I’m the one who first says it’s time to replace the mattress. My wife can sleep on anything; if one of us is thrashing, she moves to a 4", well worn futon on the hard tile floor, which would be completely impossible for me…
I sleep on my side; mattresses seem to wear out a lot faster than expected.
Our current setup:
3" medium latex (sleeponlatex) topper which was ILD 30 when we bought it in March 2019
6" 1.8 lb/cu ft PU foam ILD 34, bought in Feb 2017
2017 is misleading. Due to job difficulties, I worked for 3 years away from home, so instead of the bottom layer having 5 1/2 years of wear on my side, it’s more like 3.
I’m having trouble with one hip and both shoulders. We have flipped and rotated the mattresses; this helped for a few months but isn’t enough improvement. I’m losing sleep. I’m 67 years old.
My thoughts on a new stack:
same 3" medium topper
two firm latex toppers
What I realized tonight is that if I go with the sleeponlatex firm topper, it has an ILD of 46. That sounds really firm. Does my plan make sense using their toppers? Please advise if something different would be a better setup.
3" ILD 30 latex from 2019
3" ILD 46 latex new
3" ILD 46 latex new
Thanks ever so much,
Steve
The plot thickened last night. I tried sleeping in the center of our king mattress, thinking this would be close to the original condition. It didn’t work at all, my left hip and shoulder woke me up after two hours.
So this doesn’t work, but did five years ago:
3" 30 ILD latex from sleeponlatex
6" 34 ILD polyurethane foam
This makes me think that my plan won’t work:
3" 30 ILD latex from sleeponlatex (same topper)
6" 46 ILD latex from sleeponlatex
Maybe I need a softer layer, or do I need 6" of 30 ILD with 3" of 46 ILD on the bottom?
I hesitate to go with something softer than medium. We are only getting 2-4 years out of our mattresses.
Please advise,
Steve
Hi sajurcaju.
It’s very odd that your mattress only survived about 4 years of its lifespan. Is it the PU foam that is failing?
What kind of base are you currently using for your mattress and, if you wouldn’t mind sharing, what are your respective heights and weights? (Or, you can just say you’re lighter/average/larger framed, etc).
Sounds like you didn’t quite sink in the way you would need to for adequate comfort and support. Knowing that your current foam is a 34 IFD, a 46 ILD foam would almost certainly be awful to try to sink into. I would consider a set up that includes a transition layer. It could be (as an example) 2" 28 ILD, 2-3" 30 ILD, 4 - 6"" 38 ILD.
With latex, whether it’s firm/medium/soft really shouldn’t affect much the durability of the foam. With PU foam, however, the 1.8 density is on the low end of what we would recommend for a sleeper of average height and weight.
NikkiTMU
We have a platform bed (plywood), formerly a waterbed frame.
Our mattress survival (roughly, my notes are a little disorganized):
3" memory foam from Justad. First piece 2006 to 2011. Second 2011 to 2016. Innerspring mattress under each.
Jan 2017 to date (replacing innerspring mattress): 6" PU foam, 1.8 lb/cu ft. I think this was still using 3" memory foam from above.
March 2019 to date replaced 3" memory foam with 3" 30 ILD latex from sleeponlatex. Same PU foam underneath.
Consider at this point that I’m the one who has problems first. Since 2017 (due to work difficulties), I spent 3 years working elsewhere, with infrequent trips home. My side of the bed did not get a lot of wear those years. Also, when both of us are present, if one of us is thrashing my wife will move to a futon. So less wear on the PU than the five years (to date) implies.
In April 2022 we realized that both of us were uncomfortable and flipped the mattress layers end for end. This helped.
Now, my wife is on a trip, so I tried her side. I was much more comfortable. Then I tried the center (least wear). This is when I woke up in pain after two hours.
I’m assuming the problem is with the PU foam (just from its age), but it’s tricky to tell which.
Since I was happy when the PU foam was new, my needs for a comfortable mattress seem to have changed.
Just to recap, all of the above are on a platform (plywood) frame. The two times of memory foam were with an innerspring mattress underneath. All the rest is with the PU foam underneath.
I’m 5’10", 185 lbs. almost exclusively side sleeper (switching sides)
My wife is similar height, 160 lbs. She sleeps both on her back and sides.
Note that in 2019 when we bought the latex topper, sleeponlatex told me it was 30 ILD described as medium. Their current medium is 34 ILD.
Thanks!
Steve
We replaced the 6" PU foam with this stack:
3" 28 ILD (new)
3" 30 ILD (from before)
3" 38 ILD (new)
all latex. This still didn’t work for me.
I added 3" 18 ILD latex to the top on my side of the bed, so my side is a 12" stack. This worked! This was a Twin XL, which is the size of 1/2 King. The two sides are different heights, but it doesn’t seem to matter, the transition is not a problem. The bottom 9" are in their sheet, the additional 3" is wrapped in a sheet of its own. It works for us.
Thanks much for the help.
Steve
Hi Steve,
So glad to hear you were able to come to a configuration that works for you. Thanks so much for sharing your processes here as well. I know it will be useful to future DIYers in similar predicaments.
NikkiTMU