Mattress support cores - latex

[phoenix]

Hi NeonCat.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum!

I have had difficulty sleeping since we’ve received our new bed, and continue to “toss and turn,” have trouble falling asleep, and wake with pain, especially in my back, shoulders and neck. Prior to our latex journey, we slept on a soft-sided waterbed.

As much as I wish, unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to diagnose what might be your issue or the cause of your discomfort, as there are entirely too many personal variables involved, including items such as your BMI, somatotype, sleeping style, levels of flexibility, core strength, sensitivities, and preexisting conditions. All I can speak of would be the general reasons for certain “symptoms” when sleeping upon a mattress (see post #2 here, but the first step in finding this would always be to determine whether your “symptoms” are from pressure issues, alignment issues, or “feel” issues … all of which could have different solutions. It may also be that you do not like and cannot get used to the feel of latex and like the waterbed

What you describe can have many causes. Either the deep XF layer is too hard for you, or there is too much extra plushness on top, or that you may need to reevaluate your pillow to keep your head and neck in good alignment in all your sleeping positions as this would have a direct impact on tour neck and shoulder. There is more about choosing a pillow in the pillow topic here and the other sources of information and the posts it links to that may be helpful.

Some other forum posts that talk about fine-tuning a mattress and may help you recognize or “diagnose” the underlying cause of different types of “symptoms”, pain, or discomfort that may be connected to a mattress include …

Post #2 (this is the primary reference post for different “symptoms” that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress) / Post #45 (this is particularly worth reading as well) / Post #2 / Post #6 / Post #6 / Post #4 / Post #7 / Post #7 / Post #18

However, we must now decide whether to return the bed to FSM and get something else (perhaps a waterbed), or continue trying to manipulate the latex layers to find that almost-perfect fit. I lurked and spent hours reading here on TMU prior to purchasing a bed, feeling I did not need to actually post an inquiry. Now I am at a place where I need expert advice! Thanks so much.

I am afraid that my advice or any other expert’s advice could not help you more than your thorough data collection and conclusions from the trial and error process you’ve been going through and that short of gaining a clear understanding of what is really going on and where the discomfort originates your best source of guidance is the advice from FSF as they would have much more information about their mattresses and how they respond to people that may be similar to you and they can use the information you provide them about your body type and sleeping positions, your preferences, your history on the mattresses, and the results of your testing when rearranging all the layers for your side of the mattress …. to make suggestions as to what to do next.

I hope you manage to pinpoint the issue(s) and find a good solution. I’d be interested in what FSF recommends to you in this situation and any other insights you may gain.

Phoenix