My girlfriend and I have been sleeping on a Sarah Peyton cool comforts memory foam mattress with a 3 inch memory foam topper from Bed Bath & Beyond because there wasn’t enough support in the mattress. I decided it was time for us to get a new mattress and Novosbed had great prices. We looked at the comparable mattresses for each of the models and decided to try out the Tempur-Cloud Supreme and Sealy Optimum Inspiration. We felt that the Cloud Supreme was too firm for our tastes and preferred the Optimum Inspiration, though we thoroughly enjoyed the Cloud Luxe that the sales associate had us try as well. Because Novosbed directly compares the Novosbed Harmony to the Optimum Inspiration and lists it as its softest mattress, we decided to purchase it.
A week later (and a week ago), the mattress arrived. I would definitely describe it closer to the medium firmness of the Cloud Supreme than the soft Optimum Inspiration. We have slept on it for a week and have decided that if it does not soften up significantly, we will return it after the 60 day trial minimum period elapses. We have been having lower back soreness after waking up, and I am guessing it is because we do not sink far enough in to get proper support for our backs (We are both 5’7" and weigh 130 pounds). It is a very well made bed, but I feel that the marketing material that lists it as a 2/10 on the soft to firm scale is fairly misleading, as I would probably put it at a 5 or 6 (medium firm) at this point. I can’t see the break-in period allowing it to soften so much that it would be comparable to the Optimum Inspiration, but we will see.
If we do return it, we expect to purchase a SelectFoam Cirrus Luxe to replace it, as we enjoyed sleeping on the Cloud Luxe very much. In the mean time, I may put the mattress topper back on it, at least until it breaks in a little bit more.
The Sealy Optimum Inspiration is right in the middle of the Optimum line in terms of its firmness rating which would make it more in the “medium” range for most people (although in some places it’s rated as firm) but of course softness and firmness are also very subjective and each person can have a very different experience on the same mattress and there is no real consistency between firmness ratings between different stores or manufacturers, especially with memory foam. It will never be as soft as a Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe though which would be on the softer end of the range.
It will also be interesting to see how your experience changes over the next few weeks as the mattress breaks in and you adjust to the feel of a new sleeping surface. There are also some suggestions in post #2 here that may be helpful with any new memory foam mattress.
I’m looking forward to any additional feedback you have the chance to share over the next few weeks.
Hmm, maybe you are confusing the Inspiration for another product? The Sealy comparison page lists the comfort level of the Inspiration as “Plush,” the only one softer I think is “Pillow top” http://compare.sealy.com/
I also tried the Inspiration in a store and it definitely had quite a bit of give, not quite as much as the Cloud Luxe but an amount that my girlfriend and I deemed “acceptable.” In any case, the firmness of the Harmony is definitely higher than that of the Inspiration we laid on in the store. I’ll definitely give an update as to how we’re liking it, maybe once we’ve had it for a month or two, and let everyone know if it softens up and if we decide to keep it.
I was going by the ratings of several retailers I looked at who carry it and rate it’s firmness such as here which rates it as a 5 out of 10 and here and here which rate it as a medium and here it’s rated as a medium plush (4) and here it’s rated as a medium firm. Overall it seemed to me that most retailers are rating it in a medium range.
Of course each retailer or person may have a different opinion of the firmness of a mattress but a new mattress will feel somewhat firmer at first than a mattress in a showroom that is broken in and with memory foam the other factors I linked in my last reply can also affect the firmness of the mattress as well.
So we tried throwing our 3" memory foam topper that we had from our last bed on the Harmony, and it became very, very soft. Too soft, I think. I had expected the topper to keep the body heat from reaching the memory foam of the Harmony, but instead it trapped the heat and actually made the Harmony softer than normal. I felt underneath the topper an hour after we had gotten out of bed and the Harmony was warm to the touch. Additionally, it made me realize why I was not getting good sleep on the topper: The topper sleeps way hotter than the Harmony. I’m going to try taking the topper off and seeing if the trapped heat has helped soften and break in the mattress.
As your experience indicates … some memory foams will sleep warmer than others and this can also affect the softness and feel of any memory foam layers below them.
The ongoing compression of the materials in the mattress are the most important part of breaking it in much more than the heat. If you have a topper over a mattress it will actually slow down the break in period because it will take up more of the compression forces of sleeping on the mattress and the materials underneath it will compress less.
