I resized the pictures (images from a cell phone are generally too large to post on the forum and need to be reduced to a maximum of 800 x 800 pixels) and attached them to your previous post.
The first two pictures donāt show any damage or any broken stitches that I would have any concern with but the second two pictures do show that the welting is misaligned. This is only a cosmetic issue and it certainly wonāt affect the feel, performance, or durability of the mattress but since you havenāt let them know about this I would send them these pictures and then call them to see what they say about resolving your issues.
Phoenix, thanks so much for posting the photos, & resizing them. I am definitely going to the Nest Bedding store so I can discuss the misaligned welting & perhaps see if another Alexander product meets my needs better. The main issue is still not finding the hybrid supportive enough, the cosmetic issue is just annoying.
So I made it to the Nest Bedding store in NYC. Prior to this I had exchanged several emails with Joe Alexander about my situation, the misaligned welting, the softness. I checked out the Love mattress & the Alexander Signature but did not find them meeting my needs. The weird thing is that the Alexander hybrid in the store was still the most comfortable & supportive. It was placed on a platform much lower to the ground, than the one I currently sleep on. It also did not have a mattress pad on it, something I also use. Daniel from the store suggested removing the pad & using a mattress cover instead. At this point, Iām just so perplexed by the whole thing, how could the same mattress present such as different experiences. Could the foam in my mattress have had a different consistency than the one in the store, though the store rep thought this unlikely.
Was there really that different of a feel between the regular and hybrid? I am still struggling with mine, I honestly just wish it was a bit less soft. Also I am coming from a foam mattress so I might be more used to that feel.
I will say one thing that has really turned me off is I posted a mostly positive 4 star review of the hybrid to the Nest site a week ago and it still isnāt on the site. It almost looks like they are withholding the review since I didnāt give it 5 stars. My comments were basically around it having good edge support and being very soft. I didnāt say it was bad, just that people should be aware itās a soft mattress. Hopefully this is just in error but it definitely raises a bit of a red flag especially as I decide what to do with my 30 day period coming to a close very soon.
There was definitely a difference between the two. The signature just did not have the edge support of the hybrid. It was firmer but just wasnāt as comfortable. I tried the Love soft & even that also seemed firmer than my hybrid at home. As I previously stated the store hybrid felt perfectly fine, great support & no sagging. Also from an aesthetic point of view, the hybrid is just a better looking mattress. I am throughly confused by my vastly different experience. Iām going to try it for the full 30 days & see how it is without the mattress pad, then I will make a final decision, though the misaligned welting still needs to be addressed, the store model had perfect seams. Rather surprised that they didnāt post your review, I would write to customer support & ask for an explanation.
If your mattress feels different from the one in the store then outside of any differences in the materials and components themselves which would be a manufacturing error and would be unlikely ā¦there are several possible reasons that could account for the difference in your experience between the showroom and sleeping on the mattress in your bedroom.
The mattress in the store may have been broken in more than your mattress. There will be a break in and adjustment period for any new mattress or sleeping system as the mattress loses any of itās āfalse firmnessā and the cover stretches and loosens a little and the materials settle and your body gets used to a sleeping surface that is different from what it is used to (see post #3 here). This would typically be a few weeks but it can be shorter or longer depending on the specifics of the person and the mattress (higher density materials can take longer) and it can be surprising to many people how much their sleeping experience can change over the course of the first month or so and I would tend to sleep on a new mattress for a minimum of 30 days or so if possible before deciding on whether the mattress will be suitable for your needs and preferences in terms of PPP over the longer term.
The support systems underneath the mattresses could be different. The most suitable support system for a foam mattress should have a firm, flat, and evenly supportive support surface underneath it that has minimal to no flex under the mattress and for larger sizes with at least one center support beam that has good support to the floor to prevent any sagging in the middle of the mattress. It should provide similar support to having your mattress on the floor. If the support system under your mattress has more or less flex than the support system under the mattress in the store or it allows your mattress to sag into any gaps in the support surface then this can change the feel and performance of your mattress.
Temperature and humidity can both affect the feel and firmness of memory foam so itās possible that any significant temperature differences between your bedroom and the showroom could have some effect on the firmness of your mattress.
The mattress pad or mattress protector, or even the sheets you are using can also have a significant effect on the feel and performance of your mattress and as Daniel mentioned this could be the most likely reason for the difference. A thicker mattress pad or to a lesser degree your mattress protector or your sheets can affect the ability of the top foam layers to contour to the shape of your body which can affect the feel, firmness, pressure relief, and secondary support (the type of support that āfills inā the gaps in your sleeping profile) of your mattress and it can also reduce the amount of body heat that reaches the memory foam which can firm up the memory foam underneath it or at least slow down the rate that it gets softer as you sleep on it.
The pillow you are using at home could be different from the pillow that you used when you tested the mattress and this can also make a difference in how a mattress feels as well (particularly in the upper body).
Outside of any differences in the mattress or āsleeping systemā itself ā¦ there are other variables that could account for the difference as well.
Human memory for softness, firmness, and āfeelā is very short term, subjective, and relative to more recent experience and is often unreliable. A mattress that feels different to what someone āremembersā a mattress feels like may end up being more similar than they remember (or vice versa) if they were to compare them side by side in āreal timeā. Most people have had the experience of testing mattresses say in the morning and then testing mattresses somewhere else and then going back to test the first mattresses again later in the day and finding they feel different from what they remember because their frame of reference has changed with the other mattresses they have tested.
It could also be related to āhowā you tested the mattress in the store. With a local purchase and for the majority of people ā¦ careful testing using the testing guidelines in the tutorial rather than just testing for the more subjective ācomfortā or āshowroom feelā of a mattress and some good guidance from a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer will usually result in a mattress choice that is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and will generally be āclose enoughā so that if any fine tuning is necessary it would be relatively minor and involve different mattress pads, sheets, mattress protectors, or perhaps even a topper if a mattress is too firm.
Careful and more objective testing is different from the more limited or more āsubjectiveā testing that most people do when they choose a mattress based on āshowroom feelā which generally isnāt a reliable way to predict how well you will sleep on a mattress or how it will āfeelā when you sleep on it at home and can have a lower chance of success than random chance alone ā¦ see this study.
Many people donāt spend enough time on a mattress in all their sleeping positions to really be able to predict what it will feel like or how they will actually sleep on it once they have fully relaxed (like they would be when they are going to sleep at night) which can lead to an impression that a mattress that you purchase is different from the one you tested in the store or result in a sleeping experience that is different from your experience in the store. There is more about more āsubjectiveā testing vs more careful and āobjectiveā testing that has a much better chance of predicting how you will sleep on a mattress in post #4 here and post #10 here).
Having said all that ā¦ there are certainly some people who are exceptions and are much closer to the āprincess and the peaā end of the sensitivity scale than they are to the āI can sleep on anythingā end of the scale and because of this or because they may have a more challenging physiology or health conditions that can make choosing a suitable mattress more difficult or because of a history of choosing a mattress that isnāt the best match for them they may not be as confident that even careful testing will be able to predict whether they will sleep well on a mattress. In this case then the options you have after a purchase would become a more important part of your personal value equation and purchase decision so if a mattress you choose doesnāt turn out as well as you hoped for you have the ability to make changes to your mattress either by changing individual layers or exchanging the mattress or even having the option to return the mattress for a refund after a purchase.
Iām not sure why you are using a mattress pad but it may be an idea to replace it with a thinner and more flexible mattress protector that has the least possible effect on the foam layers in your mattress.
There is more about the pros and cons of different types of mattress protectors and some examples of each of them in post #89 here.
Hi Phoenix, I have always used a mattress pad on all my mattresses, I always thought it was necessary to protect the mattress. As for my platform bed, it is considerably higher than the store bed. Mine is a storage bed with drawers resting in the base & a solid piece of wood resting on that base. I am eventually going to replace it, but I thought to make the mattress purchase firstā¦ I will remove the pad & replace it with some kind of protector. Thanks again for your insight & I will update you on any differences I find with these changes.
A mattress protector is important to protect your mattress from stains and the body fluids, skin cells, and oils that we release each night, to protect against spills and accidents, and to keep your sleeping surface in a clean and hygienic condition. It will also protect your warranty because most mattress warranties are usually voided with any type of stain on a mattress. They can be easily removed for washing and are usually designed to have the least possible effect on the feel and performance of the mattress itself.
A mattress pad is generally thicker than most mattress protectors and can have a more significant effect on the feel and performance of a mattress. While there is some overlap between them ā¦ there is more about mattress protectors and mattress pads and mattress toppers (which are thicker yet) in post #10 here.
It sounds like your base would be similar to using your mattress on the floor so itās unlikely that it would be the cause of any issues you may have with a foam mattress.
The height of a platform bed or support system is just a preference choice and will make no difference to how a mattress feels.
Zexpress, are you still sleeping on the Nest Hybrid? I read through your posts and it looks like youāre having similar experiences to me. Iām also a side sleeper. I tried the BB BME in soft and it did not work. Iām trying a Bear now and I think it is too firm. Iāve been sleeping on the Bear for almost 30 days and my shoulder pain is getting worse every night. I think that means that the mattress is too firm. I;m considering the Alexander Signature Select in medium. Iāve also looked at the Luxi website and that looks interesting. Iām frustrated.
I am still sleeping on it. I am pretty much right at my 30 day point now. I donāt love the hyrbrid but I donāt hate it either. It doesnāt sleep as hot as it did when I first got it so many I adjusted although it still doesnāt sleep as cool as many other mattresses I have slept on. I think at least for me the main problem isnāt even that itās too soft as much as the top quilted layer with the deep indents are driving me nuts. Itās such a terrible design decision. Also Nest still wonāt post my mostly positive 4 star review on their site so that is also factoring into my decision to likely return.
I was going to consider the Bear next. Is your only major complaint the firmness or are there other issues too? I really do love the edge support of the hybrid which was something sorely lacking in the BBME, how does the Bear compare?
I think the Bear is a well constructed mattress and the customer support at Bear is very good. They are very responsive to questions. The edges look rounded like other foam mattresses that I am familiar with. The edge support is fine as far as I can tell. The mattress does not sleep hot in my opinion. My first few nights on the Bear were fine, but for the last week Iāve been waking up every night with shoulder pain and upper back pain. This pain has gotten gradually worse over the last 3 weeks. After trying a few mattresses and reading the Mattress Tutorial on this site a few times, Iām thinking that the shoulder pain is a pressure point issue and is caused by the mattress being too firm. I tried 2 mattresses that were too soft and caused my arms to fall asleep and go numb in addition to lower back pain. It seems there is a fine line between too soft and too firm for side sleepers perhaps?
The mattress that worked best for me was my old TempurCloud Supreme. We moved that to the guest room when my husband and I moved and upgraded to a King Split bed with Twin XL mattressesā¦ My husband is using a Dreamfoam Ultimate Dreams Gel 13" mattress and really likes it. I returned mine because it was too soft and caused my arms to fall asleep and go numb repeatedly throughout the night. So I am on my third mattress now and not happy. The Bear worked best for me of the 3. I still really want to love it, but Iām not loving the shoulder pain!.
When I ordered the Bear I also considered the Leesa. I went with the Bear because it was advertised to be good for athletes and I am a tennis player and active person.
Zexpress, what made you pick the Alexander Hybrid over the Alexander Signature? Iām about ready to pull the trigger on an Alexander Signature Select medium.
I did as was suggested at the Nest Bedding store & removed my mattress pad & replaced it with a Luna mattress protector, which I found suggested in the forums here. I believe this has made somewhat of a difference with the softness issue, though I still find some neck & shoulder issues upon awakening. However, in fairness to Nest, this could be a pillow issue as I recently switched to a memory foam issue. However, Iām still on the fence regarding the hybrid & still bothered by the welting issue which although cosmetic bothers me.
Abbygrant, from my visit to the store, the signature as well as their Love mattress were definitely firmer than the hybrid, though I did find the hybrid the most comfortable out of the three. The edge support on the hybrid still seems the best. I see you too tried the BBB ME like zexpress, do you think if you had ordered a medium firmness, your experience would have been better? Iām considering that as an alternative to the hybrid.
[quote=āLoiroiā post=61327]I did as was suggested at the Nest Bedding store & removed my mattress pad & replaced it with a Luna mattress protector, which I found suggested in the forums here. I believe this has made somewhat of a difference with the softness issue, though I still find some neck & shoulder issues upon awakening. However, in fairness to Nest, this could be a pillow issue as I recently switched to a memory foam issue. However, Iām still on the fence regarding the hybrid & still bothered by the welting issue which although cosmetic bothers me.
Abbygrant, from my visit to the store, the signature as well as their Love mattress were definitely firmer than the hybrid, though I did find the hybrid the most comfortable out of the three. The edge support on the hybrid still seems the best. I see you too tried the BBB ME like zexpress, do you think if you had ordered a medium firmness, your experience would have been better? Iām considering that as an alternative to the hybrid.[/quote]
I ordered the BBBME soft. I did an online chat with their customer support and explained that I wanted something similar to my TempurCloud. They suggested the soft would be most similar, but in reality it was much softer. I tried it for over 30 days and woke up repeatedly with my arms asleep and numb. I thought that firmness caused this, but now I realize that this was too soft. In hindsight and after reviewing info on this website I decided that the BBBME medium may have worked for me, But I donāt want to try one since I used my trial for the soft. This is just my experience, so others could be different.
Thanks for your insight, Abbygrant. I had initially called BBME & they had suggested a medium based on my sleep preference, as a side sleeper who sleeps close to the edge. But because there seemed to be edge support complaints, I went with the hybrid instead. I still feel thatās the best thing about the hybrid, but still wondering if something else would suit me better.
