It has been one month now since we received and set up our new all natural Talalay mattress from Arizona Premium Mattress Co. I’ve been doing various tweaking and finally think it’s where I want it to be, so I’m ready to share my journey with this wonderful group of people I’ve come to know from reading here for the last few months.
A little history first. I am 64, 5’6" and 125 pounds. My husband is 60, 6’2" and 180 pounds. We’ve been married for almost 30 years and have owned only two beds prior to this purchase. Our first was a Restonic “Marvelous Middle” that we had for 13 years when the gully we were sleeping in became too uncomfortable to ignore. Our next purchase was a Comfort Select air bed, before it began calling itself the “Sleep Number” bed. That was in 1997. I have a history of a herniated disc which I had surgery for in '88, so I’ve been extremely careful to protect my back from injury and mis-alignment. The CS bed worked well for us. I generally had a topper of some kind on it: a convoluted foam topper (eggcrate) for a while, then a zoned foam topper, and finally a featherbed topper. The featherbed was the worst. When the feathers crushed down in our sleeping areas, we began feeling pretty uncomfortable. Since the bed was 16 years old, I started thinking about getting a new bed. I had slept on a Stearns and Foster in a hotel once that was amazingly comfortable, so I had decided that was what I wanted. I saw one “on sale” at Sears, priced it, and then talked to hubby about buying it. He was hesitant, so I decided to do what he would do and research it online in hopes that I could convince him to approve my purchase. What I found was many negative reviews of how that mattress failed in a short time. I changed my mind but was determined to find something new. I stumbled onto Latex which I knew nothing about and had never considered. I liked what reviews I was reading about it and many of the websites and videos that described its benefits. But never having slept on it and not knowing how it would feel, I didn’t want to jump in with a big, blind purchase. I hadn’t yet found this website, or I might have been able to ask where I could test a latex mattress locally. So I decided the next best thing was to buy a latex topper for our CS bed and see how I liked the feel of the latex. I convinced hubs of this, and I placed my first order with Arizona Premium for a 3" Rejuvenite 19ILD topper with bamboo cover. I wasn’t aware at the time that this was blended Talalay latex, but it turns out it’s good quality and a nice feel, so I was happy with the purchase. When it arrived, I removed the miserable featherbed and put it in the trash. (That was a major feat for me because I hate to throw things out!) :sick:
While continuing to read about mattresses online, I found a lot of negatives about the CS airbeds. I dug through my bed looking for mold but found everything to be quite pristine. The only problem we’d really had with the bed was a tendency for my side of the bed to lose its number setting, but it never went soft overnight and was fine as long as I set the number I wanted each night before going to bed. So really, the CS mattress was working fine and didn’t need to be replaced. Then when I put the latex topper on it, I initially thought it was too soft. My hips sunk in too much and I felt like I was sleeping in a hammock. I thought about it and then, DUH, it’s an air bed, adjust it! I increased my setting to where it felt better, and it was wonderful!!! I actually thought about leaving it at that, but by then I had decided I just WANTED to buy a new bed. It was hard to talk hubby into it, but I did. I promised the old CS mattress to my daughter and her husband who were suffering from a failing innerspring bed and were beginning to have some pretty bad back issues. So I was committed. By this time I’d finally discovered this site and started reading about everyone’s issues with ILDs, too firm, too soft, etc.
I ordered the King All Natural Talalay mattress from APM with the upgrade to the 3" comfort layer, thinking that if I needed to do any adjusting, the 3" Rejuvenite topper could be interchanged with the 3" comfort layer. This mattress was advertised as 100% all natural talalay from Latex International. The ILDs they stated, though, were not Ns but in numbers. Phoenix had stated here that all natural talalay should have an N designation, so I called APM back to confirm that this was, in fact, all natural and not synthetic. Greg assured me that it was all natural, and he gave me some explanation that the N designation is used by the manufacturers but not so much by retailers. He seemed to indicate that customers were more familiar with ILD numbers, so that’s how they describe them. Anyway, for my side I ordered a 6" support layer of 28 ILD, and 32 for the hub. The comfort layer, one piece, was a 28. So that would make 28/28 for me, and 28/32 for him, and then I planned to put the 19 ILD Rejuvenite topper on top of the mattress because I have always liked that pillowtop feel. I was so excited, could hardly wait for my mattress to arrive.
