Please help SleepEZ10000

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

We’ve been shopping for a latex mattress for 4 months now, and it’s finally time to bite the bullet. After talking to several online retailers and testing out countless mattresses in stores, the choices are all starting to run together in my head!

So here’s my issue. We plan to order from Sleep Ez, and I know that your recommendation is to do “what Shaun recommends.” My issue is that Shaun has recommended 3 very different combinations for us, and we can’t seem to get any consensus about the best choice.

Any suggestions on what option would be best?

My husband and I are stomach and back sleepers, occasionally side sleepers, but mostly stomach and back, weighing between 135 and 150 pounds each.

First Shaun recommended (from bottom layer to top): Firm/Medium/Soft
He said 85% of the beds he sells for people of my size are that combination. But then he said that most people he sells it to are side sleepers, not stomach. So I couldn’t figure out why he’d recommend it to us… He said mostly because I could reconfigure it and move some of the layers around if it’s not right. Having a mix of F/M/S would give me lots of options.

Then he said that we also might like Firm/Firm/Soft. He would consider that a “Plush Firm” which is usually what I gravitate to in stores. That actually made more sense to me since we like a firmer bed.

But he was most in favor of the Firm/Medium/Soft combination that he recommended first. I was hesitant because he said he normally sells them to side sleepers, so I paused on the decision.

Then my husband said, 'How about Firm/Medium/Medium? So we called Shaun back and he said, Yeah, that would be good, too.

Thoroughly confused, we discussed the options and couldn’t make a decision.

So my husband called Shaun back and he said that he wouldn’t recommend that a stomach sleeper sleep on a soft top layer.
Now I was really confused, because the first options he suggested had a soft top layer.

So I’m really confused. I’m not getting a clear recommendation, and none of these options match up ILD-wise with what we’ve tried out in stores

Any suggestions given our size and sleeping tendencies?

2

Hi erinaustin,

In the end only you can decide what is best for you because nobody else can know for certain how any mattress will feel and perform when you sleep on it. “Feel” is very subjective and unique to each individual person and each person has a unique body type, sleeping style preferences, and perceptions which means what world very well for one may not work as well for another … even if body types and sleeping positions have similarities. This is part of the risk of an online purchase although the risk is minimized because of the options you have for re-arranging the layering and design.

The beauty of a layered approach is that you have many options for re-arranging layers and you can also exchange a layer if necessary (and I would build the possibility of a layer exchange into your “value equation”) so that you can customize it based on your actual experience. Even stomach sleepers that are lighter will often do well on softer latex because it gets firmer as you sink in deeper which for lighter people will often make it suitable.

The bottom line is that there is no way to know your “best” final option until you have slept on it and I would choose the option which provides you with the greatest possibilities. If you decide on S/M/F and need need more support to prevent sleeping in a swayback position you can put the firm layer in the middle. If you need a firmer comfort layer you can put the medium on top with the soft or firm underneath it and if your “best” layering ends up with the soft on the bottom then you can exchange it for a medium or firm as your final option for the bottom layer.

I also agree that pure stomach sleepers generally do better with either a firmer or thinner top layer but this also depends on many other factors because most stomach sleepers usually spend less time on their stomach than they believe they do over the course of the night and your other sleeping positions need to be taken into account as well.

In your testing … what was the firmness level and thickness of the comfort layers you seemed to do best with?

I would use your best judgement based on how much time you think you spend on your stomach. If you don’t think you would want a soft layer at all for any of your sleeping positions then I wold probably go with M/M/F but my overall tendency because it offers the most options would be S/M/F because it provides more options and you can exchange a layer if re-arranging things indicates you don’t need the soft layer at all.

I would really think of them all as starting points rather than “ending points” so your own experience can make the final decisions for you instead of “theory” or “averages”.

Phoenix

PS: I normally suggest that when you are uncertain and “stuck” between which choice to make that you choose the firmer of your two options but because of the ability you have to re-arrange and exchange layers and your lighter weights I would not go by this more “typical” suggestion in your case.

3

I know you always say this, but this is where I’m struggling. I don’t think it’s possible to really know what’s best for oneself with an online purchase. None of the options that Shaun recommended to me are close to the options that I liked in-store (they all have very different ILDs and layering).

He offered me so many different recommendations,and I didn’t get the sense that he really had an option that he thought was best for us. It was a moving target throughout our discussions. I started feeling like eeny-meeny-miney-mo by the end. :slight_smile:

I’m coming to the conclusion that online purchase is just too risky for me. Just need to get the spouse on board…that’s the only way he wants to buy!

4

Hi erinaustin,

I always say this because it’s the truth and to have any other expectation would give you a false sense of security and you wouldn’t recognize the risk of an online purchase. The goal of every manufacturer or retailer is to make sure their customers understand that they can only make suggestions based on “averages” (which he did and I did as well) but that only you can make the actual choices based on your own best judgement. The risk is offset by the ability to exchange and re-arrange layers. All of this is part of the tradeoffs that are part of each person’s value equation. I am a realist and I try to make sure none of the members here have a false sense of security when they are ordering a mattress online. I would rather their expectations were lower so that they are happy because their choices turned out better than they expected (which is the most likely outcome) than the other way around.

There are many pathways to a good outcome and again … I would think of your choice as a starting point … not an ending point. If you start firmer and then go softer or start softer and then go firmer … as long as you end up with what you need and prefer then it doesn’t matter. When you are uncertain after all the analysis you have gone through I would think of your first month or two with the mattress as part of your testing period (just like testing in a store except for an extended period of time) which in effect it really is. The absolute worst case is that you end up returning the mattress. If your ideal is somewhere in the range of the overall design you choose then you will be almost certainly be fine no matter what you start with. This is how the whole process is designed so that you don’t have to go by a “theory” that can’t ever be as accurate as your own personal experience.

Each person has a different risk tolerance and while for a large number of people an online purchase is a great way to go and can be great value … if you are not confident in the process then in almost all cases there are also some good local options available.

As you can see from reading through the forum … the uncertainty you are feeling is part of the online ordering process and everyone will experience it to some degree (as the members here have mentioned on many occasions). I would worry somewhat if you weren’t feeling it at all because this is just part of having realistic expectations. In the large majority of cases the people who decide to go in an online direction are very happy with their choices and there are also many others who are just as happy with their decision to buy local … even if it cost them a little more.

All of this is part of the process of choosing which mattress and which method of purchasing is really best for you.

Phoenix