Great information on the mattress underground, although I do seem to have a case of information overload
So the wife and I are going on this journey to find a new mattress and we are looking for as much advice as we can get.
Wife got our current mattress almost 4 years ago in one of those āSā stores (produced by a company in East Windsor, CT), it is already sacking in the 2 areas where we lay and by now I feel the springs on the hip and shoulder areas when trying to sleep. My wife moves around a lot when sleeping and it makes the whole mattress move and shake, meaning a lot of times I wake up from it. To make things worse I have been fighting with 3 different herniated discs over the past 9 month and on our current mattress I often wake up with backache and from time to time I feel pain in my right sciatica nerve just lying in bed trying to fall asleep.
From the information on the site/forum, without having done any testing yet (will start this following week), it seems that a good way to go is with a latex core and top. I like the idea of different his/her firmness like you can get from the SleepEZ site and I really enjoyed Sleepy1ās post SavvyRest 7" Tranquility + topper vs. SleepEZ Natural 7000 + topper and think I would like to test something similar to that setup.
My wife is 5ā 4" around 115 lbs slim build and I am 6ā and 205 lbs muscular build, any advice/experience from others would be greatly appreciated, and most definitely from people with similar back issues.
If you follow the steps in the tutorial post here you will have the highest chances of success. It has all the most important information, steps, and guidelines you will need all in one place.
The choice of materials is always a matter of preference based on your own testing. Every material has higher quality and more durable versions and lower quality and less durable versions. While latex is a great material, itās not everyoneās preference and I would keep an open mind and use your testing and personal experience to decide which type of mattress and materials you tend to prefer.
There are also no specific mattresses that are better or worse for back issues as a group and I would be very cautious about using someone elseās experience as a guideline for your own choice (see post #13 here). A mattress that works great for one personās back issues may turn out to be completely unsuitable for you to sleep on. Your own testing using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post is the most effective way to decide which mattress is the best āmatchā for you and your back issues in terms of PPP.
If you let me know your city or zip code Iād also be happy to let you know of any of the better options or possibilities Iām aware of in your general area.
We live in New York city, so any options you can offer will be appreciated. We will start testing different types at The Clean Bedroom and at DixieFoam beds, they are both close by.
I do have some experience with latex, when i still lived in Europe i had a box spring with a latex topper, much better then the current bed but not perfect or near perfect (was a Jensen bed, they donāt make the model i had anymore), but i really liked the feel of the latex in the topper. But we will go and try out different combinations of latex and springs, not sure i would go with a foam bed they just donāt seem to last.
Both of these have some good quality options and would be well worth a visit. Post #2 here includes the better options and possibilities Iām aware of in the New York area and there is also a more categorized list with more detailed descriptions of some of them in post #7 here.
If you know you like the feel of latex then it can certainly make a great choice either by itself or as part of a hybrid construction in combination with other materials and components.
I would keep in mind that latex is one of the three main types of āfoamā materials (latex foam, memory foam, and polyfoam) and each type of foam has lower quality and less durable versions and higher quality more durable versions. If a mattress uses high quality materials then it will be more durable than lower quality/density versions of the same material. There is more about the many variables that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress relative to each person in post #4 here and the posts it links to.
OK so after a lot of testing we have narrowed it down to a good quality all latex mattress.
But now we worry about firmness because the one that feels best to us and where my spine was as close to straight as can be, has a medium at the bottom, soft in the middle and soft in the comfort layer, all 3" layers + a quilted wool top surface, just seems like a very soft combination, i think what is making the diff. is that all layers where in their own thin cover (think it firms it all up a bit) and the top layer is sculpted and was cut like waves.
Any insight as to the layers in individual thin covers and the āsculptedā layer? also the mattress we like is pricier then we budgeted for, so my thinking is to try to replicate it from SleepEZ and save about a grand.
[quote]OK so after a lot of testing we have narrowed it down to a good quality all latex mattress.
But now we worry about firmness because the one that feels best to us and where my spine was as close to straight as can be, has a medium at the bottom, soft in the middle and soft in the comfort layer, all 3" layers + a quilted wool top surface, just seems like a very soft combination, i think what is making the diff. is that all layers where in their own thin cover (think it firms it all up a bit) and the top layer is sculpted and was cut like waves.
