Sleep Science Latex Comfort 10" Mattress Collection

Hi.
This Sleep Science Latex Comfort 10" Mattress Collection is available at Costco and is rated as being quite firm for 999.99 http://www.costco.com/latex-comfort-mattress-collection.html
I am prepared to purchase a topper if need be and my question is is it better to buy a firmer mattress and soften it with a topper or buy a soft mattress and a firm it with a topper?
Also what would be reasons not to buy this mattress, knowing that it is Dunlop firm 85/15 % pure, 4" Dunlop on 6" polyfoam.
I live in Vancouver and surprisingly the selection of Latex mattresses is not very good, either because of shady businesses or just poor selection so Costco works for me.
I have severe lumbar L 4.5.6 issues that will require surgery sometime in the near future so a good mattress is vital for me at this stage of my life, however costs need to be considered too and that is why this mattress interests me.
Thank you for the Mattress Forum!

Hi jege41,

Firmness or softness ratings can vary between manufacturers and are also very subjective (different people define firm or soft very differently) so I would be very careful about using any ratings that don’t involve your own personal perceptions unless they can compare it to a mattress or a late firmness level you have tested and are familiar with. I personally wouldn’t count on any help in terms of guidance from the people at Costco because they aren’t what I would call “mattress people”. At the very least I would probably talk with Sleep Science to see if you can get a sense of how well the mattress may match your needs and preferences. If you do decide to make a purchase there, you are rolling the dice with an “all or nothing” choice and are dependent on trial and error in terms of how you feel about the mattress. The only benefit of dealing with Costco is that they have a free return policy which lowers the risk of making an unsuitable choice.

Having said that … it’s always better to err on the side of firmness because you can make a mattress that is too firm softer with a topper but you can’t really make a mattress that is too soft any firmer (except to a small degree) without removing the softer layers because the firmer top layers will just compress into the softer layers below them.

The first thing I would do is make sure these are available in Canada because they aren’t listed on the Costco Canadian website.

Each person has their own “value equation” which are all the factors and tradeoffs that are important to them in any mattress purchase. Having said that I would personally want to know more information about the firmness (ILD or density) of the latex and also the density of the polyfoam base layer so I could “match” it to some local testing as a reference point.

I also place a high value on who I buy from and the guidance they can provide (or local testing where I can make sure a mattress matches my need and preferences before buying it) which to me is just as important a part of the purchase as the mattress itself. Of course the return policy may make up for this for you.

Vancouver has some good latex options (although I don’t know which if any of them carry a latex hybrid like the Sleep Science but a few calls will find out) and you can see some of the options available to you in post #2 here. I would certainly do some local testing first so you at least have a reference point to use with an online purchase.

I know that this latex hybrid from Mattresses.net (one of the members here) can also be shipped to Vancouver and it may be worth checking to find out the cost of shipping there as well.

With these types of challenges I would place a particularly high value on local testing or good guidance but of course each person has different preferences about what is most important in a mattress purchase. The good news is that if the Sleep Science is available in Canada … then with Costco’s refund policy it is good value but it’s not the first direction I would look for a mattress purchase.

Phoenix

Thank you very much for your help
Cheers

Hi again
Have you heard of Biopolymer Visco Memory foam as they claim that this is some new technology in the memory foam industry and is more green?
Thanks

Hi jege41,

Yes … most of the foam manufacturers are making some version of bio polyfoam and memory foam that replaces a small percentage of the petrochemical polyols with plant based alternatives. You can read a bit more about them in post #2 here and there’s a good article about them here.

It’a a fairly mature technology that not so new any more although research continues into increasing the percentage of the polyol replacement without negatively affecting the foam (50% polyol replacement or so is about the highest currently)

Phoenix

Hi
Thank you for the help!
What do you think of Biogel™ Memory Foam Mattress Topper comapred to ordinary memory foam?
Cheers and thank you

Hi jege41,

Biogel is just one of hundreds of tradenames for similar materials (gel impregnated memory foam) that have little meaning. the most important information is the type of material rather than the name they have given it. The gel based foams that are becoming more common in the industry are certainly step in a “good” direction but the claims about them are overblown IMO and there are many different types. They certainly have a role to play but there are also some “regular” memory foam materials that are being developed that have improved the performance and feel of memory foam as well. You can read more about the different types of gel memory foams in post #2 here and some of the methods that are being used to help memory foam sleep cooler in post #6 here.

Many if not most of the gel memory foams don’t really supply enough information to make meaningful comparisons (such as density, the percentage of gel in the material, or other specification that would make comparing them more meaningful). Many of the gel memory foams also seem to be tradenames for the gel memory foam made by AUG/Sleep Innovations which wouldn’t be my favorite version of gel memory foam. The Biogel is likely one of these and uses particles of gel which certainly won’t strengthen the base memory foam and could possibly weaken it (compared to the same memory foam without the gel).

The benefits of gel would be its thermal conduction compared to regular memory foam (which can provide some temporary benefit to sleeping temperatures until temperatures equalize) and it’s ability to increase the compression modulus of memory foam (it gets firmer faster with deeper compression) which may help it not to sink in quite as much over the course of the night (although other memory foams without gel are similar).

Overall … it’s certainly a legitimate material choice but my own personal choice wouldn’t be the particulate versions sold at Costco (see post #4 here for some of the other options for a topper) and I would definitely want to know at least the density of the material even though for gel memory foams this really isn’t enough to make complete comparisons.

While it may not be the best quality version of the gel memory foam options … I also understand that Costco’s return policy can be a “tradeoff” that offsets the lower quality and may be worth it for some people.

Phoenix

Hi again
Thank you for the info on Biogel foam.
If you were wanting to soften a Dunlop latex mattress what topper would you choose saying you wanted a medium to soft feel but without sacrificing alignment?
I love these forums what a great way to gather info.
I assume you work in the bedding or foam industry or are you just into foam as a hobby?
Cheers
John

Hi jege41,

That would really depend on a lot of factors including the layering in your mattress, the thickness and firmness of the current comfort layers, how your body type and sleeping style interacts with your mattress, and perhaps most of all what you consider and perceive as being “medium to soft” because each person will have a different perception and definition of this.

The best way I know to choose which topper may be best for your application are the guidelines in post #8 here and post #4 here.

Generally the choice of material would be between fast response latex (or perhaps polyfoam for a lower cost, lower performance, and less durable alternative) and memory foam (either “regular” memory foam or gel memory foam) and would be a mattter of personal preference based on which you were most familiar with and preferred.

If you are asking for my personal preference it would be talalay latex but this is just what I personally prefer and doesn’t mean that the next person would have the same preference and on an individual basis it’s certainly not “better” than other options that someone else may prefer.

The best way to maintain good alignment is to use “just enough” in terms of thickness and softness to relieve pressure in all your sleeping positions (particularly the more pressure prone positions such as side sleeping) but no more.

No, I’ve never worked in either the bedding or foam industry. I also wouldn’t have any time to work at anything else beside this site … it’s a 16 hour a day 7 day a week project and has been for over 2 years now. The information here is not the result of my own work experience but the result of thousands of hours of conversations with many manufacturers and “experts” around the country, thousands more hours of research into all the topics that are discussed here including research into various foams and other materials, and hundreds of hours of testing mattresses to help 'translate" the information into more “real world” terms.

One day I may get back to a more “normal” life … but in the meantime I do love what I’m doing :slight_smile:

Phoenix