Hi Phoenix. I am 53yrs. old, weigh 250lbs, 6’ tall, with broad shoulders, and a bit of a “spare tire”. I wonder if you could help me with some advice. I currently own a latex mattress that is not “zoned”. I find I wake up during the night many times to reposition myself due to neck, and shoulder pain. I have tried about 8 different kinds, and thicknesses of pillows. I find the area from below my hips to my chest sinks into the mattress more than my upper chest and shoulders. I sleep on my sides, so I end up feeling like my head, neck, and shoulders are all squished together because my shoulders don’t sink into the mattress enough.
Can you give me any suggestions?
Is there another type of mattress that will allow my shoulders to sink in more and create better overall alignment for my body? I have tried memory foam, and it did not appeal to me.
I live in Toronto, Canada, and would be shopping in this area, or possibly online.
Unfortunately I can’t see you sleeping on your mattress or feel what you feel and I don’t have enough information about you or your mattress to make any specific suggestions that would be meaningful but I can certainly link you to some posts and information that can provide more generic advice and that may be helpful with some of the “detective work” that can help you identify what may be happening.
Post #2 here has more information about some of the more common “symptoms” that people experience on a mattress and some of the most common reasons that can cause them.
There is also more about primary and secondary support and their relationship to pressure relief and firmness in post #4 here and in post #2 here that may help you visualize what good support/alignment and pressure relief “looks like” and may also be helpful.
From your brief description … it sounds like the primary support in your mattress may be too soft (which could be allowing the heavier parts of your body to sink down too far) and the comfort layers may also be too firm and/or too thin to “allow” your shoulders to sink in as far as they need to.
There is also more information in post #11 here and the posts it links to about zoning which may also be helpful because a firmer zone in the middle third of your mattress would provide firmer primary support under the heavier parts of your body so they wouldn’t sink down as far so having thicker and softer comfort layers that would allow your shoulders to sink in a little more deeply would have less risk of causing alignment issues.
There would almost certainly be other mattresses that would be a better “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) yes but it wouldn’t be as much a matter of the materials or the type of mattress as choosing a mattress of a specific type or that uses the materials you prefer with the “right” combination layers and components so that the design of the mattress is a better match for your body type and sleeping positions. Any type of mattress or materials would likely include versions that worked well for you in terms of PPP and other versions that would be completely unsuitable for you to sleep on depending on the specific design of the mattress. The choice of material or the type of mattress is a preference choice but choosing the right design that has the combination of primary and secondary support, pressure relief, and the subjective “feel” that is “right” for you is always the most important part of a successful mattress purchase.
There is more about the different ways to choose a mattress and how to minimize the risks involved with each of them in post #2 here because the only way to know whether any specific mattress is a good match for you is based on either your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post) or your actual sleeping experience.
The better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the Toronto area (subject to the guidelines here) are listed in post #1 here and the better online options I’m aware of that ship across Canada are listed in post #21 here.