Need some guidance for cheaper solution

I’ve read I don’t know how many threads/articles/posts from here to educate myself about trying to find a mattress and I have to say that this site is excellent in its exhaustive wealth of information. However I feel like I’ve hit a wall by information overload lol. Plus our budget just got destroyed that we had for a mattress so I need to figure out a cheaper solution. Currently I’m sleeping on the couch while my wife sleeps on the bed because my back hurts too much from the mattress. I’m currently training for AF pararescue and sleep is paramount with the amount of training I do, but I’m tired of having to sleep away from my wife and need help I figuring something out.

Our current mattress is a queen Serta PerfectSleeper Fairmont cushion firm eurotop we have had for 4 years now that I bought on the fly because some guy was moving and sold it for cheap. My wife says she sleeps ok, but I think my hips are sinking in a little too much which is causing the back pain. I am 5’9" 170 athletic and my wife is 5’4" 150. Would buying a topper be able to alleviate that problem or would it just make it feel softer but still have my hips sink in too far since the support layer seems to be off? I don’t know if I’d be able to get one of those cheap memory foam mattresses from Amazon because I sleep hot and so unless it is a gel memory foam in some fashion I’ll probably die lol. My thought was to get one of the clearance Queen 6" Eco Memory Foam Mattress from foamorder and getting a gel topper. It is a little over what our budget looks like, so I’m not so sure. Heeeeeeelp! :stuck_out_tongue:

Hi tidoubleger,

Just in case you haven’t read it yet … I would make sure you’ve read the tutorial post here which has all the basic information steps and guidelines that can help you make the best choices.

A topper can be a good way to soften a mattress that is too firm and is still in good condition with no soft spots but it’s not usually an effective solution for a mattress that is too soft and could make the problem worse because a firmer topper will just sink into the softer materials below it. There is more information and some ideas about mattresses that are too soft or are sagging in post #4 here.

I would tend to avoid any memory foam mattress that doesn’t meet the criteria in post #10 here because of durability issues. I would also tend to avoid buying a mattress / topper combination where you aren’t able to test the combination in person and focus on a mattress that is as close to ideal as possible by itself. Buying just a mattress that is a good match for you in terms of PPP can be difficult enough by itself and having two unknown variables to purchase (the mattress and the topper) can be more complicated than just buying a mattress by itself. It can also be more costly than buying a mattress where the same material that is in the topper is already in the mattress. If you do decide to go in this direction then I would buy the mattress first and use your actual experience on the mattress and the topper guidelines in post #8 here as a reference point for which topper may work best for you.

There are also many versions of memory foam and gel memory foams and some are warmer/cooler than others. There is more about cooling down memory foam in post #6 here. There are also many factors involved in the sleeping temperature of a mattress and it’s often a combination of factors that leads to sleeping warm. There is more about temperature regulation in post #2 here.

If you let me know which city or zip you live in I’d also be happy to let you know of any of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of that are close to you that you can test different types of mattresses in person which can be an important part of a successful purchase regardless of whether you end up buying locally or online.

Phoenix

  1. Me and my wife have done a quick sleep test on each tempurpedic but we didn’t have enough time to spend the full 15 minutes on the bed. Based off initial feel, we seemed to both enjoy the tempurpedic cloud luxe with the cloud supreme feeling pretty good as well. We will hopefully be able to get to do the alignment test in a few days(thanksgiving/black Friday) but I am a back sleeper and my wife is a side sleeper. I know that initial feel doesn’t mean as much as it can change through the night as the foam warms up from temperature sensitivity but we enjoyed those 2 models.

Hi tidoubleger,

As you mentioned … I would keep in mind that testing for the “initial feel” or “showroom feel” of a mattress can be very misleading and based on this alone your odds of making the most suitable choice would be less than random chance alone (see this study). This is especially true when you are testing memory foam mattresses which may take even longer than 15 minutes to test effectively so that they have a chance to warm up with your body temperature. I would also make sure that you are wearing loose comfortable clothing and either take or use a suitable pillow when you are testing mattresses so that as much as possible you are replicating your actual “real life” sleeping experience.

If you do test some of the Tempurpedic mattresses then there is a link in the tutorial post to a list of online memory foam retailers or manufacturers that sell good quality/value memory foam mattresses and many of them use Tempurpedic as a reference point that in combination with a more detailed conversation on the phone can help you make the most suitable choice out of the options that they offer.

Some of the better options or possibilities in the Memphis area I’m aware of are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix