So I’m looking for a new mattress. I have arthritis and have several pressure points mostly the shoulder and hips. I’m a 5ft 11 “twisted” sleeper…mostly on the side but leaning in a bit. Weight 250lbs. I’ve been leaning towards all latex, but I have to be able to assemble and move it which can be difficult with the arthritis. The mattress will be on a platform with a coir layer between the mattress and the platform.
I’m looking for a queen mattress that relieves my pressure points. I’ve generally slept on firmer beds but I think I need something softer now that I’m older and arthritic. But I also don’t want to be enveloped by the mattress. Any recommendations from your products? What densities and how many layers would you suggest? Thanks!
Hello SleepNYC and thank you so much for the inquiry! I’m so sorry for the delayed response, but we have just been non-stop busy since Black Friday! Based on the information you’ve provided, I don’t think a latex and coil hybrid would be a good choice. Most people over 230 pounds that order the hybrid end up getting back pain due to a lack of support from the coils. As such, I would definitely recommend our 10" organic latex mattress with medium Talalay for the top layer, firm Dunlop for the middle layer, and extra firm Dunlop for the bottom layer. The top Talalay layer should provide all the contour and pressure relief needed to avoid any pressure point issues and will add secondary support to the mattress. Secondary support is needed to fill in the gaps between your body and the mattress – back sleepers normally need secondary support to fill in the gaps between the small of their back and the mattress; side sleepers normally need secondary support to fill in the gaps between their mid-section and the mattress. If these parts of a person’s body aren’t supported by the mattress, their muscles will work throughout the night to hold these parts of the body up, and by the time they wake up they’ve got back pain. So the top 3" of Talalay latex will provide contour, pressure relief, and secondary support. The remaining Dunlop layers should provide all the support needed to maintain proper spinal alignment and avoid back pain.
Please don’t let the terms “firm” and “extra firm” scare you, this should feel more like a medium or soft mattress at your height and weight. Please also keep in mind that our initial recommendations have a 90% success rate (we only have a 10% layer exchange rate and a 3%-4% return rate) so there’s a 90% chance that the above recommendation works perfectly for you.
Thanks for the reply. My concern with the extra firm-firm-medium is that I’m currently sleeping on an original Tuft and Needle with a 3 inch medium latex topper. My shoulder winds up hurting as I don’t thing I’m getting enough pressure relief. Similar for the hips although not as much. Would a thicker mattress with a fourth softer top layer solve that problem?
Well at 250 pounds you might sink right through the soft Talalay down to the Dunlop layers underneath and not really get much benefit from the soft layer anyway. Aside from that, when you change layers to softer layers, you definitely lose a good amount of back support. As such, I have two options I would recommend - You could order the mattress as medium Talalay over firm Talalay over extra firm Dunlop. This will retain most of the back support needed to maintain proper spinal alignment, but will offer much more pressure relief because you have two layers of Talalay. OR, you can order the 10" mattress as medium Talalay for the top layer, firm Dunlop for the middle layer, and extra firm Dunlop for the bottom layer, but ask that we ship it out as a 7" mattress with 3" topper. At this point, the Dunlop layers would be in our 7" cotton & wool cover, and the medium Talalay layer will go on top of that like a topper, and it would be in our very thin and stretchy organic cotton topper cover (with no wool). This makes for a HUGE increase in pressure relief and doesn’t really sacrifice any back support because the firmnesses are the same as we recommended and you still have 2 layers of Dunlop for the mattress core.
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 is what I recommend to customers that are used to pillow top mattresses, memory foam mattresses, or people that are looking for a softer or plusher mattress in general. Aside from that, most toppers have our organic cotton topper cover, which is a thin, stretchy cover instead of the cotton & wool cover that’s on our mattress. As far as the cotton & wool cover goes, please keep in mind that anything you have between yourself and the latex affects the way you contour into the latex, making for a much firmer feel. So having a topper on top of the mattress makes for an even more plush and enveloping feel, not just because it’s not being restricted by the mattress cover, but also because you no longer have an inch of wool impeding how much you contour into the top layer of latex.