Sapira

[phoenix]

Hi canadiansleeper.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum!

I am sorry to hear about your painful pre=existing conditions and that your back and shoulders hurt when sleeping in different positions on your current mattress.

There will be a break in an adjustment period for any new mattress or sleeping system as the mattress loses any of its “false firmness” and the cover stretches and loosens a little and your body gets used to a sleeping surface that is different from what it is used to (see post #3 here ). This would typically be a few weeks but it can be shorter or longer depending on the specifics of the person and the mattress. I would definitely encourage you to take more time adjusting to the new mattress, and hopefully, as time moves on you’ll lose more of your previous “learned alignment” and the mattress will also lose more of its “false firmness”. If you, unfortunately, find that this product doesn’t meet your comfort needs, you did make a good choice of selecting a product that does have an available return policy.

Especially as you are coming from an unsupportive mattress the first thing I would suggest is to give your body a little more time to adjust to the new sleeping surface and for you to better monitor if the “symptoms” in each sleeping position gradually increase or diminish. It seems to me that you are well in touch with your body so you’ll be able to clearly tell,

Would add a pillow topper - say, from Sleep on Latex - help? My thoughts are that adding one would provide some additional pressure relief for my upper back and shoulders, allowing me to sink in to the mattress a little better?

While the diminishing of your lower back pains and aches in both of sleeping positions indicates that the mattress offers good deep support It sounds to me like the issue you are facing is more the lack of pressure relief on a firm sleeping surface in which case I’d suggest

1. First, to allow for the break in to follow its course … if the aches, tightness and upper body and neck pains still persist….
2. Consider fine-tuning of your sleeping surface by adding a topper which would result in a mattress that has softer and/or thicker comfort layers with a progressive construction suitable for your higher BMI range. The latex topper that you are considering will mitigate both your pressure point and sleeping “warmer” issues.
3. The two options above will give you enough data to inform your next step and decide if you need to replace your current mattress.

But would compensating for my shoulders create any issues with my lower back?

I agree that the first priority is to make sure that your spine is neutral alignment… what you would be looking for is that the mattress has firm enough deep support and then comfort layers that are “just enough” in terms of thickness and softness to “fill in” and support the more recessed parts of your sleeping profile and relieve pressure in your most pressure prone sleeping position (side sleeping from your description) so that there is less risk to alignment when you switch to your other sleeping positions.

Leesa - their regular mattress, which is supposedly more soft.
The Casper - a lot of reviews comment on how the mattress lets you sink in a bit more than others.
Saatva Flagship Luxury firm Eurosport - said to be good for larger side-sleepers.

I would caution against considering Leesa or Caper mattresses especially at your higher BMI because of the lower density upper layer foams used in this mattress would compromise its durability and useful life. You can see the full set of specs here and the caution for higher weight ranges. There is more information about Saatva and many of the other “simplified choice” mattresses in post #2 here and the first post in the same topic would be worth reading as well. A forum search on Saatva (you can just click the link) will also bring up many more comments and feedback about them as well.

While Saatva would be a better quality/value choice compared to many of the mainstream mattresses made by the major manufacturers (which are a very low bar to use for a comparison and which I would avoid completely) … some of the materials they are using are also lower quality and less durable than the durability guidelines or that I would be comfortable with and for most people they wouldn’t be in the same “quality/value” range as many of the other options that use higher quality and more durable materials and foam layers that most of the members here would know about as a result of the information on this site. I would be especially cautious about making a Saatva purchase based on their reviews or based on some of “marketing exaggerations” on their site.

Buying a mattress based on “reviews” or the subjective perceptions of other people would be like buying clothes or shoes based on what other people like “on average” and when it comes to products where there are so many variables or subjective elements involved then the averages of any group is much too likely to be different in terms of “feel” or “fit” or preferences from the needs or preferences of any specific individual.

Sleep on Latex - Pure Green medium firm. My understanding is the quality is good, but the downside is I’m in Canada and their return policy is more restrictive than the major online retailers.

While Pure Green would be a good option I also understand your reserve in getting it across the border… two times…if the mattress does not turn out as well as you hoped for. This leaves you with Canada based retailers/manufacturers. Dormio, MFC (which also would have great choices in your budget range), and Restmore which are Trusted Members of this site and like all the members here I think very highly of and consider them to compete well with “the best” in the industry.

Dormio - one of your members, which has a location close to me, but it seems their beds run up to $4-5,000, which is about 2X what we can afford to spend. The cost of the King-sized Sapira was at the top end of our budget. They also don’t allow returns, but will instead make adjustments for you, but only within the model range of the bed, you’ve chosen.

I am not sure which of Dormio’s lineups you’ve considered but they have options that cover a whole spectrum of budget ranges. From my many discussions with them, I’ve seen their consumer-centric approach in action and I know that they take a great deal of time to understand the needs and preferences of each sleeper to make their recommendations and ensure that it is a good fit and to allow for any fine-tuning and adjustments as needed.

Phoenix