New topper or mattress decision

[phoenix]

Hi Sara Smile,

Phoenix, thanks for answering my question and for helping me out with the registration problem. It seems to be fixed for now.

You’re welcome … even though it seems it was something that I caused

Basically, you recommend continued shopping for a new mattress, rather than trying to find a topper that might help out for the meantime. We’re in the Northern Virginia/Washington DC area, so we can stop by Savvy Rest and American Foam Company to try out more mattresses. I had hoped that mattress shopping would be quick and easy, but it’s going to be a bit more involved than that, it seems.

Unfortunately you are right. Mattresses can be one of the most important purchases we can make and will have a big impact on our overall wellbeing for the next decade or more (as your husbands couch sleeping confirms). If you know the better retailers or manufacturers in your area that are more knowledgeable and transparent … it’s a lot simpler but the DC area doesn’t have the same amount of good value choices as many other areas in the country which certainly make things more difficult. In areas like this … I would consider good online choices (such as the members listed in post #21 here) as one of your options and use them as a reference point for value (I usually consider a local purchase of a similar mattress that is about 20% or so more as being roughly equivalent value because of the lower risk involved in actually testing a mattress before you buy it).

The first step though is to get a good sense of the types of materials and combinations that you prefer and you are already on your way to doing that.

I’m uncomfortable with the idea of memory foam, although everyone I know who has a memory foam mattress loves theirs and my husband and I both liked the memory foam the best. So I’d like to try more latex mattresses to see how we like them.

This is a very good idea and it may be that latex is just not the material for you. If you do go in the direction of memory foam … then it becomes particularly important that the foam is good quality and that it is either American made or CertiPur certified so you have some assurance that the foams used are “safe” at least to the standards of the testing. I would also be very cautious about using memory foam if a baby or toddler will be sleeping on it.

Another possibility would be an innerspring mattress with a latex comfort layer, although I don’t know where to try those out (and they may still have lots of chemicals). Other than the big dents where we sleep on our current innerspring mattress, it still seems nice to me. So I’m not ruling out innerspring mattresses entirely.

There are actually quite a few options for this in the Washington list in post #2 here

I believe (not certain) that Winndom makes a mattress like this as well as RoomandBoard, Ikea, Savvy Rest, and possibly others on the list (I know Natura for example makes several innerspring hybrids as well). I would phone each of them and ask if they make or sell either all latex mattresses or innerspring/latex hybrids. The more preliminary work you do on the phone … the more effective your testing trips will be.

In the end though … no matter what the advantages of certain materials … I would always choose the materials that best match your own personal needs and preferences no matter what others may prefer because each of us is unique and different. “Wanting to like” something can be very different from actually liking it (and I have found myself in the same position many times).

We’re out of town this week for the holidays–actually I left this weekend and my husband is meeting us midweek. He slept on my side of the bed last night (the side with a smaller dent), and he said his back feels fine. So we could just switch sides, but then I’d get the side with the very deep dent.

We’ll keep looking and we’ll try to find something that works for our backs, our pocketbook, and the environment.

I’m looking forward to your ongoing feedback and of course if you have questions along the way feel free to post them here.

Phoenix