New Alexander Hybrid Mattress from Nest Bedding

[phoenix]

Hi abbygrant,

This topic is starting to drift off topic but I thought I’d make a few comments about some of your more recent posts.

I’ve 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. I’ve also looked at the Luxi website and that looks interesting. I’m frustrated.

My first few nights on the Bear were fine, but for the last week I’ve 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, I’m 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?

While it’s not possible to “diagnose” 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 “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or any “symptoms” they experience … 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.

It’s 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 “princess and the pea” than the “I can sleep on anything” 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 “standard” 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 “medium” for someone else or even “soft” 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 “rate” 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 people’s comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful … 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 people’s 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 … reviews in general won’t tell you much if anything about the suitability, quality, durability, or “value” of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here).

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.

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 mattresses

Zexpress, what made you pick the Alexander Hybrid over the Alexander Signature? I’m about ready to pull the trigger on an Alexander Signature Select medium.

Zexpress, How doe the Alexander Hybrid compare to the BBBME soft, other than better edge support?

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 “feel” 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 … 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 “types” 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.

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.

There is no such thing as a mattress that is “good for athletes” … 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 “as a whole” is a good “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP and I would put a much greater emphasis on the other materials in a mattress than I would on the cover.

Phoenix