I am 5’2" female and weigh 110 pounds. I like to sleep on my back and side. I am a pretty curvy person, and I will trying for my second child soon and will need to sleep on my side for the two last trimesters.
Because I am light (at least for now), the comfort layer needs to be soft, and because I am curvy, I need good lumber (when sleeping on my back) and waist support (when sleeping on my side). I was looking into durability topics and found out that it depends on the person’s comfort range and the material of the bed. So, seeing that the bed already needs to be pretty soft to be in my comfort level… it may easily reach the level of becoming too soft and not be enough to support on my curvy figure.
Should I buy the bed mainly for the support and a topper for comfort? I could change out the topper when it becomes more too soft for comfort and still be able to keep the bed for support. Or does it not matter? Would I just be able to put a topper on any bed after it becomes too soft?
(New member here… haven’t quite fiqured out where to buy my mattress. I live in Houston, TX. I am still also figuring out if I should buy online or local.)
Durability (related by density in memory foam and poly foam) and comfort aren’t necessarily directly related, as you can have a high density foam that is soft (this is expressed as the ILD, which is a term you may have run across). Even though you are of a lower BMI, I would still recommend using the same durability guidelines for people under a 30 BMI.
The choice of materials to use in the comfort layers (natural fibers, poly foam, memory foam, latex, microcoils) is a personal preference, but whatever you choose you would want to make sure that it was a durable, quality material, in order to give you your best chance at success for a long-lasting mattress.
You are correct that you’ll want to pursue something that allows for conformation, especially when you are on your side (as you stated you are curvy), but also provides enough deep down support for adequate alignment. There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
You should look for both support promoting a more neutral alignment, as well as comfort, within a mattress. I don’t recommend choosing a mattress with a topper at the same time, as you’re introducing an extra variable which can make it more difficult to fine tune and choose a mattress which is most appropriate for you. You can read my thoughts about buying a mattress/topper combination that you can’t test in person in post #2 here. As you can see it’s not something I would generally suggest either in terms of risk or quality/value unless there were no better options available to you.
Achieving softness and good support within the same mattress is possible. Softness comes primarily from the upper layers of the mattress and how well they re-distribute weight away from any pressure points. If you read post #6 here it describes someone floating in the air in good alignment and gradually being lowered onto a mattress. At first only the more “pointy parts” of the body will contact the mattress and all the weight is concentrated there. As you gradually sink in deeper more of the body surface begins to take up weight and relieve pressure on the parts that were initially in contact with the mattress. Eventually enough of the body surface is bearing weight that there are no perceptible pressure points. This is why the depth of the pressure relieving cradle and the materials that are used in the top layers are so important.
There are some people who are attracted to using a topper with a mattress for the flexibility you described, effectively having two mattresses in one. But unless you can test such a system in person, I do caution, for reasons linked to above, against this as an initial configuration.
Toppers are usually used to increase the plushness of a product, and if a mattress has become “too soft” from the upper comfort layers wearing out, or form a loss of support, using a topper in a situation like this would not address the underlying issue. The best use of a topper is with a mattress where the comfort layers of the mattress are too thin or too firm but are still flat and even and don’t have significant dips or soft spots that have developed over time. While it’s fairly simple to add some surface softness and pressure relief to a mattress that is too firm but otherwise still in good condition, it’s not really effective to use a topper to change the primary support for a mattress (which comes from the deeper layers not the upper layers) or to “fix” a mattress where the comfort layers have developed dips or soft spots because the topper will just tend to sink into or “follow” the dips or soft spots and could cause other issues such as alignment problems and back issues as well because you could end up with top layers that in combination with what is already in your mattress don’t allow you to sink in evenly or are too far away from the support layers or components of the mattress. Trying to make a mattress firmer or “more supportive” with a topper is not particularly effective and will usually have either partial or temporary success or in the worst case cause more issues than it solves.
I’m not sure what you’ve read since you found the site but just in case you haven’t read it yet … the first place to start your research is the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice … and perhaps more importantly know how and why to avoid the worst ones.
Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase if your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for).
Outside of PPP (which is the most important part of “value”), the next most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is durability which is all about how long you will sleep well on a mattress. This is the part of your research that you can’t see or “feel” and assessing the durability and useful life of a mattress depends on knowing the specifics of its construction and the type and quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label or how a mattress feels in a showroom or when it is relatively new so I would always make sure that you find out the information listed here so you can compare the quality of the materials and components to the durability guidelines here to make sure there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress that would be a cause for concern relative to the durability and useful life of a mattress before making any purchase.
Subject to first confirming that any retailer or manufacturer on the list that you wish to visit is completely transparent (see this article ) and to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines here … the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Houston area are listed in post #2 here .
Let me know if you have other questions after you read through the tutorial, or if you need help with any specifications on products that you test out locally.