Any material can work well in the right design that provides you with the PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) that work best for you.
While thickness and the perception of softness are very closely connected and the softness of the memory foam would play a role … the softness of memory foamvaries according to conditions and I would say that “not too thick” would be more important than “not too soft” in the case of memory foam although both will play a role.
It’s always the design and how well it provides you with PPP … not the material.
Thanks. I plan to try out both latex and memory foam and see how it feels for me. I might not get a chance to visit Dixifoam or elsewhere until after I go to Puerto Rico for 4 nights on Monday, but after that it’s time to get down to business and buy a mattress (and ajustable bed). It will also be interesting to see how I feel sleeping on whatever type of mattress the hotel has for four nights. Might learn something from that.
Yes, thanks, it’s holiday. And I will certainly be reporting back in. The hotel I’m staying at in San Juan is called La Concha, and it seems to be a trendy sort of place, so perhaps they will have some sort of trendy mattress as well.
Back from Puerto Rico. The hotel bed was very softy and comfy. I think I sleep thru the night on my side the first night and my back didn’t hurt, which made me wonder if super soft was the way to go for me because it would encourage me to sleep on my side and tolerate it well. But back was hurting by third night, and I was tossing and turning, so who knows?
Went to visit Mark at Dixiefoam today. He’s a big fan of the bed he sleeps on, some sort of poly foam, that’s firm. And inexpensive too. I thought it was decent, but alas, he didn’t think it would really work well with an adjustable bed. He didn’t know much about adjustable beds, but thought only latex or memory foam would work.
He had one memory foam bed, which was a tad soft, and which he thought might not be great for back problems, and two latexs, one dunlop, one talalay. He seemed to suggest the talalay was a better product (price the same – but still the most expensive style and more than I was hoping to spend…).
I liked the latex well enough (after initially NOT liking it for the first 60 seconds or so), and may go with that, but not sure which one, or which thickness yet. I think I like firm, which the dunlop was, but he didn’t have the talalay in stock in the firmer style, so I wasn’t able to perfectly compare them.
Any thoughts on talalay v dunlop, or anything else I’ve said here?
Back pain can often take a few nights to show up and is usually an indication that either the support layers are too soft or the comfort layers are too thick and soft to provide good support for your body type or sleeping style. Without knowing the details of the mattress though it’s not really possible to use your experience as a guideline.
In terms of quality and durability they are both great and they both come in a range of firmness choices but they have a different feel so its really a preference choice with some people preferring one and some the other in either the comfort layers, the support layers, or both. The link I provided earlier in your other thread (the pros and cons of latex) talks about the differences and post #7 here has more about how they compare in terms of feel but “feel” can be very subjective and can be different for different people.
Other than that, all the materials they use are high quality but of course your own testing is the best way to decide which one is the best “fit” for your needs and preferences.
Thanks, Phoenix. It’s difficult to choose because I’m trying to compare apples and oranges in a sense, trying to imagine how a firmer talalay may compare to the dunlop I tried out.
I liked the surface of talalay because it felt smoother than the dunlop, which had these weird little ridges I didn’t love. Mark said he thought Talalay felt a bit ‘creamier’ than dunlop, which some people like (including the friend who was shopping with me, who will NOT be sleeping on the bed but threw in her two cents frequently and whose opinion probably can’t help but influence me somewhat even though it shouldn’t).
Mark suggested a firmer talalay would feel similar to the dunlop I tried, offering a similar feeling of ‘push-back’ as I sank in, which is what he thought I was enjoying about the dunlop. He agreed that I might not notice a real difference between them.
Maybe he’s right. Or maybe not… Hmm. Maybe I’d be “dag nab it! Annoying ridges or not, non-100 percent natural or not, i liked that dunlop in the store better than this talalay I just bought”.
I completely understand the challenge of trying to decide between two good options … especially when your personal experience on different materials can be subjective and different from what others experience.
The good news though is that no matter what you choose you are looking at good quality materials and you also have options available to you after a purchase as well in terms of fine tuning the feel and performance of a mattress … but of course it’s always the goal to make your first choice your best one
I’m looking forward to hearing about what you end up choosing.
Yes, I suppose one can adjust things by adding toppers and what not. He even suggested I could add a layer of memory foam for comfort if I wanted to. And I’m like “memory foam on top of latex? Isn’t that like cats sleeping with dogs??”
But I’d really rather get it right the first time, as you say.
One little annoyance: both the latex mattresses in question are six inches total height. The fancy sheets I own and like are already dwarfing my 8" mattress (they are designed for a bigger mattress of up to 14") which already gives me fits cause they don’t well and look messy. This problem will only get worse with an even shorter mattress.
I can think of three possible solutions:
Find an anti-slip/gripper type product designed for such purposes. I’ve already tried two diffferent ones that didn’t work well, so I’m skeptical.
Have some inches added to the mattress. Mark said he could add 3" for an additional 200 bucks or so. My friend thought this was a nutty idea that might screw up the matrress somehow, but Mark said he thought it would work fine. That would get me to 9", which is better than my current 8, but still not solve my problem.
Get the sheets altered to fit more snugly. Can this be done well? I have no idea.
Any thoughts on that?
Oh, and either the talalay or dunlop mattress will work with the reverie essential plus I’m planning to get, correct?
There are a lot of people who like latex/memory foam hybrid comfort layers (and I’m one of them who likes the feel in certain combinations) so there are no “rules” about combining materials except personal preferences.
