Hi beanbag,
[quote]Maaaaaaybe I could still use a little more firmness near the hip area because after only one night, I still had a very slight lower back pain. I don’t really know what it is except that it seems to come from something that causes my lower back to arch. I can actually make the pain go away by bending my knees and putting my feet flat on the bed, then lifting up my hips. This causes my lower back to droop down and un-arch.
Maaaaaaybe I could still use a little more firmness near the hip area because after only one night, I still had a very slight lower back pain. I don’t really know what it is except that it seems to come from something that causes my lower back to arch. I can actually make the pain go away by bending my knees and putting my feet flat on the bed, then lifting up my hips. This causes my lower back to droop down and un-arch.
I am not sure how I can create any more firmness around the hip area without also creating more shoulder-poking firmness. Maybe I can flip the core over again and use the “firmer” side. I have a couple more ideas, and will report back if they work. [/quote]
You are experiencing the classic “dilemma” of all mattress design and theory which is how to make the mattress soft enough for your pressure points (particularly for side sleeping) and at the same time “stopping” the heavier parts of the body from sinking down too far and maintaining good alignment in all your sleeping positions. The main methods of dealing with these conflicting “needs” is with the firmness of the support layers which “stop” the heavier areas of the body from sinking in too far, the thickness and softness of the comfort layers which “allow” the more pointy parts of the body to sink in enough and fill in the gaps in the sleeping profile, and the combination of layers and materials that control the compression modulus of the mattress (how quickly the mattress becomes “firmer” with deeper compression). The challenge of this is that each person can have variations in body type, sleeping positions, and perceptions that means that what works well for one person may not work as well for someone else even if they appear to be fairly similar. In general the goal is “just enough” pressure relief in your most pressure prone positions so that there is less risk of alignment issues in your other sleeping positions.
Zoning can be a solution in more challenging situations because it allows for the use of thicker and softer layers under the shoulders (to “allow” them to sink in more) while maintaining firmness under the pelvis. The trick with zoning though is the differential between the zones and that the zoning configuration is suitable for the person because some types of zoning can be less effective and produce more “symptoms” than single firmness layers.
There is more about zoning in post #11 here that may be helpful in adding firmness/thickness under specific areas of the body (as it seems to have been for Diane37). Post #6 here about the balance between pressure relief and alignment may also be worth reading.
It can be quite surprising for some people how much difference it can make to change how much each part of the body sinks down by even fractions of an inch.
Phoenix