Sleep EZ Mattress early review and problem

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Very early review as we’ve only had the mattress a few days!

We purchased the king sized Sleep EZ 10,000 mattress on Fri, Aug 15th and received the mattress on Aug 21. I had called and spoken with Shawn before I made the actual purchase and he was very helpful in answering all my questions and guiding me in what should fit our needs. I never felt rushed - though I’m sure I asked questions he’s been asked a million times. He was very professional and easy to talk to at the same time. After purchasing, I received a phone call confirming my order details as well as emails updating me to the status. By the end of the day I had shipping confirmation along with tracking numbers. I give all interactions with them an A+.

The order arrived in 3 boxes. Very well packed - it took us longer to unpack than to actually put the mattress together! I consider that a plus. Everything was as expected and well marked and putting it together was a breeze. Everything that was shipped was protected by plastic and the boxes were heavy duty and not at all any worse for the wear. Absolutely no complaints with anything. We were very happy with the quality and care of the product.

We were so excited to get a good nights sleep, and everything seemed to indicate that we would, until about 15 mins after going to bed. This is in no way a complaint towards Sleep EZ at all - but we had a problem. My partner has MS and is very heat sensitive. It’s hard to explain, but if she gets too hot, her body starts to burn and tingle and all her other MS symptoms are magnified. If she is making contact with something, it feels like millions of pin pricks at the points of contact and she keeps getting hotter and hotter until she feels like she’s on fire. This was happening on the new mattress. We were CRUSHED. The mattress was already feeling really good to both of us, especially her and her back and legs (which have been a real problem). She ended up on the couch for the rest of the night and had lingering problems for several days (that’s the kicker with this disease!). We were afraid we were going to have to send the mattress back.

First though, we were determined to run through every option we could to make the situation better. She was sure it was the quilted wool cover, though wool should dissipate the heat some. So we decided to turn the mattress over, just to see how she did. Long story short (if that’s possible at this point!), we ended up putting the mattress cover on upside down. We also put the old 2" gel memory foam topper back on top of the mattress because the bottom of the cover isn’t really designed to be comfortable. Slept on this Friday night and since, and she gets up every morning talking about how glorious her sleep was. :slight_smile:

So now I’m not sure what to do about the cover situation. The cover that came with the bed isn’t really meant to be used bottom side up, both from the comfort standpoint as well as the fact that it doesn’t seem that it would be a very protective layer between us and the latex. I’m also concerned that the quilted wool and cotton that was supposed to be on top, will keep the mattress from breathing the way it should if it’s on the bottom of the mattress. So I’m not sure what to do. I assume not many people have an issue like this and there is no way to exchange a cover. I’m not sure spending more money is an option right now, though I don’t want to be in the situation where we are affecting the life of the latex or the warranty.

Has anyone had this type of situation before? What did you do to solve the problem? Phoenix, do you have any suggestions or feel like my concerns are warranted?

I also want to reiterate, none of this is a (negative) reflection of Sleep EZ, they’ve been great and I would recommend them to anyone. I just need to figure out how to make this work.

Thanks!

2

Hi distracted12,

I think that there are several interconnected possibilities that may be happening here so I’ll try to comment on them one at a time. The approach I would tend to take in your case (outside of more detailed conversations with SleepEZ for any insights they may have as well) is to use a process of elimination to see if you can isolate the cause behind the symptoms she experienced.

[quote]We were so excited to get a good nights sleep, and everything seemed to indicate that we would, until about 15 mins after going to bed. This is in no way a complaint towards Sleep EZ at all - but we had a problem. My partner has MS and is very heat sensitive. It’s hard to explain, but if she gets too hot, her body starts to burn and tingle and all her other MS symptoms are magnified. If she is making contact with something, it feels like millions of pin pricks at the points of contact and she keeps getting hotter and hotter until she feels like she’s on fire. This was happening on the new mattress. We were CRUSHED. The mattress was already feeling really good to both of us, especially her and her back and legs (which have been a real problem). She ended up on the couch for the rest of the night and had lingering problems for several days (that’s the kicker with this disease!). We were afraid we were going to have to send the mattress back.