This could work well if you added very firm polyfoam under the mattress. You could also add a topper if you need it to add a softer comfort layer over the mattress but only if the mattress was firmer than you wanted. If it was already working well with just a single 6" layer of latex then I wouldn’t do this of course.
I don’t sew but I don’t see why someone who does couldn’t do this.
Think I’m going to go with the Talalay. The tri-zone thing on the dunlop I tried was nice, but as I read elswewhere on this forum, someone who changes position a lot might end up worrying about trying to get into the correct zone.
I will probably not pay for the additional inches added, since I assume that will make it virtually impossible to exchange the mattress for another and wouldn’t perfectly solve my problem anyway, and I’ll address the sheets situation later after I’ve got everything else set up.
I think this would be more of a potential issue with a higher number of zones. With three zones the center zone would be in the middle third of the mattress and there really wouldn’t be any issues with “matching” the zones to your sleeping position. Of course this is a separate issue from the type of latex you prefer and Talalay latex is certainly a good quality material as well.
I would always make sure you check with a retailer or manufacturer about any exchange or return options you have after a sale. I think it’s probably a good idea though because it leaves you with more options (you could still add a layer underneath the mattress or add a topper should you find you need it after you have slept on it for a while).
Perhaps I am overthinking the zone thing. But somehow I’ve got to make the choice between the dunlop and the talalay, so I’m looking for any small thing to help me choose. You say they are equally good products more or less, yes?
Mark at Dixiefoam said I could exchange a mattress within 10 days and only pay delivery charges. But this leads to an interesting question: If I really don’t like the Talalay, is the dunlop going to be that different? Or is one better off trying a diffferent type of material mattress if they don’t like the latex one they buy? If one doesn’t like Coca Cola, aren’t the odds good that they might not like Pepsi that much either, and should go with something like Ginger Ale instead?
Yes … the choice between them would be a preference. For example I tend to lean towards Talalay (although the overall feel and performance of a specific design would be more important to me than the materials that produced the feel and performance) and my daughter much prefers natural Dunlop after trying both.
The difference between Talalay and Dunlop is quite noticeable for most people but “feel” itself is subjective and some people notice the differences much more than others (assuming that the firmness levels and mattress design are the same because this will also affect how a mattress feels). The link in the previous post would describe how most (but certainly not all) people would feel the difference.
The difference between them would be larger and more noticeable for most people than the difference between Coke and Pepsi
So if I try one for 10 days and hate it, might be worth swapping for the other brand of latex, huh?
As I mentioned, since I wasn’t able to compare a firm talalay against the firm dunlop he had on the floor, it’s a bit of a gamble to go with a firm talalay, but something is pulling me in that direction anyway. Perhaps because I perceive the all natural Talalay as somehow ‘better’ or healthier than the Dunlop blend? I really don’t have any strong idea of which mattress of any style is going to feel better after 8 hours of sleep night after night, and don’t really trust the 5 and 10 minute test runs, so I guess it’s all a bit of a gamble as I see it.
I guess there’s nothing left to do but place an order at this point. Might do this tomorrow…
Also, do you know if there is a higher risk of an allergic reaction with latex v. other mattresses? Is one style "safer’ than another, or is there similar risk in any of them?
Hopefully you are doing more than “5 or 10 minute” test runs and are using the testing guidelines linked in post #1 here.
Latex is more hypoallergenic than other materials because of its ability to ventilate and control temperature and humidity in a mattress. It doesn’t provide a good environment for dust mites which produce the most common allergens in a household.
Latex allergies themselves are very uncommon in mattresses as you can read in post #2 here. In most cases … latex allergies are to the surface proteins that are mostly washed out in natural latex and don’t exist in the first place in synthetic latex.
In most cases … latex is also tested against higher standards such as Oeko-Tex standard 100 class 1 (or other similar testing protocols depending on the type and manufacturer ofthe latex) for harmful ingredients and VOC offgassing than other types of foam materials (such as polyfoam and memory foam). Latex is generally considered to be the “safest” of the foam materials. You can also read more about the different types of latex in post #2 here and post #6 here.
Of course there are also many individual answers to “how safe is safe enough for me” and for those who want to go down the rabbit hole of all the conflicting information that is part of a very controversial subject … then post #2 here and the links and posts it leads to would be a good beginning.
I actually didn’t follow all the steps to a T, but as much as I could bear. And I’d like at least partial credit for researching these issues at all before blindly dropping money at Sleepy’s:)
I’m not going to read up or worry about allergies, but leave that can of worms alone and hope for the best.
Why do you think Mark at Dixiefoam would say he thought the Talalay was a slightly better product than the Dunlop?
He didn’t even have the firm talalay I would get on the floor, but would have to order it. And he said that he would charge me the same price as the Dunlop even though he said Talalay is usually a bit more expensive. (I think he said the Talalay would be 100% natural, the Dunlop a blend).
Taken together, these two facts indicate he was nudging me towards Talalay.
I generally take people at face value so he probably means just what he is saying and he thinks that the Talalay is a slightly better product than the Dunlop.
Blended Talalay is generally more costly than blended Dunlop and 100% natural Talalay is more costly than both and if he is offering them at the same price then the Talalay would probably be better “value” based on their “commodity value” but you would need to ask him whether he is “nudging you” in a certain direction or why.
