Need help making latex mattress comfortable

[phoenix]

Hi Goldilox,

The mattress we purchased is the Pure Latex Bliss Nature with a 3" PLB topper. After a week, I was having so much pain in my lower back that we purchased a 2" PLB topper, thinking the 3" was too soft. There was a slight improvement, but even with the 2" topper, I wake up with pain in both my lower back and upper back. My thought is that the comfort layer is too soft and the support layer isn’t firm enough.

Post #2 here and the posts it links to has more information about the most common reasons for different types of symptoms on a mattress that can help with the “detective work” that may be necessary to identify the reason for your back pain and decide on the best course of action that can “fix” them but from your description it sounds like your topper may be too soft for you in combination with the upper layers of your mattress.

Maybe what I need is a transition layer between the soft topper and the mattress? Or possibly something to reduce the amount of “give” the topper has? Here are some possible solutions I came up with and wanted to get your opinion:

Option 1: Add a transition layer between the topper and the mattress. Either Dunlop latex, polyfoam, or maybe even memory foam?

A transition layer is the layer in between the softer comfort layers and the firmer support layers in a mattress and your mattress already has a transition layer (the middle 28 ILD layer) under the 2" comfort layer (the 21 ILD top layer). Adding a firmer topper or multiple toppers on top of softer layers on a mattress that already has comfort and transition layers can lead to some very unpredictable results and could make things worse. I don’t think that adding multiple toppers would have the best chance of success for you although if your own trial and error and sleeping experience indicated that it worked for you then real life experience always “trumps” theory but it could be a costly and fairly “high risk” experiment IMO.

Option 2: Purchase a SnugFleece wool mattress pad (or topper) to “firm up” the soft latex topper, so I won’t sink down into it as much.

I don’t think that this would have particularly high odds of success either. It may give you a firmer “feel” and reduce pressure relief (which may create a new issue) but it sounds like your issue is more related to primary or secondary support and this combination probably wouldn’t help much with support because the wool topper will still sink down into the soft topper and mattress layers underneath it.

Option 3: Try to replicate a bed I slept on at a relative’s house that I found extremely comfortable. It was a Scandinavian Sleep Systems Valhalla. I found the specs for my current mattress and have an idea of the specs for the Valhalla, and was wondering if I could create something similar, starting with what I’ve already got.

Scandinavian Sleep Systems Valhalla:
You can see a picture of it here: www.sleepcentertoday.com/scandinavian-sleep-system.htm

Based on the picture, it looks like:
2" Strataflex foam (“super soft high resiliency foam”)
1" Strataflex foam
2" Memory foam
6" High density foam core

This wouldn’t be possible in any practical terms because you don’t have enough information about the materials in the Valhalla in the first place and even if you did have all the information about each layer, the materials and design of these two mattresses are much too different to use one as a reference point to approximate the other one.

If I had to guess I would say that the top two layers in your mattress in combination with your topper are already too thick/soft for you and if I was in your shoes I would try sleeping on just the mattress with no topper and then I would use the information in post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to as a reference point for choosing the thickness and firmness for a topper that may work better on your mattress. Depending on your experience and the amount of extra softness and pressure relief you need on your mattress by itself then a 2" topper that was a little firmer may be a better choice and you may even need a topper that was thinner yet.

Phoenix