First though, we were determined to run through every option we could to make the situation better. She was sure it was the quilted wool cover, though wool should dissipate the heat some. So we decided to turn the mattress over, just to see how she did. Long story short (if that’s possible at this point!), we ended up putting the mattress cover on upside down. We also put the old 2" gel memory foam topper back on top of the mattress because the bottom of the cover isn’t really designed to be comfortable. Slept on this Friday night and since, and she gets up every morning talking about how glorious her sleep was. :)[/quote]

While I’m not a doctor … I know that MS can involve some allergy issues or some unusual sensitivities that generate a type of “prickly heat” that may not be directly connected to sleeping temperature.The problem in this case is that you made three changes at the same time to your sleeping system (flipping the cover so that you aren’t on a wool quilted cover, sleeping on a firmer mattress because the bottom of the cover would be firmer and less contouring, and adding the topper) so it’s not clear which one eliminated the heat sensations.

What I would suggest is that you turn the cover back the other way and unzip the top cover and fold it back off the sleeping surface and then add your mattress protector and sheets directly over the latex on your original configuration to see if this makes any difference. If this works after a few nights and sleeping on the latex without the cover in between doesn’t create any issues then it would seem to confirm that the issues were connected to the cover.

If this didn’t help then I would add the gel topper to the sleeping system (again with the cover off) to see if this makes a difference.

If this seems to help (when sleeping directly on the latex didn’t) then I would consider trying the gel topper directly on top of the mattress with the quilted cover zipped back up so see if adding the gel topper still makes a difference here as well. If this worked as well then this may be pointing to a slow response topper being the reason for the improvement if it helped with the bottom of the cover, no cover, and the top of the cover.

Once you reach this point then it should hopefully be a little clearer what the underlying cause of the heat sensations are but if it isn’t then there are other iterations that may be necessary in a process of elimination to find out if the sensations are connected to the cover or to the resilience or “feel” of the latex itself where you may need to try different combinations with only a single change between them to better confirm the underlying cause of the heat sensations.

So the most important part of the process is one step and one change at a time and once the underlying cause has been isolated then it’s time to look for solutions.

Phoenix

PS: the good news is that you have at least one configuration where her sleep is “glorious” :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for your thoughts, Phoenix. In my attempt to make an already wordy post not as wordy, I left out the multiple iterations that we went through. We’re data and tech people, so we like to collect data. :slight_smile:

On the first night, she started noticing within about 15 mins that there was an issue, unfortunately she waited longer thinking it wasn’t the mattress but just some weird sensation, which MS is full of. By the time she was willing to admit it was the mattress, she was really heating up. Heat in general is bad for her (we’re in 90 degree days here and she’s hobbling) but when her body encounters this kind of heat, it’s like her electrical system goes haywire.

So, our starting point (that first night) was the mattress, in it’s cover proper, along with our sheets (eucalyptus, which she’s had good luck with for years). The problem is only where her body is making contact with the bed, where the heat is trapped against her. The first thing we did was put the gel memory foam topper from our previous bed on top. This didn’t make enough difference and she moved to the couch for the night.

The next day, we flipped the mattress, so we had the bottom of the mattress cover on top, as well as the firm layer. So now we’re at FMS (top to bottom). This was a double change, she’s not sinking into the mattress as much because she’s on a firmer layer, and the material between her and the latex was different. If one of the two (temp or support/comfort) were acceptable, we’d parse out the other. She was not having much of a heat reaction, but the mattress was too firm.

The next step we took was to dismantle the mattress and move the layers back into original position (SMF, from top to bottom) but left the cover off just to see how she tolerated laying directly on the soft layer, with nothing but a sheet between her and the latex. She was able to tolerate the warmth. We next put the upside down cover back over the mattress, so we had that weird bottom material on the top. We didn’t want to go without some cover, to hold things together and to protect the material. Laying on this was also tolerable. Just to be safe we went ahead and put the old gel memory foam on top of this as we knew that was something she had tolerated in the past. We’re not sure that this was absolutely necessary heat-wise at this point, but it also served as a barrier between the not as comfortable texture of the bottom of the mattress cover. This topper was fairly cheap, and I’m not sure it’s a true memory foam, as far as slow response, it seems to recover pretty quickly. It’s probably 4-5 years old.

