Hi atticia67,
[quote]I purchased a latex mattress from a local retailer that sells natural and organic mattresses. Based on my research, I asked for an all 100% dunlop soft, medium, firm configuration. I weigh 145 and I’m almost 5’5". Since I had been sleeping on a traditional coil spring mattress with a pillow top, the retalier thought I might like two soft layers and firm on the bottom. Made sense to me, but the first couple of nights on the soft, soft, firm configuration weren’t very comfortable, so I flipped the mattress to firm, soft, soft. Surprisingly, my back didn’t hurt on that configuration which led me to believe that maybe the mattress was too soft having two soft layers.
Because having the firm layer on top was just a little too hard (plus it was flipped so the top of the mattress with the quilting was at the bottom), I opened it up and put the firm layer in the MIDDLE and flipped it back right side up. So for the last four nights I’ve been sleeping with soft, firm, soft.
I would compare this level of comfort to my old mattress that had a pillow top but was starting to lose it’s plushness and I was sleeping down on the box of coils portion. So, it was better than having it too soft or too hard and I’m getting better sleep than last weekend, but I’m still having a sore back when I get out of bed and still feeling not well rested.[/quote]
While it’s not possible to “diagnose” mattress comfort issues on a forum with any certainty because they can be very complex and 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.
There is also 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”.
These posts are the “tools” that can help with the analysis, detective work, or trial and error that may be necessary to help you learn your body’s language and “translate” what your body is trying to tell you so you can identify the types of changes that have the best chance of reducing or eliminating any “symptoms” you are experiencing … at least to the degree that any symptoms are from your mattress rather than the result of any other circumstances or pre-existing issues you may have that may not be connected to a mattress.
Having said that … some of the issues you have been having certainly aren’t surprising because a mattress with two soft layers would tend to be somewhat risky for most people because it would have a higher chance of being too soft overall to provide good spinal alignment over the course of the night. It’s also not surprising that a firm layer on top would be too firm for you to sleep on (it would likely be too firm for most people).
While there is no way for me to know for certain because you are the only one that can feel what you feel on any combination of layers and only your own personal experience can confirm whether any layering combination works well for you … if I was in your shoes the first combination I probably would have tried (and the one I would try now) would be (from top to bottom) soft medium firm because it will give you a softer sleeping surface and provide firmer transition and base layers to provide better support/alignment than the S/S/F.
I would also make sure you sleep on any new configuration for a few days at least (or preferably longer) so that you have a chance to identify any clear patterns in your sleeping experience because your experience for just a single night or two or even just a few nights can be an anomaly or the result of your body adjusting to the change itself.
Hopefully you have access to a medium layer and assuming that you do I’m looking forward to finding out how it works out for you.
If for some reason it still doesn’t work out as well as you hope for there are other layering combinations that may be worth trying as well depending on your experience on the S/M/F but it would be better to cross that bridge when and if it becomes necessary.
Phoenix