Slow-moving mattress nightmare

[phoenix]

Hi RF,

It’s always interesting to me how the initial few weeks of sleeping on a new mattress can make such a difference.

I’ve seen many cases where someone’s experience after the first few weeks is much different from their experience in the beginning. Part of this is from the initial break in period of the mattress itself and part of it is that the mattress begins to feel softer as the body gets used to the new sleeping surface. I’ve seen many people who were “certain” that a mattress was too firm at first but 30 or 60 days later they couldn’t imagine sleeping on anything else.

The mattress has definitely softened from being slept on a few nights. I took off the topper because it made it too soft. It felt wonderfully cloud-like, but there wasn’t enough support. The topper is rather low-density. It would probably work well as the sole layer on top of a firm or extra firm layer.

This is probably the result of the thickness of the combination or your mattress’ top layer and the extra topper. This would give you 6" of “soft” in the top layers which for most people would be too much … even though the same softness would be fine in a thinner layer.

What’s ironic is that now that the regular mattress is softening quite a bit, I am considering exchanging the soft layer for a medium (medium/medium/firm). It is sinking in now and I don’t want too much of that because it seems clear that my lower back prefers a firmer bed (although definitely not something rock hard like the Ikea beds).

The only suggestion I would have if you do decide to do a layer exchange is to differentiate from the firmness/softness of the comfort layers (which is mostly about pressure relief) and the firmness/softness of the deeper layers (which is mostly about support/alignment). I’ve seen many people change the wrong layers to try to improve either pressure relief or support/alignment (for example getting firmer top layers to improve support when it’s the lower layers that probably should have been changed) or make more drastic changes when smaller changes may have been better. It’s always important to identify as accurately as possible what you are trying to adjust so that a layer exchange has the best possible chance for the outcome you are looking for. Adjusting comfort layers to change support can lead to some confusing outcomes.

There is another thread here for example where switching the lower two layers (from medium over firm to firm over medium) with soft on top made a significant difference and worked out better than exchanging the top layer from soft to medium. I would certainly test something similar (moving the firm layer up one level) before doing a layer exchange

I don’t like having to use the exchange because of the hassle but also because the latex layer is destroyed. That seems unfortunately wasteful since latex apparently doesn’t harbor bed bugs. It’s too bad there isn’t some way for the latex to be donated to homeless shelters or something. But, I want to make sure the bed works for my back, given its price. I’ll give it more time, since the exchange period is 90 days. I may even replace the soft layer with a firm layer, depending upon the degree of softening that happens.

I agree that it would be great to donate exchanged layers instead of destroying them. I would also be very very careful before switching your soft layer for a firm. It’s quite likely that most of the increased softness is not so much the softening of the latex (it doesn’t soften a lot over the first few weeks) itself but your body adjusting to a new material.

The odor is still there and it gives me a mild headache, but it’s not bad. I am definitely sleeping better with this bed than with my old sinking one.

I think that this more than anything is encouraging because no matter how well the mattress works for you … if it causes some of the other issues you were mentioning then the rest is of little value.

I would definitely try switching the lower two layers though if you need a little extra support.

Phoenix