Hi Anh,
Hopefully this is based on some personal testing on mattresses rather than just “theory” and of course the type of materials in a mattress will have little to do with whether a specific mattress is a good “match” for you in terms of PPP because this would depend on the specific design of the mattress much more than the type of materials inside it but a combination of memory foam and latex is certainly a material combination that some people like and tend to prefer (although others will tend to have different preferences).
There is more about the different testing certifications that are used for foam materials in post #2 here. While any material can be Oeko-Tex certified it’s more commonly seen with latex while Certi-Pur is more commonly seen with memory foam and polyfoam.
Oeko-Tex and Eco-Institut and Certi-Pur all test for harmful substances and VOC’s within the limits of their testing protocols although it’s possible that a particular person that is very sensitive can still be sensitive to some materials that are certified. Anecdotally this would be more common with memory foam than with other foam materials.
There is also more information in post #2 here and the more detailed posts and information it links to about safe, natural, organic, “chemical free”, and “green” mattresses and mattress materials that can help you sort through some of the marketing information and terminology that you will encounter in the industry and can help you differentiate between them and answer “how natural is natural enough for me” or “how safe is safe enough for me” so you can make more “fact based” choices on the types of materials you are most comfortable having in your mattress. These types of issues can be complex and are generally specific to each person and their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, beliefs, and lifestyle choices.
Your assumption here is very wrong because latex is a very responsive, resilient, and point elastic material (it contours to the shape of the body and relieves pressure very well). All types and blends of latex also come in a very wide range of firmness levels from ultra plush to ultra firm.
There are hundreds of different types of memory foam that each have different properties but in very general terms they are all a temperature sensitive and slow response material. There is more about the pros and cons of memory foam in this article and there is more about the range of different properties that can vary between different types of memory foam in post #9 here and in post #8 here. There is also more about how memory foam compares to latex in post #2 here but the best way to know how they feel and compare for you will be based on your own actual testing and personal experience.
No … the type of materials in a mattress is just a personal preference. Regardless of the type of materials in a mattress … the specific design of the mattress is what will determine whether it would be a good match for any particular person in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). The only way to know for certain whether any mattress is a good “match” for you will be when you sleep on it.
There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
[quote]So I am still woven around the Brooklyn Bedding with Best-mattress-ever and the Alexander Signature of Nest Bedding. For the Kiss Matress, I couldn’t find their specific layers’ details. So far, as collected, and you’d already given out in other pages, the details:
Brooklyn Bedding BME:
10.5" total
quilted cover
2" Talalay blended latex , Soft is 19 ILD and Medium is 28 ILD
2" Dunlop synthetic latex, C2 type
6.5" convoluted polyfoam of 2lb
Woven silica fire retardant
Ccerti-Pur US
Nest Bedding Alexander Signature:
12’ total for Soft
quilted cover
2" convoluted talalay latex, not sure about ILD, still asking
2" 4lb gel foam
8" 1.8 lb foam base
12" total for Medium
2" gel foam 4lb
2" 4lb visco foam (is it like memory foam?)
8" 1.8 lb foam base
Kiss Mattress:
10" total
Talalay latex 20ILD
foam 4lb
base 2lb
So, how would 2" Talalay latex + 2" Dunlop latex compare to 2" Talalay latex + 2" 4lb gel foam? Since the Talalay latex is not natural, the manufacturing cost is not expensive. I don’t know how they feel though.[/quote]
NOTE: The Nest Bedding Alexander Select has a new design that now uses a combination of 4 or 5 lb memory foams in the top two comfort layers vs the old design that used Talalay latex in the top layer of their firm and soft option.
The simple question first … visco foam, viscoelastic foam, and memory foam are all different terms used for the same type of slow response and temperature sensitive foam. Gel memory foam is also a type of memory foam that has various types of gel added to the memory foam formulation.
I would always keep in mind that I can certainly speak to the quality and durability of different types of materials but that the first rule of mattresses is that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and your experience on any specific mattress may be very different from someone else and it’s not possible to predict how a complex combination of specs and materials will feel to you in “real life”
ILD is also only one of several specs that makes one material feel softer or firmer than another (see post #4 here) and the ILD of different materials or different types and blends of latex also aren’t directly comparable to each other so putting too much focus on ILD alone can often be more misleading than helpful.
Unless you have a great deal of knowledge and experience with different types of mattress materials and components and their specs and different layering combinations and mattress designs and how they combine together and can translate them into your own “real life” experience that can be unique to you … I would tend to avoid using complex specs to try and predict how a mattress will feel or perform for you and focus more on your own actual testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) and/or personal experience. When you try and choose a mattress based on complex combinations of specs that you may not fully understand or only based on a single spec that may not be a relevant or meaningful as you believe it is then the most common outcome is “information overload” and “paralysis by analysis”.
The specs of the Kiss Mattress are listed in post #2 here.
You can read more about the quality/durability specs that I would tend to suggest in different weight ranges in post #4 here. All of these mattresses use good quality materials and there would be no weak links in any of them for most weight ranges. For higher weight ranges (more than about the lower 200’s or so) I would tend to reduce or minimize the use of 4 lb memory foam and I would tend to look for polyfoam base layers that are in the 2 lb range or higher. Any type or blend of latex would be suitable for any weight range in a suitable firmness level.
The links I included in my last reply would be the best “guidance” I can provide about “how” to choose but once again I would always keep in mind that the first “rule” of mattresses is that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on any specific mattress or combination of materials.
The better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the Houston area (subject to the quality/value guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here.
When you are down to finalists that are all choices between “good and good” and none of them have any weak links or lower quality materials or “weak links” in their design and if there are no clear winners between them then you are in the fortunate position that any of them would likely be a suitable choice and post #2 here can help you make a final choice based on your local testing or mattresses you have slept well on, your more detailed conversations with each of them, your confidence about PPP and the suitability of each one, their prices, your preferences, the options you have after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or exchange or return the mattress or individual layers, any additional extras that are part of each purchase, and on “informed best judgement” based on all the other objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
Phoenix