Migrating from a sealy beachside (latex) matress

[phoenix]

Hi Csj0952,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum!

[quote]I’m currently on a sealy beachside mattress which is much and giving
me lots of lower back pain as I’m a stomach sleeper:

1. Is there anything I can do to buy more time to research like flip the mattress even though it’s one sided?[/quote]

Being a stomach sleeper and the amount of plush polyfoam in the top of the Beachside, it isn’t surprising that it is giving you some low back issues. You certainly could flip the mattress over and sleep upon the latex core, which should feel firmer to you than the best in its “normal” orientation.

2) I can’t find the composition of the beachside sealy. Wondering if it’s talaly and how many inches or what the makeup of is it so I can find something similar. I love that it has some kind of coolmax topper on it and would love to find something with a similar comfort layer allowing heat to dissipate easily.

I found the specs of the Beachside a few years ago and have copied them over here from that post.

Quilt - Top of Mattress
1 ounce Flame Guard Fiber
1 1/2 x 1/2" Convoluted SuperSoft SealyFoam
1/2" SuperSoft SealyFoam

Comfort Layers
1" SuperSoft SealyFoam

SpringFree Core
8.9" Luxury Latex

So you have 8.9 inches of lower cost/quality mostly synthetic Dunlop latex (and it would be a safe assumption that it was in the “firm” range somewhere) which they call “smart latex” and 3 " of polyfoam (probably soft) in the comfort layers of unknown density and ILD (softness firmness level). Because the comfort layers are completely unknown in terms of ILD it would be too complex and the materials would be too different to try to “match” them by specs … even if Sealy gave out the comfort specs such as ILD which they don’t. The best you could “match” would be a guess about the better quality latex equivalent of 9" of firm synthetic latex with 3" of polyfoam on top but these are not specs that can be “matched” or "translated into other materials except by feel and memory.

Any material, including low quality polyfoam, can feel great for a while. The problem is it’s not durable enough to continue feeling great or at least the same over the long term.

So I personally would use PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) as your “target” rather than how you remember the mattress felt when you first bought it. This will be much more accurate and you could end up with something better even than you remember.

As a “best guess” for testing I would probably use a Dunlop core of around 6" and a soft 3" Talalay comfort layer which probably be as close as you could get based on the limited information available but this is complete speculation and there isn’t really any way to know how close this may turn out to be when you sleep on it without testing something similar.

So you could probably match the feel with longer lasting latex layers. It would have to be through testing and some guesswork though, and as you sleep prone, I would avoid choosing something that has too much soft material in the uppermost layers.

I’m in upstate ny (Rochester)

Subject to first confirming that any retailer or manufacturer on the list that you wish to visit is completely transparent (see this article) and to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines here … the some better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around Rochester, NY, are listed in post #11 here.

That said, I think there is extreme value in shopping locally since you can easier return the mattress and also try it out ahead of time.

While nothing has a 100% success rate … with a local purchase for the majority of people … careful testing using the guidelines in the tutorial rather than just testing for the more subjective “comfort” of a mattress (which often won’t predict how well you will sleep on a mattress or how it will “feel” when you sleep on it at home) and some good guidance from a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer will usually result in a mattress choice that is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and will generally be “close enough” so that if any fine tuning is necessary it would be relatively minor and involve different mattress pads, sheets, mattress protectors, or perhaps even a topper if a mattress is too firm (see post #4 here and post #10 here).

Some good local testing will also give you a much better sense of the many different types of materials and components that are used in mattresses and some reference points about the types of mattresses (see this article) and general firmness levels you tend to prefer which can help you narrow down your choices regardless of whether you end up purchasing locally or online.

I value sleeping cool hence why I ended up with that latex bed the cooling technology on comfort layer.

The amount of “cooling” that the cover material would provide would be quite temporary, and you can read more about phase change materials in post #9 here. There is more about the many variables that can affect the sleeping temperature of a mattress or sleeping system in post #2 here that can help you choose the types of materials and components that are most likely to keep you in a comfortable temperature range. Latex itself is a quite breathable material.

5) do you have a favorite charity I can make a small donation on behalf of yourself for your assistance as this site is awesome if not a little overwhelming.

If you’d like to make a donation to help support the site, you may do so here.

Phoenix