Phoenix,
Yes, indeed! You guessed one of the big problems we’ve had in mattress shopping perfectly, and the very reason I won’t try out any mattresses unless my husband is with me! The problem of my rolling in towards him, is one we’ve run into frequently and is a big problem for me on our current bed… The other problem I’ve had is that on the vast majority of mattresses we’ve tried, I end up “saucer” shaped when I lay on my side (feet and head high, with a low point at my waist- I am distinctly hourglass shaped, so when on my side it is hard to keep my hips from tipping towards my shoulders (creating a dip in my spine at my waist and aches in my ribs), and my husband has had a lot of trouble finding a mattress that allows his shoulders to sink in far enough. On top of that, I am primarily a side and stomach sleeper, he is primarily a side and back sleeper. It certainly has been difficult to find a mattress that accommodates all those variables!
After having read all the rave things about latex on this site, I wanted to go that route, but there are few latex mattresses available in my Omaha area to try out and they are spread across the Omaha/Lincoln area… So for the benefit of other forum users who may be in this area, as well as for people who might sleep like we do of being all snuggled together, I am going to give details on what I’ve found on the talalay mattress front, and some other components, more than is really relevant in regards to this conversation in the questions I have for you. :lol: .
Midwest Bedding in Omaha has one all talalay mattress, but my husband and I both found it uncomfortably firm- it is a 7" flippable mattress made out of 38 ILD talalay (6" + 1/2" quilting each side). The company owner said he could build it with layers of 18 ILD talalay on top, and he laid 1" sheets of 18ILD talalay on top of the mattress so we could experiment with it. The 18 ILD was cloud soft, but 1 & 2 inches of it still had us hitting the hard under-layer, but at 3 inches of topper I was uncomfortably out of alignment, with my hip tilting.
Lebeda in Omaha also has an all talalay mattress, 6" of 32ILD with 1" of ticking on each side, but it was definitely still too hard for us. Lebeda has a few other mattresses that have some talalay in them- the Quanta L is a flippable mattress made of Bolsa coils with a perimeter edge of smaller coils, topped with 1" of 24ILD talalay on each side. We have found we love pocket coils for the lack of motion transfer, but unfortunately they don’t seem to give me good alignment on most of the beds I’ve been on that has them. I usually am sagging at the hip on them, unless the coils are heavier duty and zoned. The 24 ILD talalay felt nice though. Lebeda also has one called the Heritage Pillowtop that has a 2" layer of 24ILD talalay, 2" of 19 ILD 1.55 lb soy foam (weak link?), and an 805 coil unit of 14.5 gauge. This was one of our favorites for posture and pressure point, but I found it uncomfortable when laying close together with my husband, lots of roll-in, and it had too much motion transfer across the bed. Not tons, but definitely more motion than all foam or pocket spring mattresses have. Drat that continuous coil seems to be in most beds of the smaller manufacturers around here!
Denver Mattress Co in Lincoln, has the Aspen Plush that has 3"of 24 ILD talalay in it, along with 2.5" of supersoft quilting foam, and an inch of 2 lb HR foam on top of “orthopedic” zoned 15.5 gauge pocket coils, which we both found cloudlike, but which had me dipping at my waist. They also have the iChoice HeveaPUR which is quilted with 2" 24ILD talalay, 1" EF foam, has a 3" 14ILD talalay topper, and a support system of 4" 32ILD talalay and 3" 1.8lb HR foam. This was a very cloud soft mattress, but too much so for us- even my husband was visibly saucer-shaped and had side-strain when on his side on this one, which I don’t think he mentioned on any other of the many beds we’ve tried. In addition Denver Mattress’s website shows that they carry 3 all talalay mattresses (HeveaPUR 8, 9, & 10.5 inches) that are stacked in different ILD layers, but the outlet in Lincoln didn’t yet have them, although he expected to get them in soon…
Taking what I’ve learned from those mattresses, I know that 38 and 32 ILD talalay is too hard for us, 18 ILD is too soft, and 24 ILD might be too soft, but it is hard to say for certain since it was always on beds in combination with other soft foams. There don’t seem to be any latex beds in the area where we could try out what layering of different talalay ILD’s would feel like, other than the 38/18 one at Midwest Bedding, and Denver Mattress’s too soft iChoice.
We know from our mattress testing that in order of preference we like the “no motion transfer” and lack of rolling in towards each other on foam beds, followed by pocket springs-particularly ones that are a bit stiffer and zoned firmer under the hips. All other spring types we’ve tried are no-go’s for shakyness and for how they roll me in towards my husband. Another thing I’ve learned, but haven’t been able to recognize in specs yet, maybe you can tell me, is how to recognize which memory foams are the slowly sinking down kind (I greatly dislike this), whereas other beds that also have memory foam in them, like the Warren Firm (that I do like), don’t do that slowly sinking thing. When I’m looking at beds online, how can I recognize from specs/mattress descriptions which kind of memory foam it has, if it is the sinking or non-sinking kind? Is there a way to tell?
Regarding latex, we really like the elastic feel of talalay on the beds we’ve tried (I don’t know about Dunlop as there are no mattresses locally that use it), but so far we haven’t found a latex bed that works for us. Do you think this is due to the limitations of what latex beds are available locally for us to try out, or is it possible that talalay just doesn’t work for us? I’m not really thrilled with the idea of buying a mattress from Nebraska Furniture Mart (where the Warren Firm is) due to their return/exchange limitations (there is no other mattress there that I’d want if it didn’t work out). But with the difficulties we’ve had getting good alignment on both of us, I also wonder if buying sight unseen from one of the online companies listed here on the mattress underground would be likely to be successful for us. Although at this point 'I am starting to have a good idea of things that work for us and things that don’t. Thoughts? The other mattress that is high on our list besides the Warren Firm is the Denver Mattress Co’s Doctor’s Choice Elite Firm, which has 1.5" of quilting foam, 1" of 4 lb Gel/Visco, 1" of 2 lb HD foam, and a “orthopedic” zoned 14.5 gauge pocket coil. My husband liked it too, but wasn’t sure it was soft enough for his shoulders.
As per your comment up top in your first comment about Omaha Bedding Co. being transparent about their mattresses, I’m not sure I would go that far- I felt like I was pulling teeth to get the spec information from the guy at the company. He told me multiple times that “He could guarantee that I am going about looking for a mattress all wrong, that I didn’t need to know the specs, that I should just go lie on mattresses and find one I like, and buy that one.” I had to be really insistent, to get the specs… However, I do appreciate that I was able to get them, since I do like the mattress and I wasn’t willing to consider the mattress seriously until I had that info… Although, afterwards I realized he didn’t give me the ILD for either the talalay or the memory foam, but since the talalay is only a 1/2 inch layer, and I do have at least the density of the memory foam, I didn’t want to call him back and press for the ILD’s since he was already really testy the first time I called!