Personal history:
For decades I was able to sleep on anything and get great sleep and have tons of energy. The last 5-10 years not so much. I tend to have aching joints, muscle and nerve pain from decades of hard labor. I’ve also developed sleep apnea and can only sleep on my side now. I was diagnosed a couple times with fibromyalgia but I don’t believe it since that pain goes away when I can sleep for 10-12 hours, it’s likely just exhaustion from sleep deprivation. I’ve come to realize my old worn out mattress needs to go since I wake in a lot of pain and exhausted after tossing and turning all night long. The whole side I sleep on tends to go numb by morning especially my whole arm and shoulder. Wake 8-12 times every night going from side to side.
50 year old single male. 5’11" 185lbs and sometimes less in the summer months. If I start sleeping better this will certainly go down when I become more active again. 170-175lbs was very common for a large part of my life. No spine or back problems, just occasionally when I’m super run down. My nose is very sensitive and I buy everything scent free now. My memory foam topper smelled terrible for a year or two. I’m hoping to avoid that this time and decided to try natural latex.
Current bed:
Current set up is a platform bed with plywood, Serta coil spring mattress which appears to have a couple inches of foam on top which is flat now(mattress firmness no idea), 3" memory foam topper and 2" of quilted pillow top. Interestingly the memory foam seems as good as the day I bought it, likely over a decade ago. It was the best most expensive stuff I could find at the time. It’s likely that I’m sinking through the top layers and feeling the pressure of a firmer mattress. Obviously I need to completely start over.
DIY bed:
Do it yourself projects are in my genetics so when I spent days and weeks online researching mattresses I came across all the diy stuff. I learned a ton and eventually found this forum which has been very helpful. Most of what I’ve read online is generalized and doesn’t really help a person work out the details. I’m hoping I can ask some questions here to narrow things down a bit. At least get pointed in the right direction to get started with.
I’m looking at doing a simple build using 100% natural organic latex toppers. They will be easy to swap and move around for cleaning. Three layers at 3" each seems to work well for a lot of people of my height and weight. I’m mostly stuck on deciding what densities to get. Everything I’ve read says to go with a medium soft mattress for my size, sleeping position and condition.
The place I plan to buy from recommended their soft, medium, firm combo which I believe is Dunlop. I had been thinking soft, medium, medium combo since I seen that worked well for someone else that was slightly bigger at 6’1" 200lbs.
Here’s the plan so far:
Plywood platform bed
mattress rug or pad for airflow under the mattress
base layer of medium(26ild 4.7lb) or firm(34ild 5.3lb)
mid layer of medium(26ild 4.7lb)
top layer of soft(20ild 4lb)
zippered mattress cover, possibly padded, sometime in the future after testing mattress
I would very much appreciate any insights on choosing latex densities. There really doesn’t seem to be any source online that will help you fine tune before you buy. Most places seem to lump everyone into side, back or stomach sleepers which doesn’t help much at all.