Zexpress, How doe the Alexander Hybrid compare to the BBBME soft, other than better edge support? I read some more reviews of the Alexander Signature and Alexander Hybrid and Iām finding a lot of very positive comments on the Hybrid.
This topic is starting to drift off topic but I thought Iād make a few comments about some of your more recent posts.
While itās not possible to ādiagnoseā mattress comfort issues on a forum with any certainty because there are too many unique unknowns, variables, and complexities involved that can affect how each person sleeps on a mattress in terms of ācomfortā and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or any āsymptomsā they experience ā¦ there is more about the most common symptoms that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress and the most likely (although not the only) reasons for them in post #2 here that may be helpful.
Itās certainly possible that your shoulder issues could be related to your pillow as well and there are some specific comments in the post I linked about shoulder issues.
There may be a fine line for some people that are closer to the āprincess and the peaā than the āI can sleep on anythingā end of the range but for others there may be a much wider range of mattresses and firmness ranges that would work well for them. Each person is different.
I would also keep in mind that there are no āstandardā definitions or consensus of opinions for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like āmediumā for someone else or even āsoftā for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they ārateā a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can also have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.
While other peopleās comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful ā¦ I would also keep in mind that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and I would be cautious about about using other peopleās experiences or reviews on a mattress (either positive or negative) or review sites in general as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you and in many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful. A mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (even if they are in a similar weight range). In other words ā¦ reviews in general wonāt tell you much if anything about the suitability, quality, durability, or āvalueā of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here).
Latex and memory foam are very different materials with very different properties. There is more about the differences between them in post #2 here but comparing the firmness or āfeelā of a latex mattress to a memory foam mattress can be something like trying to decide which type of apple is closest to an orange because they will all be different from each other. Again ā¦ different people can also have very different opinions about how two mattresses compare because firmness/softness is always relative to the person and there are different ātypesā of softness that different people may be sensitive to.
If the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme worked well for you then it would probably make sense to look at mattresses that were similar to the Cloud Supreme rather than looking at other types of mattresses with different combinations of foam materials. The Alexander Select medium would be one of several online mattresses that are described as being similar to the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme that would be well worth considering.
There is no such thing as a mattress that is āgood for athletesā ā¦ only a mattress that is good for a specific person (regardless of whether they are an athlete or not). Celiant does have some testing that indicates that it can help with rest and recovery but the specifics of a cover are much less important than whether a mattress āas a wholeā is a good āmatchā for you in terms of ācomfortā, firmness, and PPP and I would put a much greater emphasis on the other materials in a mattress than I would on the cover.
The edge support in your BME was probably related more to the firmness level you chose (soft) than to the mattress itself.
Most foam mattresses donāt have or even really need side support if they have a support core that is firm enough and the comfort layers arenāt too thick and/or soft for the person sleeping on it. Having said that ā¦ there are exceptions to every rule and there is more information about edge support and foam mattresses in post #3 here and in post #33 here. With a foam mattress that is a suitable firmness level relative to the person sleeping on it (both in the support core and the comfort layers) then it normally wouldnāt be a significant issue for most people unless you often sleep or sit with most of your weight concentrated on the very outside edge of the mattress although the outside edges of a foam mattress would generally be softer than an innerspring mattress that has a specific edge support system.
The only way to know for certain whether the edges of a foam mattress will be suitable for your specific body type and sleeping style or your preferences will be based on testing the mattress in person (or a mattress that is fairly similar) before a purchase or by actually sleeping on it (if you canāt test it in person before a purchase) and of course if you are uncertain whether you are one of the few that may āneedā or prefer firmer edge support then a good return/exchange policy may be a more important part of your personal value equation just in case the edges arenāt firm enough for you (regardless of whether they are firm enough for anyone else).
The hybrid has much better support than the soft BBME which makes sense. They have very different feels though and would have a hard time comparing them since the latex vs memory foam make it a hard comparison. I will say the hybrid doesnāt feel anything like a traditional memory foam mattress so if you liked the feel of a tempurpedic youāre not going to get that with the hybrid. You might want to consider the NovosBed. It is another memory foam mattress and they have different comfort levels including the ability to soften or firm the mattress after you receive it to make it more comfortable.
Hi
I am interested in your post you wrote that you were waking up w arms falling asleep . That has been happening to me almost every night since I got my Satvaa luxury firm mattress ! Crazy ! Has happened like 2x in my life and now every night for past 2 weeks ! The Satvaa guy online told me usually happens from too firm , but you said & I agree I think too soft. Mine is not too firm and pillow top makes it soft as well. How did You find it its happens due to a too soft mattress ? Iāve been hunting all over Internet for a cause before I return a little afraid to get their firm one but may have to try ! Any help would be so appreciated!
Thank you