I am looking for a little help deciphering the terminology used on memory foam mattress toppers so I can find the right one for me. Although I have had some great feeling toppers in the past, I am having the devil of a time finding one that works for me now.
I am trying to find a foam that is dense, supportive, and non-jiggly and I wish I could find one 1" to 1.5" but I guess I will most likely have to settle for 2". I just want to dampen the jiggly feeling of my latex mattress and add a small amount of cushion I can sink into without turning my bed into a hammock. This is proving so much more difficult than choosing the mattress was!
I have tried and sent back 3 toppers and still using an ancient one that barely works and is getting pretty tattered.
I tried the Aerus 1.5" from Amazon.com and it seemed perfect in every way- perfect density, perfect thickness, perfect softness- I loved it when I went to sleep but I woke up at 3am having neck/upper back spasms and I realized it is because this topper is jiggly. It’s kind of a jello feel, and my back muscles were trying to steel themselves against movement the whole night. I am so disappointed.
If you can imagine having a slight tremor and wanting a surface that will absorb that and remain still, not respond to it by shaking like jello, does that make sense?
Is there a way I can decipher if a topper is going to be jiggly? “Fast response”? I did read somewhere the Aerus was described as “lively” and maybe that is what that meant? I wish there were descriptions that actually described these things in a way I could relate to.
Would the Sensus be a better choice for me? Or is it just as jiggly but heavier density?
I will try to help. We have had both the Aerus, on my sons bed, and the Sensus for 7 years. I have seen some videos of the latex but wish to have a firmer bed and went with a very dense base foam again. The Aerus is a 4 lb foam but does not seem to have the magic like the Sensus 5 lb topper. The Aerus is not as durable and seems closer to regular foam to me. We got it for my son that was 8 years old at the time and was a hot sleeper.
The Sensus is more like wet sand or soft clay. It will not jiggle but may on the base you have. The topper thickness should be chosen with your weight as a consideration too. Maybe you could get some samples sent to you to help you get an idea of what might be suitable.
I suspect that the “jiggly” feel you are referring to may be coming more from the latex under your memory foam topper than from the topper itself. With thinner toppers you will feel more of the characteristics of the layers under the topper than you will with a thicker topper although a topper can dampen them to some degree. Some people describe the sensations of latex as feeling “jiggly” but this wouldn’t be a typical description for memory foam or polyfoam. Most people that are familiar with latex (especially softer versions) would recognize what you are describing.
Which version SleepEz special did you purchase and what are the firmness of the layers?
If you have the 8" version of the Special it may also be worth considering replacing the top layer with polyfoam or even memory foam which are both less “jiggly” than Talalay latex.
Hi, thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate it, I’m starting to feel like I’ll have to personally try every topper out there to find the right one. I can’t seem to find a seller to talk to that understands my problem.
I have the natural latex 8" with firm dunlop on bottom, medium dunlop in the middle and soft talalay on top.
I had a 3" 4lb memory foam topper already which I really liked on my old bed, and it worked on this one for getting rid of the jiggly sensation but it’s too thick and I get the hammock affect. They don’t make this one in a thinner size so I’ve been trying to find a different brand. Right now I have an old 1" memory foam on my side which was a really cheap one I got ages ago and it does an ok job but is getting pretty worn out and plus I’d like to get one that fits the whole mattress.
I’d be willing to put any kind of foam on it if it would get rid of the jiggles. I love the support of the latex but not the jiggly feeling. Plus I can use a little more cushion for the hip and shoulder. Just a little.
It may be worth trying to replace the top talalay layer with your 3" memory foam topper (if you still have it and if it fits into the cover) or to try a 2" piece of softer polyfoam (which is also a fast response material like latex and would be relatively inexpensive) to see if the “jiggly” sensation you are experiencing is reduced or eliminated in which case you can assume it comes from the top Talalay latex layer. If the source of this sensation is the Talalay latex then a thicker topper will dampen it more but it would also be more risky in terms of alignment if the topper was also in the soft range (you would be adding an additional 3" of softer material to the 2" that are already there which would increase the likelihood of sleeping out of alignment). A thinner topper will dampen the sensation less but will also be less risky in terms of alignment. A 2" memory foam topper would be somewhat “in between” so it would provide more dampening than a 1" memory foam topper and would be less “risky” than a 3" memory foam topper but it may also end up being not enough dampening and too much thickness/softness.
Some of the better sources for polyfoam and memory foam I’m aware of are in the component post here.
Talalay is naturally a more flexible, resilient, and “floppy” or “jiggly” material which is the reason that some people like it so much but is also the reason that some people don’t.
Have you tried removing the top soft layer and laying directly on the middle medium layer to see if the different feel of the Dunlop as the top layer would work better for you in reducing the jiggly than the more lively Talalay top layer? If it is too stiff, you may find flipping the talalay to the middle and the dunlop to the top as a good compromise. It may be the spring in the top layer that causes the jello feeling not the latex in the core and middle. You can always buy a soft dunlop topper if the type of latex turns out to be the root cause.
Well, replacing the top layer with the memory foam did not work out for me. Memory foam just has no resilence and with time I sunk right through so I was feeling the firmer layer beneath and also lost the benefit of the latex support, so I was no longer in a neutral position. It was a good learning experience and now I understand more about the feel of memory foam vs the feel of latex.
I haven’t tried laying directly on the dunlop layers, since the mattress is a little hard for me even with the soft talalay layer on top, I get enough pressure on my shoulder that it is getting sore.
I have tried reversing the soft and medium layer and that was too hard for me.
So if I’m understanding correctly, the jiggly feeling is mainly a quality of talalay and not dunlop?
Question, can a dunlop comfort layer give the same degree of softness as talalay can, in the proper ILD?
I kind of wish I had a 3" comfort layer rather than 2" the more I live with this mattress, but I had expected to be adding a thin memory foam on top of that. I just find that I do not like memory foam as much as I thought I did! I need more softness to the shoulder area without losing the support to the waist.
While a latex “purist” would probably shudder … it may be worth considering a good quality polyfoam topper which is less costly and has more of the faster response of latex without the feeling of sinking into the mattress as much and doesn’t have the slow response or much lower resilience of memory foam. A softer Dunlop topper may also make a difference. Most sofas use polyfoam so you can use your experience on sofas as a reference point for the “feel” of polyfoam although a sofa would normally use firmer layers than mattress comfort layers because of the more concentrated weight of sitting vs lying down.
Talalay is a lower density material than Dunlop which has a more “solid” feel to it so even though it’s a somewhat subjective term … I think that there would be more people that called Talalay “jiggly” than Dunlop yes.
There is more about the “feel” of Dunlop compared to Talalay in post #7 here. The ILD of a layer is measured at 25% compression so if you were only sinking in to a layer 25% then Dunlop and Talalay would have a similar softness level as Talalay but in reality you will compress the top layer of a mattress more than 25% and in the same ILD Dunlop would normally “feel” firmer to most people than Talalay because it’s a denser and less “lively” material with a higher compression modulus so it gets firmer faster than Talalay as you sink into it more deeply. While softer versions of Dunlop that are comparable to the softest Talalay layers aren’t as common … some of the Continuous pour Dunlop made by Mountaintop or Latexco come in softer versions and there are some molded Dunlop layers that are in the lower 20’s or high teens that are more comparable to the lower range of firmness levels that are more common with Talalay as well. The component post lists some sources for all of these.
