Mattress Configuration Help - Experiencing Nerve Pain

[phoenix]

Hi Alec.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum.

I’m sorry that you are having problems adjusting to your new mattress. Unfortunately, “diagnosing” with accuracy physical issues over an online forum is quite problematic, and if it persists even after making sleeping adjustments, I would check with a health practitioner to eliminate the possibility of a medical issue that you may be unaware of. Carpal tunnel comes to mind and I’d consider reading this article from the Mayo Clinic website.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on the median nerve. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway surrounded by bones and ligaments on the palm side of your hand. When the median nerve is compressed, the symptoms can include numbness, tingling and weakness in the hand and arm…
Several studies have evaluated whether there is an association between computer use and carpal tunnel syndrome. Some evidence suggests that it is mouse use and not the use of a keyboard, that may be the problem.

Carpal tunnel syndrome By Mayo Clinic Staff

Also often tingling/numbness in hands and fingers is common when putting pressure on nerves due to incorrect posture while sleeping. I’d also reassess your pillow whenever you get a new mattress to make sure that it is the proper thickness to fill in the gap from the outside of your shoulder to your ear, helping to take that weight off of your shoulder joint as well. Hopefully, some of those tips will help you, regardless of your eventual mattress combination.

There is some much more detailed information on the shoulder and arm issues in posts #2 and #3 here and I’d make sure to pinpoint the type of comfort/support (primary/secondary) issues that may contribute to your soreness and also assess the pillow you are using as this can be a big contributor as well.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to provide me with some advice on what I should do
ensure that I am getting enough support, but I am also relieving the pressure on my shoulder.
Should I try and make my mattress softer with additional layers, or try something else?

As you are migrating from a firmer mattress to a softer one and as you don’t indicate any other pains, it looks like you have the correct support comfort combination to maintain a neutral spinal alignment but also provide you with a deep enough cradle needed for your side sleeping comfort. So more of a reason to check out the pillow and the carpal tunnel. You don’t want to fix the tingling and numbness at the expense of the support/comfort you achieved.

I’d also be hesitant to add more layers to your already relatively thick mattress for your low range BMI Too much thickness or softness can cause/worsen any alignment issues and ultimately exacerbate or compound any symptoms you may be having.

One way to verify if the pressure put on your arm is the culprit during your sleep is to experiment with replacing the third Dunlop Firm layer with the second Dunlop median layer from the other side of the split for long enough to assess what happens to your alignment, comfort, arm, and finger numbness.

Mattrebuild’s suggestion to swap out your second layer with a Talalay layer of a similar ILD may be a good solution provided that you have indeed identified the cause of the issues, before investing in a new Talalay layer. As Mattressbuild mentioned, Talalay excels in comfort where Dunlop’s winning ability lies in support.

You may also want to check out this post about overlapping factors & identifying possible causes of burning and tingling in fingers while sleeping.

It looks like you have a bit more experimenting to do. I’d be interested to hear about your progress and what you discover as you experiment with your layer configuration.

Phoenix