Memory foam to latex change --- Casper mattress review

[phoenix]

Hi mville032,

I am in the market for a new mattress. I say I because my wife is perfectly happy with the current mattress, a 9 year old Restonic Memory foam mattress. For me, I can only get about 30 minutes of sleep before the memory foam warms up and creates a dip I sink into a good 3 to 4 inches and I only weigh 130 lbs. I wake up with pain in my hips running down my IT band which has gotten worse over the past 6 months (my Chiropractor assures me there is no spine/disk issue causing the pain and I only get it at night on the bed, I sleep pain free in my Lay-z-boy)

These types of “symptoms” are generally an indication of a joint or spinal alignment issue … possibly caused by foam softening or possibly by changes in your body over the years. Your mattress may have been closer to the edge of the comfort/support range that is suitable for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) than your wife when it was new so a smaller amount of foam softening that would be fine for someone else may have taken you outside the comfort/support range that is suitable for you and may be having a bigger effect on you than it is on your wife (see post #2 here)

I am considering latex (I don’t care if its natural/synthetic/blended) but my concern is how big of an adjustment is there going from memory foam to latex (I am more concerned about my wife as she loves the memory foam mattress always saying “glad to be back on it” after a stay in hotel).

I would be very cautious about using other people’s experiences on a mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how suitable a mattress or any specific material may be for you and in many cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (see post #13 here).

This would be very similar to asking whether you will like an orange if you happen to like apples and these types of “poll” questions will bring a wide range of different opinions and none of them may be applicable to your own preferences or experience. The most reliable way to know how you feel about any particular material or type of mattress will be based on your own personal testing and experience.

I would also keep in mind that there are hundreds or even thousands of different types of mattresses with a different “feel” and firmness level in each mattress category and you (or anyone) may like and sleep well on some of them and not like or sleep well on some of the others at all even if they have the more general feel of a specific material in common.

Some people will transition from memory foam to latex (or vice versa) and take to it like a “duck to water” and not need any time at all to get used to it because they prefer the different feel and performance from the first day. Others may take a little longer to get used to the feel of a different material and others yet may never get used to a material that they don’t like in the first place (just like some people will never like certain foods). These are always preference choices that can be unique to each person and not “better/worse” choices.

UD: Freedom as it is adjustable and in the king configurable on both sides. My main concern is what happens at the "split’ between the two sides over time, I could see a gap forming) and as there are not lot of reviews on this mattress, I don’t want to purchase it and pay the $99 return fee if I or my wife do not like it.

The Freedom mattress has a tight fitting quilted cover which will help the mattress keep it’s shape and latex is also “sticky” and doesn’t tend to shift inside a mattress and with a suitable tight fitting quilted cover the materials inside a mattress are much less likely to shift than if the cover was looser either initially or over time. There is more about the pros and cons of split layers in post #2 here and there is more about glued vs unglued layers and layers shifting in post #2 here.

Casper a thought is it may be a compromise between latex and memory foam but I am not sure how much of the memory foam feel is retained with the latex top layer but at least with them they do have a no risk return policy (if UD had the same I would purchase the Freedom with out hesitation). My concern with this mattress is the reviews of it being to too firm and not providing a lot of pain relief for people like myself. It is new and not sure of the longevity of the mattress and being new few if any reviews from “long time” owners exist. Most reviews are with in a week or two of opening the bed and given the fact many “positive” reviews came with a $50 credit not sure I am overly confident of the validity of the review.

The Casper has 1.5" of synthetic latex on top of 1.5" of 4 lb memory foam so you would feel some of the properties of both materials. The layer on the surface will have the biggest effect on the surface “feel” of the mattress and being latex it would be more resilient and “lively” than memory foam but you would still have some of the slow sinking in feeling of memory foam underneath it that you would notice as well. It would probably be fair to say that those who really dislike the “feel” of memory foam would probably dislike this mattress less than having memory foam in the top 3". Those who dislike the feel of latex would probably also dislike this mattress less than a mattress that uses 3" of latex in the top layers. Those who like the feel of latex would probably like this mattress more than a mattress that used 3" of memory foam in the top layer and those who like the feel of memory foam would probably like this mattress more than a mattress that used 3" of latex in the top layer.

I have tried latex at the local stores but as I have read here, just because the latex felt okay in the store a different latex bed from a different manufacturer with most likely different level materials will not feel the same.

While there are many different models of latex mattresses that may use different types of latex in different firmness levels … they will all have the the more resilient (faster response), ease of movement, and more “on the mattress feel” of latex in common to different degrees even if they are in different firmness levels just like memory foam mattresses will all tend have the less resilient (slower response) and more more motion restricting “in the mattress feel” of memory foam in common to different degrees. There is more about the pros and cons of latex vs memory foam in post #2 here.

I would like to hear opinions of people who have made the switch from memory foam to latex and either succeeded or failed and went back to memory foam.

Hopefully some of the members here will see your post and share their comments about switching from one to the other but again I would be very cautious about using anyone else’s success or failure on the specific mattresses they are switching between as a reliable indication of your own.

it was made by a local company in Dearborn, MI

You may have seen this already and I’m not sure if you meant that you are in Dearborn or whether that was just the location of the company that made your mattress but just in case you are local … the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the area in and around Detroit (subject to the value guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix