memory foam with gel

Hi;
New to the forum but am having confusion buying a mattress.
Have been looking at memory foam and gel–on line-- and have found two companies that have differnt views regarding this but even though one company does not like the gel, it does offer in their higher end product. Both have 90 day paid in full return policies.

Atlantic mattress offers several differnt layers of foam and then some colling tubes and then some gel stuff too.
Restava offers gel infused menory foam nad their 3 high end mattress’ come boxed because they have foam end and side panels to give side support. The lower end six matterss’ come rolled and the Atlantic site states that rolled in not a good thing.
I do not want to do this over because of a mistake in lack of education.
I do have a heat/sweating problem at night and am looking for the gel for it’s cooling or something to help.
Of course the bad back is a problem too. Am 6’1" and shrinking, 215 lbs and sleep on my left side after getting settled–dog too.
Will schedule a sleep study asap and then will get ready to purchase. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ernie

Hi laware,

The first thing I would suggest is to read post #1 here (the same link that is after all my posts in my signature) and the information it links to which will give you the basic information you need and the steps to take to find “your perfect mattress”.

Once you’ve done this … I would find the better manufacturers and retailers in your area so you can do some mattress testing and see which materials and types of mattresses you prefer. This will be very helpful whether you buy locally or take on the added risk of an online purchase if the “value” is better.

A mattress is only as good as the construction and materials that are in it so one of the most important parts of any mattress purchase is to make sure you only consider a mattress where you can find out (from the retailer) all the materials that are in it. this is the only way to identify any potential "weak links’ in the mattress and make meaningful quality and value comparisons between different mattresses.

If a mattress uses good quality materials and is not compressed for any longer than it needs to be for shipping from the merchant to you (and is not stored compressed or compressed during shipping for long periods of time) then this will generally not harm the materials and will save on shipping because they can be shipped UPS instead of truck freight.

You can read more about all the many factors that are involved in the temperature regulation and ventilation of a mattress in post #3 here and post #29 here.

There are two main benefits of the various gel memory foam materials. One of these is that they are one of the factors that can help initially or temporarily with regulating temperature (until temperatures between you and the gel memory foam equalize) but they are only one of many pieces of the temperature regulation puzzle along with all the other layers that will affect this. The other is that they can also increase the compression modulus of the memory foam (how quickly a foam gets firmer with compression) which can help the tendency of many types of memory foam to keep softening and sinking in over the course of the night. In some cases the gel may weaken the memory foam and in some cases it may strengthen it depending on the type of gel memory foam. You can read more about this in post #2 here.

The most accurate way to find a mattress that can accommodate your need for pressure relief (especially with side sleeping) and your need for alignment and support (especially with back issues where neutral alignment in all your sleeping positions is particularly important) is to test mattresses in person. There are some suggestions that may help you test for pressure relief in this article and some suggestions that may help you test for alignment and support in this article along with post #11 here.

Hope this helps … and feel free to ask any questions you may have along the way and if you let me know the city or zip where you live I’d be happy to let you know about any of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in your area.

Phoenix