I am ready to buy a new mattress. I am new to all the mattress “mumbo jumbo”, and I don’t have alot of time to read every post.
I am in Galveston, TX area, I am a side sleeper. I have had shoulder surgery on both shoulders, and have severe hip pain. I have 2 bulging discs that cause the hip pain, and at night radiates down to my legs and feet if the mattress is too hard on my pressure points. I am going through menopause so I am VERY HOT at night so a memory foam is too hot for me.
I really need something that is cool, and soft enough for my pain. My husband only cares about cool, he could sleep on anything except memory foam, he hated the one we bought, said he was too hot.
Maybe Latex? Where are the best deals in Galveston/Houston, TX area or online and what should I know before buying?
Thanks
tkeeling
Hi tkeeling,
I think the “best” first step in mattress shopping and one that can save you endless hours of research and frustration is to look for outlets that increase your odds of finding a mattress that has both quality and value. As you may know, I believe that the best of these are either smaller factory direct outlets or local sleep shops that sell alternative or local brands. There’s more about how to know which “fit” the criteria in this article. This set of guidelines may also help you to avoid most of the traps and pitfalls that is unfortunately part of the industry. The more knowledge that the person helping you has and the better their ability to “fit” you to your best mattress … the less you have to know.
Post #2 here is centered around Houston but there are some that are within reasonable driving distance and that would definitely be among your better choices. I’ll also take a look around Galveston to see if there is anything closer that may also be worth including in your research and add it to this post.
With your particular challenges … it will be especially important to use materials that can give you the pressure relief you need to ease the pain but also to keep you in alignment so that the issues you are facing don’t get worse. This means that a comfort layer that is just the right thickness and softness but no more so you are as close as possible to the support layers of the mattress. There are some guidelines here for height/weight/body shape and more here that can help with different sleeping positions. It can be easier though to find an outlet that you can trust and that already knows all of this than to learn it all yourself … especially if you are in a “hurry”
The heat issue also indicates that the use of more breathable materials or foams would also be well worth while and latex is the most breathable of all the foam materials and would be well worth considering. The upper layers are the most important for sleeping temperature and the latex could be over high quality polyfoam, innersprings, or latex support layers depending on your budget and preferences.
Hope this helps … and as I mentioned I’ll add to this if I come across anything else worthwhile.
Phoenix