Hello, this is my first post. We purchased a Savvy Rest mattress about 2 years ago. All dunlop with 3 layers - Firm, Medium, then Soft, with Soft on top. We bought it because it was the most affordable among the totally non-toxic options. We have never really been comfortable on it, but I hoped we’d adjust. Now instead, it’s catching up to us. My husband says it feels stiff on his back, and we both roll around a lot unable to get comfortable. The material may just be too dense / firm. We both often wake up with neck / back pain and can’t get to sleep.
I tried unzipping the casing, which made everything a little softer because the casing wasn’t holding it in. That made it a little better at first, but then there wasn’t much support and I worried about the latex being exposed. We can’t afford to buy anything new right now in the non-toxic category, and definitely aren’t willing to buy a conventional mattress. I thought a topper of some kind could help, but I’m seeing only latex toppers for non-toxic brands. I’m worried that would just add more of the same. Any ideas on other topper options or what else we can do?
There are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved to make any specific suggestions based on “theory at a distance” when it comes to comfort issues but there is more information in post #2 here about the most common symptoms that people will experience on a mattress that may be helpful. Having said that … your description sounds like your mattress may be too firm for you and if this is the case then some of the suggestions in post #2 here may also be helpful. If you decide to try a topper to add additional softness and pressure relief to your mattress then post #2 here and the topper guidelines that it links to can help you choose the type, thickness, and softness of a topper that would have the best chance of success and includes the better sources for latex toppers I’m aware of as well. If you are used to Savvy Rest prices you may be surprised that the cost of latex toppers may be lower than you think.
I would “delink” firmness with support because a mattress that is too firm can be just as non supportive as a mattress that is too soft. The goal of a mattress is that it provides you with good alignment and good pressure relief in all your sleeping positions and this means that you need good “primary support” under the heavier parts of your body to stop them from sinking down too far but you also need good secondary support or “contouring” support so that the more recessed parts of your body are also “filled in” and supported. There is more about primary and secondary support and their relationship to pressure relief in post #2 here.
Removing or loosening the quilted cover of your mattress can help the latex to contour more effectively to your body so it may provide “better” secondary support even though it may also allow your hips/pelvis (and your shoulders if you sleep on your side) to sink in a little more which may also improve pressure relief to some extent. If this works well for you and you are sleeping “symptom free” (which is how I would evaluate it rather than by trying to decide whether you are sinking in too much or too little) then you can also buy a stretch knit cover to replace the cover you currently have although you would lose the temperature regulating benefits of the wool quilting and as you know from your experience it would change the “feel” of your mattress as well.
Either way … it seems to me that your most likely options would be to either add a topper and/or to change your quilted cover for a stretch knit cover (if your testing on your mattress without the quilted cover on top indicates that it’s a good “match” for you without a topper). The topper guidelines I linked earlier includes a fairly extensive list of topper sources for different types and blends of latex and cover sources as well.
Thank you very much for the helpful thoughts. I have spent the last hour or two clicking my way through the various posts and the links in them. It looks like there may be a way to play with the 3 layers I already have, plus adding/subtracting different types of cases. So if I’m interpreting all the information right that I found in various posts, the quilted case may be creating a “drum” effect and even if unzipped, may still get in the way of some of the pressure relief even if there is a soft layer of latex underneath. That seems like something to try for a week or two and then adjust from there. One other change that sounds like is worth a try is switching the firm layer to the middle so that it provides more support, while the top soft layer provides more cradling.
What strikes me reading through the site is that the materials I have are good quality, so it could just be fine tuning or rearranging. I appreciate the thoughts and will report back once I’ve resolved this.
The most important suggestion I would have is to take a “one step at a time” and incremental approach that only makes one change at a time so that you can compare your sleeping experience and “symptoms” with the previous configuration and use what you learn from the differences and changes between them to decide on the direction of any further changes. I would also sleep on each configuration for at least a few days so that your body has time to “catch up” with each change and you can make sure that any changes in your experience are a pattern rather than an anomaly. If you make too many changes all at once or too quickly then things can get very confusing.
You are certainly welcome to post your experiences here with each configuration (in as much detail as possible and including how your experience changed with each combination) and if I see anything that stands out I’ll certainly be happy to make any comments I can.
I bought that same mattress with those same layers, and also found it much too firm for my tastes. I ended up doing a layer swap with SavvyRest, and replacing the medium layer with another soft layer, which got it to a level that I could live with (though still honestly a bit on the firm side for my tastes). It definitely does make a big difference to change the layers.
