My wife and I are researching mattresses.
We currently have a Queen size 15-year old Denver Mattress Doctor’s Choice innerspring. My wife and I are both “primarily” side-sleepers. I’m about 200 pounds and 5’10". However, I do move quite a bit in my sleep. I don’t know if I’m tossing/turning more because of the mattress? My wife is about 160 pounds and 5’6". She typically does not move much through the night, except in response to me waking her up.
In the past two years, my wife started feeling increased pressure/pain on her shoulders/hips after waking up. We bought a 2" memory foam topper, which seemed to help quite a bit. However, in the past few months, I’ve started inconsistently experiencing some lower back pain waking up in the morning. I occasionally wake up on my stomach, which probably coincides with the worst days I’ve experienced with the back pain. However, I suspect the mattress is sagging to a point on my side where it also affects my spine’s alignment even while sleeping on my side. That has motivated our mattress search.
So far, we have tested several innerspring/hybrid Denver Mattress Doctor’s Choice models; several Tempur-Pedic models; several Sealy hybrids; and the Purple Hybrid Premier 3 Mattress. In terms of preference, we probably least liked the Tempur-Pedic memory foam models because we didn’t like the “hug” of the memory foam and each of the mattresses seemed too firm to my wife. We’re also concerned about sleeping hot. The Doctor’s Choice Elite Plush mattresses seemed to fall in the middle from our 5-minute subjective test. It seemed comfortable/supportive, but wasn’t a standout in any particular aspect in our five minutes on it aside from its price and immediate availability/delivery. The Purple mattress was strange (like lying on Jello?), but it seemed to impress with its support and comfort. We didn’t like its $3K plus price tag for a queen.
From our online researching, we’re also interested by what we’ve read about latex and latex hybrid mattresses. We gravitated towards Arizona Premium Mattress to comparison shop. However, neither of us have ever tried a “real” latex mattress, so it’s all a bit abstract at this point.
Questions:
Are there retailers in the Denver or Southern Colorado region worth visiting, at least to try “real” latex mattresses?
From our research, it seems like either the Eco Sleep Hybrid Latex or Adjustable Ultra Plush models would be candidates for side-sleepers from Arizona Premium Mattress? Any suggestions or inputs, either for Arizona Premium Mattress or another retailer?
Any other advice?
Hi NewtonianMechanic.
Welcome to our Mattress Forum. 
This sounds likely so it’s great you’re on the hunt for something new and properly supportive.
This is promising. In person testing provides a great data point and while this mattress didn’t exactly knock anything out of the park, you have a tangible idea of what you like/don’t like, etc.
Honestly, I had to Google it but I found these three places in Denver seem promising in terms of testing (and maybe even buying)
- The Natural Sleep Store
- SleepUnion
- Urban Mattress Denver
Let us know what you find and how testing goes!
NikkiTMU
Thank you, NikkiTMU! We appreciate the confirmation and the list of three Denver-area stores. We will post back when we’ve had a chance to further test/refine.
Hi, I’m in Colorado as well and can tell you that you’re probably better off taking recommendations from the forum. It’s hard to wrap your head around not being able to test yourself in person, but the first recommendation i got from the forum owner was the best mattress I’d ever owned and lasted 12 years and saw some heavy use towards the end. I’m looking at the flobeds currently, but there’s likely not going to be any store that has fully customizable options in store. I think if a store carried the top options from the forum existed, it would likely put every chain store out of business.
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Hi Twistinturns!
We’re so glad you had a great experience with the mattress you purchased. We definitely always recommend starting with our Trusted Members.
Sounds like you have a budding business idea 
NikkiTMU
Thank you, Twistinturns, and again, NikkiTMU. We ended up going along the lines of both your suggestions. We did make a trip to Denver in mid-June and visited the Natural Sleep Store in Denver. We were able to try their Bella Sera Nove 3 Organic Mattress, with two Queen mattresses configured in their showroom with a split configuration, for a total of four different latex firmness combinations. This particular mattress line is constructed with three layers of 3" Dunlop latex (Talalay as a non-showroom top-layer option) and an organic cotton/wool mattress cover. The salesman/owner, Gregg Comer, was helpful and definitely not pushy. I do recommend other Colorado-based seekers to consider/visit the store. This visit gave us a small taste of the feel of a latex mattress, which ultimately gave us confidence to investigate it with more confidence.
Through those in-person observations and further online research, we narrowed down our options to the Natural Sleep Store, Arizona Premium Mattress, and Sleep EZ. We eventually decided to purchase Sleep EZ’s 10" Organic mattress. We received our mattress a total of three calendar days after ordering and are about two weeks into ownership/use of our mattress.
We were very happy with the website experience/detailed information on Sleep EZ’s site, ordering, and communication as our order was fulfilled. A representative called me to confirm my order and all specifications line-by-line, which was great. Unpacking the mattress went smoothly - everything was packed well and arrived with no damage, and setup took something like 20-minutes with two adults. The mattress and bundled convoluted latex pillows felt very firm to us that first night (our previous 15-year mattress was a plush-top, and with a 2" memory foam topper), though I immediately appreciated the support provided to my back. I woke up the first few mornings with slight numbness in my shoulder. However, we were aware of a ~30-day body adjustment period described on Sleep EZ’s website, and the trend seems to be that we are adjusting to the new mattress. We went with the firmness layers recommended by Sleep EZ’s calculator, (Soft Talay/Medium Dunlop/Firm Dunlop for my wife; Medium Talaly/Medium Dunlop/Firm Dunlop for me). While handling the latex layers directly, we could feel differences between the different firmness layers and between the Dunlop and Talalay latex layers, but it’s much harder to differentiate the different top comfort layers when lying on the assembled mattress. The breathability/temperature regulation of the mattress has been great. We’ve had a wide spectrum of weather in the past two weeks, and the mattress has done well in both extremes, when it’s been cool and hot outside. So far, we’re very happy.