About a year ago, we purchased a king size latex mattress from SleepEZ. We chose the Select Sleep 7000 with two 3" layers of medium natural Dunlop. This has turned out to feel much too firm for my husband and me, but throw in a new baby and we missed the window to exchange a layer and are now trying to decide if we should purchase a soft layer to replace one of the existing layers or a soft latex topper or a topper of some other natural material. I’d love help in deciding which option is most likely to soften our mattress adequately. I would like to stick with all natural materials and avoid synthetics.
We are both side sleepers and both feel uncomfortable on our bed. I feel like I don’t sink in at all and my husband wakes with a sore lower back. I’m short and thin (5’2", 97 pounds) and my husband is tall and thin with a narrow frame (6’2", 162 pounds).
My concern is that even the softest Dunlop layer from SleepEZ will still feel too hard. Do other companies have a softer range of Dunlop? Or would talalay be the way to go here? I’ve read in other posts that a separate topper is more likely to feel softer, so perhaps instead of replacing a layer of Dunlop, we should buy a soft talalay topper, or even a thick layer of wool?
If we decide to replace a layer of the mattress, I will probably purchase the softest twin latex mattress (2 layers) and swap out a layer of ours for these (2 twins=1 king), this way I can create a medium hardness twin for use down the road with our child. So our current Dunlop won’t necessarily go to waste!
Thanks so much for any suggestions! It took me a while to convince my husband to switch to latex and so far he’s pretty convinced I was wrong
I would give SleepEZ a call because even though you are outside your exchange period they may have some suggestions that can help. I think there would be many people who sleep on their side that would find two medium Dunlop layers to be too firm for them although each person can be very different from others.
Dunlop does come in a wide range of firmness levels but Talalay is more widely available in the softest ILD’s than Dunlop. Dunlop also has a higher compression modulus than Talalay which means that it gets firmer faster than Talalay as you compress it more deeply so Talalay will often feel softer than Dunlop to most people even in the same ILD. There is more about the differences between Dunlop and Talalay in post #7 here but the best way to know which one you prefer is your own testing or personal experience. Thicker mattresses will also tend to feel softer than thicker mattresses as well because they have a wider range of compression from softer to firmer.
Other materials will also have a different “feel” so the type of material that you choose for a topper will also be a personal preference. Wool tends to feel a little firmer than the softest foam toppers and will become a little firmer yet as the wool compresses over time but it’s also a great material to sleep on for those who prefer it over foam.
Post #3 here and the topper guidelines it links to includes more information about choosing a topper that can help you use your sleeping experience to decide on the type, thickness, and firmness level that would have the best chance of success and it also links to the better sources for toppers that I’m aware of.
You really have the choice between adding a topper or replacing one of your layers with a softer layer. Both ways will end up with a softer mattress but they will also be different from each other. Adding a topper would give you more flexibility in choosing the thickness of the topper in addition to the type and firmness level. If you do decide to buy a mattress with S/S (two twin XL makes a king not two twins) and add the layers on top of your mattress then you would need a topper cover for the layers. If you use the layers to replace one of your layers then it would be inside the cover you have of course. I would keep in mind that adding an additional layer will feel different than replacing a layer because the additional thickness will also make a difference. In other words … M/S will feel different from M/M/S (which would generally feel softer). If you add the additional layers to your mattress and then remove two medium layers to make a mattress for your child then the feel and performance of your mattress would also change even though the top layer would be the same. You can read more about the effect of thickness in post #14 here.
