Hi ShopperGirl,
I’m sorry to hear that the Savvy Rest mattress you chose didn’t work out as well as you hoped for and wasn’t a good “match” for you in terms of PPP (although they certainly use high quality materials).
While it’s not possible to “diagnose” mattress comfort issues on a forum with any certainty because there are too many unique unknowns, variables, and complexities involved that can affect how each person sleeps on a mattress in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or any “symptoms” they experience … there is more about the most common symptoms that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress and the most likely (although not the only) reasons for them in post #2 here.
There is also more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
These posts are the “tools” that can help with the analysis, detective work, or trial and error that may be necessary to help you learn your body’s language and “translate” what your body is trying to tell you so you can identify the types of changes that have the best chance of reducing or eliminating any “symptoms” you are experiencing (at least to the degree that any symptoms are from your mattress rather than the result of any pre-existing issues you may have that aren’t connected to a mattress).
Before you give up completely … it may also be helpful if you could provide more information that compares and contrasts the specifics of how each layering combination you have tried compared to each other and the specific “symptoms” you experienced on each of them and even more importantly how (and how much) each of your specific symptoms changed with different combinations relative to the other combinations you tried previously. Information about the changes in your experience and symptoms can act as a pointer to the type or “direction” of changes that may be most helpful.
The first step in identifying the types of changes that may be most helpful is to assess whether the symptoms you are experiencing are most likely to come from “comfort” and pressure point issues or are coming from support and alignment issues.
If they are coming from comfort and pressure point issues then changes to the upper layers of the mattress will often be the most effective solution.
If they are coming from support and alignment issues then changes to the deeper layers will often be the most effective solution.
The most common cause of lower back pain is either upper layers that are too thick/soft or deeper layers that are too soft although it’s also possible that there could be other reasons for lower back pain as well.
The firmness of a Talalay latex layer will be very close to the same on both sides even if the pincores are different. Their suggestion is also a good one because flipping and rotating a mattress (or an individual top layer) can help extend the useful life of the mattress or layer (see post #2 here).
You can see some comments about hotel mattresses in post #3 here. Many hotels will use a mattress pad on top of their mattress which can change the feel and performance of the mattress compared to using the mattress by itself.
There is more about the 3 most important parts of “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price or course and the options you have available after a purchase).
Outside of “comfort” and PPP the most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is durability which is all about how long you will sleep well on a mattress. This is the part of your research that you can’t “feel” and assessing the durability and useful life of a mattress always depends on knowing the type and quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label (or how a mattress feels in a showroom or when it is relatively new) so I would always make sure that you can find out the information listed here so you can compare the materials and components to the quality/durability guidelines here to confirm that there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress that would be a cause for concern relative to the durability and useful life of a mattress before making any purchase.
In other words the suitability of a mattress is a separate issue than the durability and useful life of a mattress.
Outside of the topic you are posting in … you can read some comments about Essentia and some of the misleading claims they make and some forum discussions with them (as well as some of the FTC issues they have had about their claims) in this thread and posts #3 and #4 here) as well. I certainly wouldn’t treat the information on their website as a reliable source of “fact based” information. I would also make some very careful “value” comparisons before purchasing any Essentia mattress because they tend to be in a much higher budget range than other mattresses that use similar quality materials as well.
There is more information in post #9 here about the different ways that one mattress can “match” or “approximate” another one. Every layer and component in a mattress (including the cover) will affect the feel and performance of every other layer and component and the mattress “as a whole” so unless you are able to find another mattress that uses exactly the same type of materials, components, cover, layer thicknesses, layer firmnesses, and overall design (which would be very unlikely) then there really isn’t a way to match one mattress to another one in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) based on the specifications of the mattress.
Mattress manufacturers generally try to differentiate their mattress from the mattresses made by other manufacturers and don’t normally try to “match” another mattress that is made by a different manufacturer so while you may find some local mattresses that use “similar” materials or designs and there would be others that are in a similar general category or firmness range … they will generally have different combinations of foam layers and components.
Unless a manufacturer specifically says in their description of a mattress that one of their mattresses in the same general category is specifically designed to “match” or “approximate” another one in terms of firmness or “feel” (or they are very familiar with both mattresses and can provide reliable guidance about how they compare based on the “averages” of a larger group of people) … the only reliable way to know for certain how two mattresses would compare for you in terms of how they “feel” or in terms of firmness or PPP would be based on your own careful testing or actual sleeping experience on both of them.
There are also no “standard” definitions or consensus of opinions for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can also have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.
There is also more information about the different levels of organic certifications in post #2 here and some of the benefits of an organic certification in post #3 here and there is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here that can help you decide which type of certification is most important to you.
In most cases Oeko-Tex is a certification that is used for latex and it would be much less common to see an Oeko-Tex certification for memory foam or polyfoam and CertiPUR is the most common “safety” certification that is used for memory foam or polyfoam. The better online sources I’m aware of for individual mattress layers and components are listed in the component list here. I would also keep in mind that polyfoam is a different and more resilient material than the material that is used in the top layers of the Essentia mattress which is a slow response material with little resilience.
If you are attracted to the idea of designing and building your own DIY mattress out of separate components and a separate cover then the first place I would start is by reading option 3 in post #15 here and the posts it links to (and option #1 and #2 as well) so that you have more realistic expectations and that you are comfortable with the learning curve, uncertainty, trial and error, or in some cases the higher costs that may be involved in the DIY process. While it can certainly be a rewarding project … the best approach to a DIY mattress is a “spirit of adventure” where what you learn and the satisfaction that comes from the process itself is more important than any cost savings you may realize (which may or may not happen).
If you decide to take on the challenge then I would either use the specs (if they are available) of a mattress that you have tested and confirmed is a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) as a reference point or blueprint and try and “match” every layer and component in your reference mattress (including any springs, any foam layers, and the cover) as closely as possible or use a “bottom up” approach (see post #2 here).
Phoenix