locally here who has Latex that we can try. I’d love for someone to recommend an option to go try it in a showroom. If not, I’m often traveling to Denver and Dallas for work, so I’ll take recommendations for those two areas.
  6. My budget is in the 6-7K range. But if we can stop buying a bed every 3 years, maybe this would help make the case for a better bed now. I tend to operate in the “buy once, cry once” mentality and appreciate scalability/flexibility as we continue to age.

What would the experts recommend for us here? Does anyone know of any Latex bed or Latex/Coil offerings we can try in Boise or the surrounding areas? Your advice will help me stop the cycle of spending money for an important part of our lives (1/3 spent resting) every 3 to 4 years!

Thanks in advance.

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@Sleep_EZ Ive been looking at your split Cal King options. Do you have any recommendations on the thickness of the mattress? The calculator seems to really indicate we need firm layers but I’m unsure on the zipper cover and if that will negatively impact. I remember seeing videos saying that some types of covers will negatively impact the support characteristics of latex.

Do you have any pointers for us?

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Hi MrGutPunch and welcome to the forums and thanks for the inquiry! Regarding the wool in the cover, yes, the wool in the cover makes the mattress feel firmer than if that wool weren’t there, but of course we’ve accounted for that in choosing the firmness of the materials in the rest of the mattress. Also, please keep in mind that the (natural, organic, and Luxerion) mattress can be customized to be as soft or as firm as you’d like, so the wool in the cover really shouldn’t be an issue. Aside from all that, using wool in the cover keeps us from having to use any chemical flame retardants, fiberglass, or anything crazy like that. This has been our default cover for decades and we still only have a 4% return rate, while the industry average for mattress returns is 15-20% and some companies are as high as 35-40%. So you might say 96% of our customers feel like the cotton & wool cover works just fine!

We normally recommend the 13" mattress for anyone 300 pounds and up, so I think the 13" organic mattress is almost certainly the best choice. Please keep in mind that our initial recommendations have a 90% success rate (we only have a 10% layer exchange rate) so there’s a 90% chance that what the website recommended works perfectly for you both.

If you’re worried that the mattress or mattresses will be too firm with what the website recommended, my advice is to order the layers the website recommends, but mention in the comments section at checkout that you want us to ship them as 10" mattresses with 3" toppers. All this means is that the bottom 3 Dunlop layers will be inside of one 10" cotton & wool cover, and the top layer of Talalay will go on top of that like a topper. Having a top layer that is not encased with the rest of the mattress will allow that top layer enough spatial freedom to move upwards when you lay on it, making for a very plush and enveloping feel. This makes for a HUGE increase in plushness and pressure relief, but you’re not sacrificing any back support because you still have the right layers for your heights and weights. Just something to consider!

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Hey @Sleep_EZ,

Thanks for the details. Very helpful. A couple of follow up questions:

  1. Do you see any problem with my wife’s situation and the 13" given the difference in size and weight between us?
  2. I’m pretty easy to please in terms of being a stomach sleeper. But I need to get something that helps with her acid reflux issues. We were thinking the Adjustable base would be the right thing to do. However, I want to make sure the Split 2 piece Cal King still makes sense to achieve this. For me I’m a Extra Firm X3 with a Firm Top Layer and she is a Extra Firm, Firm, Medium, Medium Top Layer.
  3. Can you help me cut through the marketing jargon on the Talalay vs Dunlop? Why does the online tool go with 3 base layers of Dunlop and the top layer Talalay? Again, we’re hot sleepers so I want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.
  4. Can you help me with the base options? I see you have both an Incline Adjustable Base and Adjustable Base for Split Cal Kings. We really don’t want the Message and Underbed lights and USB stuff. But we thinking the Incline base might be of some help for both of us (me as a stomach sleeper might actually use that and she could side sleep - her usual starting off position - without having the spine out of alignment). What are the two models for Split Cal King and what are their pros and cons? Have you seen the Incline thing actually work in similar situations? Again, I just want to check to see if this works with our weight + bed + everything else we’re trying to do.
  5. What do you recommend on covers for the bed? I noticed that the online store only bundles in the Cal King - I didn’t actually see a split option.

Thanks again. If it would be easier, I’m happy to give you a call.

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There shouldn’t be any problems with both of you on the 13" mattress and using the split cal king mattresses on adjustable bases.

In short, Talalay is bouncier and springier and is generally better at contour and pressure relief on your hips and shoulders. Dunlop is denser and firmer and is generally better at support and maintaining proper spinal alignment so our most common configuration is Talalay for the top layer and Dunlop for the remaining layers.

The longer explanation is as follows: There is a noticeable difference between Talalay and Dunlop, and it’s not really that Talalay is softer than Dunlop. Most people and companies say Talalay is softer just because that’s an easier way to explain it. You can actually have a soft Dunlop layer that’s softer or firmer than a soft Talalay and a medium Talalay that’s softer or firmer than a medium Dunlop, etc. The real difference comes down to how they react when being compressed. Talalay is bouncier and springier and is generally better at contour and pressure relief on your hips and shoulders. Dunlop is denser and is generally better at support and maintaining proper spinal alignment so our most common configuration is Talalay for the top layer and Dunlop for the bottom 2 layers. We will recommend Talalay for two or more layers for customers that have things like fibromyalgia, shingles, chronic hip pain, chronic shoulder pain, or anything where they’re sensitive to pressure, or for customers that just prefer a bouncier / springier feel. Outside of those circumstances, a combination of Talalay and Dunlop offers the best chance to be successful for the average person. Again, the best way I can summarize the differences would be to say that Talalay is better at pressure relief on your hips and shoulders and Dunlop is better at maintaining proper spinal alignment and avoiding back pain. However, Talalay can also be helpful in avoiding back pain because it provides more of what we call secondary support. Secondary support fills in the gaps between your body and the mattress. For side sleepers, this is normally the area between a person’s ribs and waist. For back sleepers, this is normally the area between the small of your back and the mattress. If these parts or your body aren’t being held up by the mattress, your muscles will work all night to hold those parts of your body up, which can lead to back pain. Aside from that, women tend to be curvier, especially around their hips, and having a top layer of Talalay can help avoid hip pain and keep the mattress from pushing their hips up, which can also lead to back pain. As such, most of our customers definitely benefit from having one layer of Talalay on top, and Dunlop for the rest of the mattress, but it’s completely up to you what you would like to order.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know much about the incline base or if it’s even ready to sell right now. Everyone else went through training on that except for me, but I heard good things about it, and it sounds like it could be a great choice for you, but you might want to call in to speak with someone who knows more about it.

Most people that order cal king splits will get cal king split sheets, which come with 36x84 fitted sheets, one cal king sized top sheet, and king sized pillow cases, and those are mostly found online. As for comforters, I think most folks just stick with cal king comforters. The only other widely available option would be twin XL comforters.

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