Hi,
We had a select comfort bed until last year this time. I started having hip and shoulder pain as I’m older, heavier, and the mattress was wearing out. After a lot of research I decided on a latex mattress. It’s been incredibly frustrating since then. Since switching to latex the hip issue is gone but I get really bad knee pain. We purchased the mattress through SleepEZ and they were very helpful. We had a topper already so we just purchased the cover and two more layers.
To start we did all dunlop. Firm, Medium and soft. My wife and I both found it too hard. I’m 5’11" ~200lbs and my wife is 5’1’ ~175lbs. Since it was too hard we reached out to sleepEZ and they suggested using Talalay soft for the top layer. They also said it can take a while to get accustomed to a new bed’s feel. So we did the following for around a month…
Talalay soft
Dunlop Medium
Dunlop Firm
My wife was fine with this setup but my knees just got worse and worse. The problem is if I sleep on our standard guest innerspring mattress then the knee pain goes away 100% within 1-2 days. We ended up trying a few setups since we had the extra layers. We eventually exchanged the firm dunlop for a medium talalay. and ended up with…
Talalay Medium
Dunlop Medium
Dunlop Soft
This worked better but still leaves me with knee pain although less severe than the first setup. The setup that seems to work for support but still gives me knee pain so far is…
Dunlop Soft
Dunlop Medium
Talalay Medium
This is pretty close to what SleepEZ originally suggested so I’m not sure why I get knee pain. I have never had knee issues before at all so it’s related to the latex it seems. I’ve wondered if we switched to all Talalay if that would fix it but don’t want to make that kind of investment right now to test it. When I contacted SleepEZ about the knee pain they hadn’t heard of anyone having that issue before. I contacted Ken from Arizona Mattress Company here as well for a second opinion and he hadn’t heard of anything like that either. He ask if maybe I had sciatica or something like that. Since the issue is directly knee related and the knee on the side I sleep on is the one that will hurt until I turn over it doesn’t seem like it’s nerve related. Ken had suggested maybe using pocket coils for the base layer could help. I really like the naturalness and longevity of latex so I would prefer to use it but I’m not sure the cause of this issue or how to solve it. At this point I’ve wondered if maybe something like the Purple mattress would work, or like I say, using more talalay. I’m just at a loss right now of how to even move forward so any thoughts or help would be very appreciated. Also has anyone else had the knee pain issue with latex before?
Sorry about the knee pain you started experiencing with your new latex set up.
It is unlikely that the pain you describe is material related, and changing to a different material type may prove fruitless. What you describe seems to be more softness/firmness or postural related. There are a few other subscribers on the forum that reported knee pain after purchasing a new mattress – so you’re not totally alone. In one case, the issue wasn’t actually the mattress at all but rather a change they’d made around the same time as switching to the latex mattress. Another subscriber started experiencing pain in their knees and kneecaps after switching to a Tuft and Needle mattress…although they didn’t share what they did to resolve this issue. All to say…you’re not the first person to experience knee pain upon the transition to a new mattress.
That said, there are many unknowns and variables and too many complexities involved to be able to “diagnose” the reasons for your pains or “symptoms” on a forum with any accuracy … especially if there are pre-existing issues involved and also because every symptom can have multiple causes … but I can certainly make some general suggestions that can help with the detective work and some of the trial and error that may be necessary to find a combination or solution that may work best for you.
You did not mention what your sleeping position is but I’d venture to say that your knee pain might have something to do with your posture on the new mattress. Joint pains can appear at the points of twist (even a slight rotation) due to changing postures on a new mattress especially when there is some inflammation in the body. So I would look for more clues to find the cause of your pain vs buying something new that might or might not help at all. I’s suggest that you try to provide some extra support to the knees and to take some pressure off. You could use a pillow or a rolled-up towel to prop up your knees. If you are a back sleeper place it under the knees and if you are a side deeper put w pillow between your knees. This can also give you some clues and find out if the issue is postural
I’m not sure how long you have slept on each of the new mattress configurations I would start reading through post #2 here which has some initial suggestions that may be helpful when you have first purchased a mattress and can help eliminate some “non-mattress” causes for your experiences. If the knee pillow suggestion helps … for the first few weeks it’s best to do nothing (outside of the suggestions about your protector or any mattress pads on the mattress or changing your pillow) so your mattress has a chance to break in and you have the chance to adjust to a new type of sleeping surface and while I know you are past the first few weeks it’s always a good idea to eliminate as many possibilities as possible.
Post #2 here and the posts it links to have much more information about the more common symptoms that people may experience on a mattress and some of the more common reasons behind them.
Hopefully, these resources along with observing and taking some notes will help you identify and mitigate the knee pain you are experiencing.
Good Luck and please keep us posted.
Thanks for the detailed response. I’m primarily a side sleeper. I don’t have much of an update. Purely out of frustration I ended up buying a Bear Hybrid. I’ve been on it around 1.5 weeks and the knee pain issue is gone. Other than that though I really prefer the latex as I have some neck and upper back pain on this mattress and my wife says it sleeps way too hot. Since they have a good return policy I decided to give it a try. Overall it seems well made but just not a good fit for us. I’ll follow up when I have more details as I really would like to make latex work if I can. Thanks
Thanks for your reply to Phoenix and for your updates:) .
Congrats on your new Bear Hybrid mattress purchase! Hope you don’t mind my stepping in on yours and Phoenix’s chat (Phoenix will be offsite for a brief time ). Happy to hear that you are finally getting some relief from the knee pain issue as that sounded quiet frustrating for you, but sorry to learn you are experiencing new neck and upper back pain issues now. The Bear Hybrid is available in one firmness/ medium firm with a construction of several proprietary gel/ memory foam layers (where your wife likely feels the “sleeping hot”) over a pocket coil support base. Another consumer poster mention similar upper back pains while sleeping on the Bear Hybrid and she too is looking to a latex comfort layer choice, you may enjoy her post “Brentwood Home latex Hybrid/help?”. Looking forward to hearing more of your Bear experience following a further sleep trial period and which course you choose to take .
). Happy to hear that you are finally getting some relief from the knee pain issue as that sounded quiet frustrating for you, but sorry to learn you are experiencing new neck and upper back pain issues now. The Bear Hybrid is available in one firmness/ medium firm with a construction of several proprietary gel/ memory foam layers (where your wife likely feels the “sleeping hot”) over a pocket coil support base. Another consumer poster mention similar upper back pains while sleeping on the Bear Hybrid and she too is looking to a latex comfort layer choice, you may enjoy her post 
.