I purchased a new latex mattress from a recommended company right here in the LA area after my wife and made several trips to try out the beds. I did find it difficult to choose between firmness even after spending a lot of time on each of the beds. We settled on what they said was a medium firmness which translates to a 3" layer of 22 ild talalay latex with a 6" 45 ild Dunlop. ( I thought originally it was 31-32 ild but learned after it was a 45). After a week or so on the mattress my back, neck and shoulders were killing me and had pressure points at the hips and shoulder blades.
The manufacture has been great to work with and since we lived close by they came out and changed the 6" Dunlop to a 39-40 ild. After 2 weeks on that combination things simply got worse. The last option is to again exchange the Dunlop layer to a softer 31-32 ild. So I’m a bit frustrated as to what combination will work the best. We we originally tried the beds my wife loved the softer one so she is hoping that will work for me.
I’m an elite cyclist at the masters level so I’m skinny for my size at 6’3 and 165lbs, long legs, arms, wide shoulders. My wife is petite at 5’4 and 100lbs. So it has been challenging to find the right fit.
So how to best dial in the right fiirness is my question. I know it becomes a matter of PPP but so far things have gone from bad to worse. Any insight would be of great help.
This has nothing to do with your question but I did a fair bit of long distance cycle touring in my younger years and custom built my own bike (long distance touring geometry built to my specs with reinforced reynolds 5-3-1 tubing with all custom components and half step gear ratios) so I’m a big fan of cycling in all its forms
This would depend on whether you are experiencing pressure issues or alignment issues and the underlying cause of your discomfort and pain. In general any fine tuning will be about either changing the firmness of the support layers or changing the thickness, firmness, or “feel” of the comfort layers. There are some suggestions in post #2 here if the main issue is that you have pressure points from a comfort layer that is too thin or firm in combination with the specific support layers of your mattress. If this is the case then either adding more thickness and softness in the form of a topper or using a softer support layer can both create a softer and more pressure relieving sleeping surface. The only contra indication to this is that you mentioned that things because worse when you changed to a softer core so I’m not sure why this is or if it indicates that your main issue is alignment and the softer core is allowing the heavier parts of your body to sink in too far.
There is more about some of the more common symptoms that people may experience and potential solutions in post #2 here (and some of your issues could also be related to peripherals such as your pillow or mattress protector) but if you just need more pressure relief under your pressure points then changing to a softer core would add to the softness of your mattress and create a deeper more pressure relieving cradle.
Unfortunately I can’t “feel” what you feel or see you on the mattress and a forum can’t cover the type of detailed and interactive and more “nuanced” information as a more detailed conversation with you on the mattress so in general it’s usually more effective to work directly with a knowledgeable manufacturer who can work with you in person and will have much better suggestions about the options they have available and which one has the best odds of success than any “theory at a distance” I could provide outside of more generic suggestions.
My “best” suggestion if it’s possible would be to test a design that you are considering in the showroom for as long as possible (even by taking a nap) and simulating your sleeping conditions as closely as possible and see if your experience gives you any indication or clues about how suitable the design you are considering would be compared to what you have now. Your own personal testing and experience would be the most “accurate” way of knowing how well any design “matches” your body type and sleeping style and whether it would be an improvement over what you are sleeping on now outside of actually sleeping on it over the course of the night.
