Hey everyone! So, I have a latex mattress with memory foam as comfort. Right now from bottom to top I have:
3" firm dunlop/ 3" medium dunlop/ 1.5" memory foam/ 2" soft talalay/ 1.5" memory foam
I am 5’5" and 165 lbs
When I sleep partially sitting up (propped up on pillows) so it is just my butt and legs mostly on the bed I wake up with less pain. When I sleep fully down with my back on the bed I have awful hip/lower back and sometime upper back pain. Why on earth would one cause me much worse pain over the other? I am attempting to figure out what I need to be able to sleep on my bed without unmanageable pain and I feel like some key is here that I am missing. The memory foam is immensely comfortable to me as a comfort layer. Is it a soft dunlop I need or more talalay? I almost wonder if the talalay is the issue butttt then I read that soft dunlop may be too hard. I definitely know this bed is too hard for me. Anyhow, that little bit of info of sleeping positions feel important. Any insight?
The most common cause of lower back pain is an alignment issue from a mattress that either has a support core that is too soft or comfort layers (or toppers) that are too thick/soft for your body type or sleeping positions but a mattress that is too firm and doesn’t provide good support under the recessed parts of your body (such as the small of your back) can also lead to lower back pain.
In the case of the upper body then good horizontal alignment is important but lateral (side to side) alignment is also important. For example if you bend your head and neck forward towards your stomach and bend the upper body forward into a forward hunched position then it can bend the upper spine and create tension and pain in the mid and upper back. This can happen during the night if your pillow is too high for example and pushes your head forward when you sleep on your back. It can also happen if the upper layers are too thick and soft.
It sounds like you have 5" of material in your comfort layer. At your weight and height, 5" is quite a lot - 1" to 4" is generally enough to suffice depending on the sleeping position. 1" for stomach sleeping, 2" for back sleeping, 3" - 4" for side/combo sleeping.
You’ve mentioned feeling the bed is too hard. I might suggest removing the 3" firm dunlop to start and see if that makes a difference. I’d also recommend playing with the layers you have (maybe removing the 1.5" under the talalay, or removing the talalay) to see how this changes your sleeping experience.