Me: Short (5’5") and Overweight (230 lb, and actively losing) 36 year old male. Side sleeper but sometimes sleeps on stomach. Cannot sleep on my back. Have an old lower back injury that hasn’t flared in many years and has been having shoulder pain with the old mattress being a factor. Lives in northern California (Sacramento). Flexible budget, my sleep is super important to me.
Current Mattress: 2009 Sealy posturepedic signature euro top (“Terra Blanca”). I bought this in 2009 and have been really happy with it, but it’s been slowly degrading. It’s at the point where I really need a new mattress. I can’t find any information about the firmness on either of the tags and no longer have the original receipt.
What I don’t like: Beautyrest signature select “Ashaway Plush”. My girlfriend has had this mattress for about 2 years. It sleeps extremely hot and I am often forced to stomach sleep as it hurts my shoulders. My 12 year old beat up Sealy sleeps more comfortably than this bed.
What I’ve evaluated: I’ve been to 4 mattress stores and done some online research. Right now I am looking at 4 main mattresses, although I would take other recommendations.
Sealy Hybrid Performance Copper II Plush: Evaluated it because I liked my current Sealy, very comfortable but leaning away from this due to the memory foam. Feels like it may degrade quickly. 1 year sleep trial.
Kingsdown Beckingham Plush* (*I think): Recommended to me by a salesperson, quite nice but concerned that I would also need to buy a pillow top for comfort. 1 year sleep trial.
Berkeley Ergonomics Interactive Mattress (Firm) + Postureflo mattress topper: Recommended to me by a salesperson. Nice and comfortable, it felt very well made. No sleep trial.
Naturepedic EOS pillowtop (plush coil, medium comfort, plush topper): This felt amazing in store, but is the highest price point. 90 day sleep trial.
How important are sleep trials? The Berkeley ergonomic bed seems nice and is a reasonable price, but I’m concerned about the complete lack of a sleep trial. The naturepedic seems great, but as its the highest price point, I would not be happy if I’m stuck with an extremely expensive mattress that I hate. Do you think there is anything particularly good or bad about these mattresses for my weight/sleep-style/known likes/dislikes?
Welcome to The Mattress Underground ! Thanks for your question.
Congrats on your new mattress shopping journey and on your active weight loss progress ! Thanks for sharing your personal stats and your sleep history background, silafond. I’m sorry to hear that you’re developing some shoulder pain from your 2009 Sealy Posturepedic Terra Blanca. To your point, your body will tell you when the time has come to replace your mattress, and after 12 years of faithful service, it sounds as though that time has come. Let’s take a look at your research, shall we?
The Simmons Beautyrest Recharge Signature Select Ashaway Plush is a gel memory foam + pocket coil mattress, rated as a soft-feeling model. Some find that they experience more heat sensitivity with memory foamdue to the combination of sinking further into those comfort layers as the foam responds to your body heat, as well as its lesser breathable nature.
Great job on making showroom visits and testing mattresses! It is definitely helpful to experience multiple types of mattresses and have comparisons for reference. You may find these Phoenix articles useful for your research that you’ve compiled so far: "The Basic Functions of a Mattress"breaks down the roles that Comfort (pressure relief) and Support (spinal alignment) play within the mattress’s construction, "Mattress Specifications You Need to Know"offers a spec checklist to use for understanding durability potential, and “Mattress Shopping Guidelines” provides excellent mattress shopping tips. What size mattress are you planning to purchase?
As you may know from reading other posts, we only comment on mattresses from a durability standpoint and do not make recommendations outside of TMU’s strictly vetted trusted member program. Sealy doesn’t reveal product specs for its models and only lists proprietary materials and construction online. This is a plush mattress, composed of various memory and gel foam comfort materials, as well as a zoned HD encased coil system. When you have time to review the articles referenced above, you can use the mattress durability guidelines to discuss each mattress’s component specs for understanding whether the mattress’s materials and construction are suitable for you rather than speculate whether it “feels like it may degrade quickly.”
The Kingsdown Beckingham Plush model is also a plush mattress featuring gel memory foam comfort layers over a tri-zoned, heavier gauge pocket coil support core, no specs given to evaluate durability potential. The firmer coils are located in the lumbar area, so as a primarily side sleeper, you may need the added comfort of a separate pillow top layer.
The Berkeley Ergonomics SC Interactive Mattress features a 2" Talalay latex comfort layer over a bi-level pocket coil support core. The Postureflo Pad topper has an interesting design featuring their Posturflo coils and Talalay latex within a zippered cotton and wool encasement. What did you think of difference between memory foam’s comfort feel versus that of latex?
The Naturepedic EOS pillowtop offers the most comfort materials of all models, featuring 3" of natural latex as a comfort layer, as well as another 3" of latex in the pillowtop. The support core is an 8" pocket coil unit. The design is of a split firmness, and there is a 90 day comfort exchange available, should the firmness on either side need swapping.
With the widespread growth of the Direct-to-Consumer online shopping category, sleep trials are commonly used to create trust while purchasing a mattress “sight unseen”, so to speak. With many BIAB manufacturers, customers are offered a “sleep trial” period for deciding whether the mattress is a good fit for them. The length of the trial period varies from 30- 100 days, generally speaking, and most require that you keep the mattress a minimum of 30 days to allow for a body adjustment period to adapt to a new mattress’s comfort and support feel. Sleep trials are important for those shoppers who have concerns that they may need to return the mattress if it isn’t right for them.
For any mattress that you are considering buying, check with the showroom and get written confirmation of their exchange/ returns policy and warranty information for your records. Be sure to keep your receipt in a safe place, along with these details, and do not remove the consumer law label. The local showrooms’ policies may be quite different than those extended by the manufacturer, so check to see which are most advantageous to you. Do not hesitate to cross a choice off your list if you are in any way uncomfortable with consumer remedies available; you are making a long-term investment in wellness and nothing is more disappointing than being stuck with an expensive uncomfortable mattress…
Without spec details to understand durability potential versus your personal specs, there really is no meaningful way to address what may be “good or bad” about the mattresses. Regarding your known likes and dislikes (which are only a piece to the decision-making process of a mattress purchase), I am curious about the first two memory foam models in your lineup, knowing your aversion to sleeping warm. My apologies for the delayed response to your post; have you made any further decisions?
! Thanks for your question.