Serta Prodigy - side sleeper - fine tuning

[phoenix]

Hi k_bed,

QUESTION: will extra topper on my current Prodigy will help me with side sleeping? If yes, what would be your suggestion? Could possibly Tempur Topper Supreme 3" Mattress Pad from BROOKSTONE help me here? Or should I look for other type of topper? And if yes what kind of topper, visco, gel? And how thick, 1, 2 or 3 inches? Generally I dont like latex, but visco, memory foam, gell is my preference.

The odds are good that it will help yes. There are too many variables in body type and sleeping positions and different perceptions of softness and firmness though to use a formula for which topper may work best for you but there are some guidelines, suggestions, and sources in post #2 here and the posts it links to that may help so you can use your own experience to decide which topper may work best for you. I personally would avoid a Tempurpedic topper because there are many other high quality toppers that are less.

It’s difficult to know how your mattress compares to the other mattresses you tested because the materials and layering is quite different but it seems to me that you need some additional thickness and softness to allow your shoulders to sink in more but I would also be cautious so that you don’t add too much more thickness or softness which could risk alignment in your other sleeping positions. In general … “just enough” in terms of thickness and softness is the best and least risky approach. Your experiences on mattresses that appear to have softer/thicker comfort layers (such as the Tempurpedic Cloud which has 4 lb memory foam in the top layer) appears to confirm this. The Tempurpedic also uses “regular” 4 lb memory foam not gel memory foam.

Fact 4: I tried top Serta matters from the line, which I believe has extra gel foam thickness and not spings, but foam base layer. It felt a bit better then Prodigy, but not as good as Tempur after laying on it for a quite a few minutes on my side.

It may be helpful to know which mattress this was (and they may be quite different where you are) because some of their upper end mattresses are firmer than some of the others but the top end model here (the iComfort Wellbeing Refined) has significantly more memory foam and thicker comfort layers on top than yours does. The top 2" is their regular memory foam (in this case 5 lb) and the gel memory foam is deeper in the mattress.

Regardless though … a fairly safe or “average” choice for a topper would be in the range of 2".

The choice of materials is a personal preference but some of the particulate gel memory foams are firmer than “regular” memory foam (which is why Serta often uses them in deeper layers and not on top) so I would take this into consideration. There are so many different types of memory foam in all densities that can feel and perform quite differently from each other that the most effective way to know the specific qualities of a memory foam you are considering is to deal with knowledgeable people who will tell you how theirs compares to others on the market.

Hope this helps.

Phoenix