We still had a few other ideas to try in our data collection mission, but as this seemed to feel comfortable in temperature and support, we decided to give it a try. Which led to her “glorious” nights. :slight_smile: She still feels a slight hint of warmth, but it’s not reaching that level that causes such problems. So we thought we’d stick with it for now.

So, our conclusion was that the top of the cover was at least a part of the equation. It seemed to me that the quilted wool top was thicker than the material on the bottom. That material is almost like a Tyvek type material? It’s been a while since I’ve been around Tyvek though so I may be remembering incorrectly. My concern is that it’s not much of a protective barrier to the latex and my bigger concern is that having the quilted wool on the bottom of the mattress is going to restrict air flow through the latex.

To be honest, I fully expected she’d find the mattress less tolerable with the quilted wool not being between her and the latex. This is not the first time MS has thrown us for a loop.

Until we figure this out though, I’m still thrilled to hear “glorious” in the morning. :slight_smile:

4

Hi distracted,

Wool is one of the most breathable and temperature regulating materials in the industry so it certainly wouldn’t cause a breathability issue on the bottom of the mattress. The non skid material on the bottom would be much less breathable than the wool quilted cover and while it’s not meant for sleeping … I don’t think it would be an issue as far as protecting the latex.

Memory foam is also warmer and has less airflow than latex and based on the “norm” it would be the warmest of all the foam materials and because it contours well it would be the most insulating so the fact that she isn’t having any temperature issues on the memory foam and the latex seems to be OK as well … that points to something in the cover that is causing heat for her even though for most people wool is used to solve temperature regulation issues. This makes me suspect that it may be more connected to the material and how she responds to it than it is to the actual temperature itself (keeping in mind that this is all “working blind”).

Did you try the memory foam topper on top of the mattress with the wool cover on top? This would determine whether the topper was enough to mitigate the effect of the cover or whether the cover would still cause any issues because it was too close to her.

I would also keep in mind that if actual heat is an issue as well (rather than heat being a type of “reaction” to a material) that softer layers will contour more and be more insulating than firmer layers so a memory foam layer on top of a soft latex layer would create a deeper and more insulating cradle. If this is a factor then it may also be a good idea to put the medium layer on top and then the memory foam on top of that to see if it makes any difference.

If you are using a mattress protector then the type of mattress protector you are using could also be playing a role.

You seem to have a good handle on the process and using “one step” iterations to identify the cause but if the cover does turn out to be the “culprit” then I would also talk to SleepEZ about some of the other cover options they have that don’t contain any wool.

Good luck and I hope you have the chance to share your feedback as you isolate the cause of her issues.

Phoenix

5

I’m confused by the statement "The non skid material on the bottom " - is there a non skid material on the cover? This seems weird to me and certainly offers a heat retaining material.

Polyurethane does not breathe - it’s plastic.

I know I thought that wool should be different, I was going through the burn constantly - still there are nights when life throws a curve - but the best thing I found was the wool fleece topper placed over a wool puddle pad - burn diminished dramatically. If you put plastic under wool, the plastic will trap heat and moisture which in turn will ‘burn’. Wool with cotton will breathe. If protecting your mattress is the goal, it can be done without plastic.

1 Like
6

Just to add to Phoenix’s comment, SleepEz has a very nice 4-way stretch cotton cover with NO wool or quilting on top. I own this cover (used for my DIY latex mattress) and it’s very nice. It’s similar to the Pure LatexBliss covers if you’ve ever tested any of their beds (not the same but similar). The stretch cover allows the latex to contour to your body better than the wool/quilted covers IMO. Now, I obviously have no idea if this will help with your partner’s heat issues, but it would be worth calling Shawn to see if he’d be willing to let you try this cover in place of the wool one.

On the SleepEz 4-way stretch cotton cover I mentioned above, their is a non-skid material on the bottom and the tag for the cover indicates that it is “organic woven cotton” on the bottom panel. I’m guessing the SleepEz quilted/wool cover uses the same woven cotton on the bottom, but I’m not positive. All the Rejuvenite and Pure LatexBliss toppers use a woven fabric on the bottom of their covers as well (which completely ruins the feel of the topper IMO but that’s a different discussion).