On the day that was scheduled for delivery, I had my daughter and son-in-law come pick up the CS mattress. Then I got everything ready for the big event. We kept the foundation for the CS to use for the new mattress. It’s a solid foundation, but it does have a mattress-like cover with some kind of fiberfill to allow for circulation, so I decided we didn’t need a bed rug. The UPS man arrived; I had a hand truck on hand and helped him wheel the big boxes up to the front door. Everything looked great. The boxes were all nice and intact, the contents were clean and beautiful. Then, all by myself, I put the new bed together! By the time hubby got home from work, the mattress was set up, topper on it, sheets, blankets, the whole works. We looked forward to our first night sleeping on it. I just knew it was going to be heavenly. It was too soft. My hips sunk in too far, and I woke up with pain between my shoulder blades from trying to compensate. My back was a little achy as well. I gave it a few days and then decided to try some tweaking. I couldn’t feel any difference from my side to my husband’s side as far as firmness. He said it felt a little soft to him, but he wasn’t having any pain, so no complaint. So I took the cover off the Rejuvenite topper, put it on the comfort layer instead, and swapped those two layers. So now we had from top to bottom: 28/19/28 for me and 28/19/32 for him. A few more nights followed, and it was still too soft for me. So I decided another adjustment was in store. I did all of these by myself. The hubster never even noticed any changes. (He could sleep on a rock). This time I moved the Rejuvenite topper to the bottom of the mattress and put the split support layer over it. Then on top remained the 28 topper for a new configuration of 28/28/19 for me and 28/32/19 for him. This was much better, but I wasn’t sure it was exactly right. I slept on it for a week or two trying to decide. It was close. But I’d been reading here about all the woes of doing core swaps. I didn’t want to go that route, didn’t want the additional expense. I also didn’t want to lose the Rejuvenite topper. It wasn’t cheap, and I don’t have anyplace to store it, and I hate to waste anything. We might have been able to sleep on the mattress alone as originally configured (without the topper), but I was determined to use all three layers if possible. I had some cheap 1" polyfoam around from an old craft project. I cut a piece about 20x24" and put it in a pillowcase and put it under my hip area under the topper. That was much better but made for a slightly visible “bump” in the bed profile. I felt like I was on the right track. I thought of the old CS mattress that I was able to inflate a little extra to make too soft just right, and I thought that if I could find some kind of air pillow that I could inflate just a little to get it just right, that might be the answer. I searched online and couldn’t find quite what I was looking for. So off I went to Walmart to wander around and look for ideas. I checked out the air mattress section. Nothing looked promising. I wandered through the fitness section and found something that I thought might just do the trick. I bought a yoga mat, 68" long, 24" wide, and 3mm (about 1/10 of an inch) thick for only $8.97. It was pretty firm. I took it home and put it under the topper centered on my side of the bed. It felt pretty good when I tested it out. Several nights of sleeping on it, and it felt really good. I got wondering if the thicker yoga mat they sell might work even better. So for about another $12 I bought a second mat, same dimensions but 5mm (2/10 of an inch) thick. I put the thinner one under hubby’s side and the thicker one under my side. One night of sleeping on that–I think it’s just a shade too firm. So I put the thicker one under his side, and I have the thinner one, and it seems pretty good. He still hasn’t noticed anything. 
So that’s where things stand for now. I’m still thinking about trying some other minor adjustments. For example, I’m thinking about turning the mats to run side to side instead of lengthwise. I might put the thinner mat under our shoulders (like zoning) and the thicker mat under our hips. I bought a third mat, in the thinner model, and might at some point cut 3 strips of the thicker mat and tape all the mats together with a strip of the thicker mat down each side and the center (keeping the thinner mats running lengthwise) to give the bed edges a little extra firmness and some extra support in the center.
I don’t feel like I need to do any exchanges, and that’s a relief. It’s nice to get the feel just right without spending a bundle. I’ve found that I do love the feel of latex, and I don’t regret buying the mattress, although the CS was really fine and didn’t need replacing (but daughter and sil are delighted with it and feeling much better, so that makes mom happy).
Phoenix, thank you for this website. I’ve learned so much and would have been flying blind without all that I’ve read here. I hope that my review and experience can provide some help and inspiration to others. Any other tweaking ideas others might have would be great to hear as well.
gtwflorida
