Hi dhaiman1,
Thanks for your stats, summing up your sleep history, and your most recent experiences with several new mattress in-home trials.
Part of the challenge with all of this is that there are so many variables involved and it’s often the case that a “symptom” is only produced after a “cause” has been in existence for some period of time previous to the symptom itself. It will often take a while for a symptom to show itself. Sometimes it’s a matter of a “cause” that crosses a line in terms of degree or how long it has been there before the “symptoms” become clear. When in doubt, it is usually much safer to do a thorough physical checkup to ensure you do not have a more complex medical condition.
Even though it is not possible for me to pinpoint the cause of your shoulder pains, what you describe seems to point to an inadequate comfort/transition setup or/and a possible arm position when sleeping on your side. Generally, 45 days should have given your body enough time to catch up with the change and readjust. Shoulder pain worsening with firmness increase is a good indicator that you need to move in the other direction either by exchanging the 24 ILD for a 19 …. or … by adding a 2’ or 3" of soft 19 ILD latex topper as you are thinking. As far as how thick this should be it is difficult to say.
I’d be careful with adding too much thickness as this can through your spine out of alignment if the mattress/topper combo is not supportive enough. On average, because thicker mattresses will “act” softer for most people. If you make changes to one of the specs (such as the layer thickness of the top layer) … then you may also need to make other changes to the other layers to compensate. Generally, you’d want to find something with “just enough” surface plushness to assist with contouring for your shoulders (and hips). I wouldn’t be able to tell you how much that would be, as there are so many variables involved, including your body type, the threshold of sensitivity, and of course your own personal preferences and needs.
Also, looking at some of your previous threads, I noted your concerns about sleeping hot, I’d keep in mind that the softer/thicker the mattresses or topper is, the deeper you’ll sink in and it will tend to be more “insulating” and trapping the heat around your body. If you are interested, there is more about the many variables that can affect the sleeping temperature of a mattress or sleeping system in post #2 here.
Before considering your next purchase, it would be interesting to note the position of your arms for your side sleeping. Research has found that the most common reasons for shoulder, cervical and upper thoracic pains are connected with pillow issues (thicker/thinner or firmer/softer pillow) which could also affect pressure on the shoulders. As you stated, you’ve had shoulder pains with all your in-home trials, so it’s important to double-check this, as you don’t want your head to be too elevated, or not elevated enough. This is especially important when sleeping upon your side, as cervical /upper thoracic issues tend to be pillow-related.
Something that you may find assistive while you fine-tune your mattress would be to sleep with a pillow up against your back, allowing you to lean back slightly when sleeping on your side, effectively allowing you to “roll” your shoulder slightly forward so that you’re not sleeping directly upon it. Also, consider using a body pillow or a thicker pillow in front of you, upon which you may place your free arm. This also will take some pressure off of both of your shoulders. Finally, don’t forget to 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.
Phoenix