I have a 4+ year old Original Mattress Factory latex mattress. I’ve always loved it more than any other I’ve had. But over the past few months, it has started causing me pain all of a sudden. I have serious pressure points in my rib cage, as a side sleeper. Also, my wife is feeling pressure, and having some pain. Both of us are getting sleepy arms as well.
Talked to OMF, and they sent a guy out. He said it wasn’t sagging enough for the warranty to kick in, but they took it to the factory to look at it. They said the cover was stretched out, and they resewed the cover. Unfortunately, it’s still hurting.
After reading a ton here, I was wondering about my foundation. I’m using the OMF box spring they sold me with the mattress. I assumed they went together, but after reading that a solid foundation may be better, I am having doubts.
Should I look at replacing the box spring before giving up on the mattress? Or should I just buy a new mattress? I am wondering if there may be an inexpensive way to test this out. Can we just get a piece of plywood, and throw it in between for a night to see?
As Jeff mentioned the easiest way to test how your mattress would feel on a non flexing foundation as opposed to the box spring that you currently have (which has springs inside it that flex) would be to test it on the floor.
OMF is one of the few manufacturers that use an actual box spring under their latex and memory foam mattresses which can change how the mattress feels vs using a non flexing foundation. Since you were sleeping well on the mattress for 4 years it’s possible that the mattress/box spring combination may work better for you than a mattress/foundation combination so I would also check the box spring by making sure that the surface is still flat and by pressing down with firm pressure across the complete surface with your hands or your knees to see if there are any soft spots or weak areas in your box spring in which case it may need to be replaced.
Unfortunately I don’t have enough information about you or the mattress to know or guess at why you would fairly suddenly stop sleeping well on a mattress that you had slept well on for 4 years but there are really 4 main possibilities that I can think of which are …
Something in the mattress changed. Your mattress is two sided so it may be helpful if you turn and flip it to the other side on a regular basis if you haven’t been already (see post #2 here)
Something in the support system under the mattress changed.
Something that you were using on top of the mattress changed (such as a mattress protector or a mattress pad)
The last possibility is that something changed in you that affected your comfort or support and which could have changed the type or firmness level of a mattress that would be the most suitable for you to sleep on (developing a health issue or a back issue for example or a change in weight among many other possibilities … some of which could be more “sudden” and some of which could be more gradual).
The first steps though would be to test the mattress on the floor, checking the box spring, and flipping your mattress to the other side.
Thanks for the suggestions. We have always rotated and flipped this every 90 days. The more I learn here, the more I am suspecting the box spring, although it’s possible the Talalay is just lower density, and has somehow weakened.
We did notice something similar with our Rejuvenite latex pillows. All of a sudden one day, they just seemed to lose their support. We replaced them with the same pillow, and have been happy. It seems strange, since people tout the longevity of latex. Would the density impact that longevity? Not that I can get that info from OMF or anything. I’m sure our weight doesn’t help. We’re ~500 lbs. combined.
Looks like we’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight. :blink:
While latex in general is the most durable of all the foam materials … the density of latex is directly related to firmness (unlike polyfoam and memory foam where any density can be made in a wide range of firmness levels) and softer versions of any foam material (including latex) in combination with higher weights will be less durable than firmer versions of the same material so firmness/density certainly plays a role in the durability of latex.