5" 35ILD 2.6lb polyfoam
4" 5.3LB memory foam (i think 14 ILD, I could ask if needed)
At first the bed was nice and firm but after 2 weeks i’m waking up with EXTREME lower back pain. I think my hips/pelvis are sinking in too far and causing my back to become misaligned or its just stretching the muscles down there… not quite sure.
Option 1:
Exchange the polyfoam layer for 45ILD instead of the 35ILD that I have now. How much is the difference between 35 and 45? Is that too hard to explain through text? I am a large man so I will need good support, however my wife is petite. She prefers a more firm bed, but has actually fallen in love w/ the current one.
Option 2:
Buy a firm innerspring mattress and put the 4" foam on top of that.
Unrelated question:
How come memory foam these days is so responsive? I’ve tried 5 different manufacturers and can no longer find the foam that feels very firm at first and then lets you sink in… almost like clay.
This would certainly be a significant change in the firmness of your support core and it would definitely have an efffect in how quickly your pelvis was “stopped” from sinking in too far. There are many variations of foam and memory foam though so in general the retailer or manufacturer can (or should) be able to tell you much more about how this chance has affected other customers that were in a similar weight range and circumstances to you. Depending on how much you “sink through” the memory foam (and this would depend on the particulars of the memory foam) … you may notice some pressure points if you can feel the firmness of the support layer too much but this can generally be “fixed” with a topper which will isolate you more from the firmness of the support layer.
Your wife may or may not be affected by this as much because being lighter she may not sink through the comfort layer as easily and may already be isolated from the firmness of the support layer enough although it may change the “feel” for her.
There are too many variations of springs and polyfoam (thousands of each) and this is too big a change in design to have any way of predicting this. This is such a big change that you would be completely reliant on the knowledge, experience, and insights of the retailer or manufacturer with the specific combination you are considering with other customers that are similar to you.
In general it’s because there were many complaints about memory foam sleeping hot and being too motion restricting. New formulations were marketed as being “better” and “sleeping cooler” and consumers bought them. More and more manufacturers started jumping in on the trend towards cooler, more open celled, and less motion restriction memory foam and this trend is continuing with the gel memory foams. The Tempurpedic higher density memory foams are still slower responding along with a few others (I was taking with a retailer today who was telling me that some of the memory foam made by Zedbed in Canada was similar to theTempurpedic slow response) but they are becoming more and more difficult to find.
Marketing stories feeding consumer demands and expectations which in turn feeds the next round of marketing stories which need to be “better and more” of the same thing.