Any insight as to the layers in individual thin covers and the āsculptedā layer? also the mattress we like is pricier then we budgeted for, so my thinking is to try to replicate it from SleepEZ and save about a grand.[/quote]
The best thing I can offer Ricool is to call Shawn with SleepEZ and speak with him. As he knows his product the best and can discuss the details with you the best. I know he helped out my wife and I with regards to our purchase.
When you are testing a mattress locally (and assuming your testing is careful and objective using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post) then the ācomfort specsā such as ILD or ātheoryā are not important and your own personal testing is the most reliable way to know whether a mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). In terms of quality/durability there would be no weak links in the mattress.
You can read a little more about covered layers in post #2 here.
You can also read a little more about convoluted layers (which would also apply to other types of surface modification such as āsculptedā layers) in post #2 here. It would have a softer āfeelā and response than a solid layer of the same ILD that isnāt convoluted.
It can be difficult to āmatchā one mattress to another (see post #9 here) unless you know all the accurate specs of all the materials and components in the mattress you are trying to match (including the type of latex, the ILD, the thickness of all the layers, any special features such as the convoluting, and the specifics of the cover and quilting) and exactly the same materials and components are available from another manufacturer or supplier. Sometimes smaller differences in design or differences in ILD (which arenāt normally exact ā¦ especially with Dunlop) can make a surprising difference for some people ā¦ especially if they are more sensitive and are more on the āprincess and the peaā than the āI can sleep on anythingā end of the scale. I would also keep in mind that more generic firmness descriptions (such as soft, medium, and firm) are not standardized and can vary between manufacturers.
Having said that ā¦ if you know the type, thickness, and ILD of all the layers and you are looking at a mattress with a similar cover (which can also make a difference) then as CentralPA suggested ā¦ a more detailed conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced manufacturer such as SleepEz can help you decide which of the options they carry would have the best chance of approximating the mattress you are considering and in their case you would also have the option of rearranging or exchanging layers to do some further āfine tuningā after a purchase if your actual sleeping experience indicated it was necessary.
Well at one point i did not want to ask more questions, had a feeling that if i asked more they would suspect that we where just testing and that they properly wouldent make a sale, but this is the one we found the best fit for us Duo and again with a medium bottom, soft center and soft sculpted top layer.
Again this mattress is more expensive the we have budgeted for.
The Duo uses organic Dunlop latex layers (which as you can see here would have the same āfeelā and performance as 100% natural Dunlop of the same type and firmness level or density but didnāt have an organic certification) so you can use that as a reference point in your conversation with SleepEz (or any of the other online manufacturers that are members here that supply similar component latex mattresses online at a significantly lower cost).
If the organic certification of the materials is important to you then some of them also sell GOLS certified organic Dunlop latex and organic cotton and wool covers so the only real difference would be any differences in design and that their factory doesnāt have an organic certification.
We ended up getting the SleepEZ 10.000, with a firm as the bottom layer, a medium as the middle layer and a soft as the top layer.
First off, due to my back issues you canāt really go by me, but I do sleep better, and most of my body sinks in just enough, not too soft or hard. There is only one thing I would try out if I had to do it over again and that is taking the top third part bottom layer and replace with a medium and the two third still in the hard, sometimes I feel that I donāt āsinkā in enough just where my shoulders are.
My wife however loves it, she is almost sleeping too much now ļ, and there are definitely some added bonus for me too, snoring runs in her family and that is less pronounced now, I donāt feel it when she turns over which I did before (I am a light sleeper), the bed is cooler to sleep in.
We did look at another bed with the same configuration at a shop, and the cover was nicer but guessing there was not much difference in the quality of the latex. So that mattress was listed with a MSRP of around $5500 on the manufactures website, in the store we got a price of around $3500, and the SleepEZ we ended up buying was around $2200 with foundation. Now as I said the cover on the other mattress was nicer but not $1300+ nicer.
Thanks for all the excellent information here at the mattress underground.
Thanks for the update ā¦ and as you probably know I think you made a great choice.
Congratulations on your new mattress.
While SleepEZ doesnāt have custom zoning available ā¦ there are some more adventurous souls that have experimented with cutting their layers into zones (an electric carving knife works well to cut latex) and purchasing softer sections and replacing the top part of a layer with a softer section (you could either replace the top third of the medium with soft or for a more subtle effect you could replace the top third of your bottom firm layer with a medium). There is more about zoning in post #11 here but I would only consider this if it was clear that it would help and there were no other options available.
