Like many here I have been frustrated with mattresses that fail to deliver a good night’s sleep. In my experience, mattresses quickly get “lumpy”, develop body depressions, etc., that lead to back pain. After much research, I decided to purchase a Sleep EZ 10000. Consultation with the company confirmed my presumed starting point of S/M/F for my wife and M/M/F for myself. Sleep EZ was easy to deal with and I was impressed with the quality of their product.
During the first ten minutes of resting on the new mattress I thought I was in heaven. Then I tried to sleep on my side. WOW. Within minutes my shoulder and arm had gone numb. I guess I no longer prefer firmer mattresses. The next day I requested an S layer to swap with the top M layer. To make a long story short, it took two weeks for the S layer to arrive.
In the meantime I added a few layers of pads/blankets to create my own version of a plush top. Although I succeeded in greatly reducing the shoulder/arm numbness, my hips began to hurt. Clearly M was too firm for me. When the S layer arrived it was indeed much softer. Nevertheless, when I attempted to sleep on my side my shoulder/arm again went numb. It almost seems like S is too soft and my arms get trapped in uncomfortable positions. For example, if I extend my arm the elbow is noticeably higher than the shoulder creating pressure that results in numbness. Am I in a No Man’s Land between too soft and too firm?
Now I am very confused. I have read about others who had shoulder numbness, but the problem seemed to have been solved by going softer. I have tried memory foam in the past and really didn’t like it. I’ve added a mattress pad and tried some new pillows, but saw no real improvements. I’m not sure what to do next.
I suppose the good news is that I have not had any back pain whatsoever since receiving the latex mattress.
Has anyone had this experience? If so, what did you do to solve it? All feedback greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Mike
Me: 6’1"/200 lbs/Side sleeper (mostly) who used to like firm mattresses
Wife: 5’4"/120 lbs/Side sleeper who loves soft mattresses
There is a little more information in post #2 here that may be helpful if a new mattress you purchase is too firm for you (although I would always wait at least two weeks before making any layer changes unless it’s impossible to do so).
There is also more information in post #2 here that talks about the various symptoms that people may experience on a mattress and some of the reasons that can cause them that can help with the detective work or trial and error that may be necessary to identify the types of changes that may be helpful.
The best source of guidance though will be more detailed conversations on the phone with SleepEZ.
I would be very cautious about adding things like pads and blankets on top of the mattress because while it may help a little with surface softness … it can also interfere with the ability of the latex to contour to the body which can make it feel firmer as well so you can end up with a somewhat confusing situation where you have a softer sleeping surface but a firmer mattress and less pressure relief overall once you sink in past the layers you have added.
The most effective approach if you are “outside the averages” and need to do some fine tuning to your mattress is to take a “one step at a time” and more incremental approach that only makes single changes at a time (rather than multiple changes) and then make sure that you sleep on each new combination for at least a few days to help confirm that your experience and how it changes is more of a “pattern” than an “anomaly” so you can use your experience with each change and what you learned from the results of each change (the specifics of how it was different from the last combination) to help you decide on the next change that has the best chance of moving you in the direction you want to go based on your “symptoms”.
If the only issue you are having is shoulder numbness and you have no alignment issues then either changing your pillow, sleeping more directly on the latex so there are less materials over it that can affect how it contours, going a little softer in the upper layers, or adding a topper would all be ways that have led to success for many people in a similar situation.
Thanks for the great comments. You nailed it when you noted that blankets/pads might make the mattress feel softer initially, but create an overall firmer layer because of the wider weight distribution. In addition, I get your point about waiting for a period of time after making a change. The latex is such a different feel that part of this process is just getting used to the characteristic support of the latex. Accordingly, I will strive to make small changes and see how that works. This week is a new pillow and modified sleeping positions (to the extent that I can).
As for a topper, if I later decide to try for a softer comfort layer by adding one, how thick should it be and what ILD should I consider? It seems that I now have a 3" comfort layer with the S layer and Sleep EZ does not have, to my knowledge, an option that is softer or thinner than this. Six inches of S seems like it might be excessive. Also, to which of your preferred vendors would you refer someone seeking a topper?
I will certainly contact Sleep EZ to discuss my experience and ask for their recommendations. As mentioned above, they seem to be a pretty good company with a good product. My back pain was gone overnight. Unfortunately, it was replaced with a different issue.
Once you have tried some of the other suggestions in the first post I linked, if you decide to add a topper then post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to have some suggestions that can help you use your sleeping experience as a guideline to help you choose the thickness and firmness of a topper that has the best chance of success. It also includes a link to the better online sources for toppers that I’m aware of.
I thought I would reply to your post because my husband and I had the same issue with our SleepEZ latex bed. I experimented with memory foam toppers (was not happy with what I could find on the market right now- too thick, too soft, lose the support of the latex) and we finally ended up adding 2" of soft dunlop to the top (added 1" at a time and ended up needing 2). We went with this one Pure Green Natural Latex Mattress Topper | SleepOnLatex.com - excellent quality and service, I can’t say enough good about them.
We went with dunlop because we realized the jiggliness of our talalay top layer was aggravating our trigger points. We found the dunlop to be much more restful to sleep on.
YMMV but I just thought I’d share it since we went through the same experience.
We do have our mattress on a solid foundation because I couldn’t tolerate the sagginess of slats, so that most likely makes ours a little firmer than it would be otherwise.
However, I am back here doing more research because after a year of sleeping on latex I am having some tentative second thoughts but that is another subject for another day!
HTH
ps I thought I would add, we got the bamboo topper cover but have mixed feelings about it, the bottom side of it is stiff and tight and does change the feel of the mattress beneath it. So I am not using it.