Mattress Advice For A Complicated Body

[phoenix]

Hi Oona,

The first place to start your research is the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices regardless of your specific needs and preferences or specific circumstances … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

Unfortunately only you can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved for anyone to be able to suggest a specific mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), health conditions, individual circumstances, or “theory at a distance” (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). I’m certainly happy to help with “how” to choose but the specifics of “what” to choose will always be based on your own individual research and testing and on all the specific criteria and parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Some of the more important links in the tutorial post that I would make sure you read include …

Post #2 here which includes more about the different ways to choose a mattress (either locally or online) that can help you identify and minimize the risks involved in each of them.

Post #13 here which includes more information about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase.

If I’ve overlooked a more reliable air bed, please, point it out to me.

You can see my thoughts about airbeds in this article and while any mattress can be a good match for any particular person … in general terms I would tend to avoid them. There is list of many of the different airbed manufacturers in post #3 here but I would make any mattress comparisons based on the information in the previous link about “value” rather than based on brand because outside of how suitable a mattress is in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) … a mattress is only as good as its construction and the quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label and “brand shopping” is among the worst ways to choose a mattress because the name of the manufacturer won’t tell you anything about whether a specific mattress is suitable for you in terms of PPP or whether there are any weak links in the design (see post #5 here and post #12 here).

So, my experience with memory foam being soured, I’m interested in latex, specifically organic dunlop, for the durability and lack of allergy risk. Have people experienced allergic reactions to talalay, blended or otherwise?

Latex allergies are very uncommon in mattresses because the foamed latex that is in mattresses is different from the type of latex that most people react to (balloons, condoms, gloves etc). There is much more detailed comments about latex allergies in post #2 here.

What’s most puzzling to me is how I can choose a bed that will be soft enough to allow my neuropathic heels to touch it, soft enough that I can sleep on my side without awaking from burning hips, but hard enough to keep my spine from kinking. Is it correct that this hip pain is most likely caused by both a mattress being too firm in that area and the significant size difference between my shoulders and hips? Would a mattress that is then softer in the shoulder area than the hip area potentially solve this? But in that case, for back sleeping, wouldn’t my upper back and possibly neck, be thrown out of alignment from the lack of support while my hips are elevated on a slightly firmer material?

This is part of the “art and science” of all mattress design and the answer to this would require many books or years of study and would be outside the scope of a forum or for most consumers that are interested more in buying a mattress than becoming a mattress designer or “mattress expert”. In very general terms though it comes down to the balance between primary (deep) support, secondary (surface) support, and pressure relief. Post #2 here and post #4 here has more information about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to each other and to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress that may be helpful in clarifying how different layering combinations work better for some people and body types than for others in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences).

What’s the main difference between the shops that sell 6 inch pours vs. stacks of 2, 3, and 4 inches; is it just a cost benefit to the vendor to sell slimmer pieces? Are the 6 inchers more durable? Do the stacked mattresses really not slide around and misalign?

The thickness of a mattress by itself is just one of many parts that is involved in the design of a mattress that makes one mattress more or less suitable than others for certain people, body types, sleeping positions, and preferences. There is more about the effects of thickness in post #14 here and there is more about the pros and cons of having more customizable layers vs less in post #2 here. Latex is very “sticky” so individual loose layers that are inside a suitable tight fitting cover don’t tend to shift.

Is a 6 inch medium dunlop core going to be too firm for me even with layers of soft dunlop and soft talalay above it?

The only way to answer “comfort” questions" is based on your own testing or actual sleeping experience. There is no way to know answer these types of questions based on “specs” or “theory”.

Can 2 inch slats be reliably inserted into a pre-made frame? Is going with a solid wood support a very bad idea for a latex mattress?

There is more about the different types of support systems that are generally suitable for different types of mattresses in the foundation post here. There is also more about solid surface support systems in post #10 here.

And on and on, this is what the inside of my head has sounded like since Thursday. So, any input, advice and clarifications you can offer me, will be greatly appreciated.

You may be making things more complex than they need to be and I would tend to focus much less on the type of technical information you are trying to understand (which can quickly lead to information overwhelm or "paralysis by analysis) and focus more on the steps in the tutorial post and your own actual testing and personal experience which will tell you much more about whether any mattress is suitable for you than more complex “theory”.

I would also focus on the knowledge and experience of the people you are dealing with … especially when your circumstances are more complex and challenging … because it’s usually much easier to “find the experts” that already know what you would otherwise need to learn. Who you buy from can be one of the most important parts of a successful mattress purchase.

I am in Cincinnati

The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Cincinnati area (subject to the “value” guidelines I linked earlier" are listed in post #212 here.

Phoenix