It was about $100 to do that layer swap; at two years, you’re probably outside of the period when they’d let you do that (I forget if it was 90 days or a year), but you might contact them to check.
If you can’t do it through them, another suggestion would be to buy a layer from another source (for instance, SleepEZ will sell a 3" Talalay soft layer for $350) and swap the layer out that way. I strongly suspect that this would help a lot, based on my experience.
Thanks again for the great feedback. We have been sleeping on the stripped down mattress (just the latex layers with a sheet over it, with the top of the casing unzipped and peeled off) for a few weeks now and are both happy with it. I do feel like my hip sinks in much more than my legs, which according to what I have read on this site, is a good thing since I am a side sleeper. In general the layers feel very plush, like I’m sinking into foam. I don’t know if it’s the mattress change or the acupuncture or both, but my nearly debilitating neck and shoulder pain is almost entirely gone.
Now for my next question. How do I make this solution permanent? I assume just a sheet over the latex pieces won’t cut it in the long run to protect dust and such from getting into the layers. Is there some kind of ultra soft, loose-fitting, non-restrictive cover I can get now that I know this is working? Thank you again!
It’s always a good idea to have a good cover to protect the latex from oxidizing and breaking down prematurely from exposure to air, ozone, and ultraviolet and other substances that can degrade latex.
The closest you could come would be a stretch knit zip cover that would have less effect on the contouring of the latex than the wool quilted cover you currently have. The component post here has some sources for covers and post #4 here lists the ones that I’m aware of that sell stretch knit covers.
Thank you for the ideas. I did want to clarify that I think one of the issues is that fact that there is a cover at all, regardless of material, seemed to play a role in making the mattress feel stiff. It felt like it was all sort of being held in tightly. Once I freed the latex, then when we lie on it the latex could sort of bulge outward as a way to make space for our bodies. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but my concern is that any zippered cover, even with a stretchy material, will have that effect of holding everything in, contributing to a more taut surface. Would your recommendation be the same with that?
It will really be a matter of degree because as you mentioned … any mattress cover would have “some” effect. There is more about the effects of a wool quilted cover vs a stretch knit cover in post #6 here and there is more about quilted covers in general in post #12 here but I would make sure that there is a good quality cover on any latex mattress to protect the latex so it would really be a matter of having a minimal effect on the latex rather than having no effect at all.
Hello again, well it’s been a while since we’ve been sleeping on the latex layers (firm on bottom, then medium, then soft) with just a dust mite cover. But it’s proven to be too soft and we did some of the “tests” recommended in this forum and hips were in fact sinking so far as to throw things out of line. For a while I didn’t have the energy to do anything about it because we were having a baby, and the softness was somewhat helpful when I was pregnant. But now I am my normal size again and things feel way to squishy soft. Last night we switched the top two layers, so now medium is on top with soft in the middle. I got that idea from the SavvyRest website. It helped somewhat, but I still feel things sinking in a bit too much. plus sitting up in bed to read is an absolute no, which I feel shouldn’t be so uncomfortable. However, I keep thinking it shouldn’t be this hard to feel the “wow” I keep waiting for, since the Latex overview on this site seems to say that Latex is the best with the only downside being the price. I’m wondering if some in-between type of cover – not the quilted wool case that came with the mattress, which created too big of a drum effect, and not the loose dust mite cover I have now – would do the trick. I know you posted a link to some sources to buy covers, but looking at them I can’t tell how tight or loose they are or what effect they are intended to have, i.e. just protection, or an enhanced feel, etc. Do you have any recommendations on which particular cover might help?
It’s not clear from your description whether you are having any actual “symptoms” from your mattress (such as back pain) or if you are just trying to change the more subjective “feel” of the mattress or the “sensations” you experience (see post #6 here).
If you are having actual symptoms then there is more detailed information about the most common symptoms that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress and the most likely (although not the only) reasons for them in post #2 here.
There is also more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
These posts are the “tools” that can help with the analysis, detective work, or trial and error that may be necessary to help you learn your body’s language and “translate” what your body is trying to tell you so you can make the types of changes that have the best chance of reducing or eliminating any “symptoms” you are experiencing.
The choice of materials is always a preference choice rather than a “better/worse” choice and like any material there are certainly people that don’t like the “feel” of latex and prefer other types of materials or mattresses.
If you are trying to firm up the “feel” of the top layers then changing the layers as you did (with the medium layer on top of the soft layer) would be the most common way to accomplish this.
If you want to firm up the support of the mattress but keep the softness of the sleeping surface then the most common way to do this would be to put the firm layer in the middle and the medium layer on the bottom.
If neither of these options is successful then you could also replace one of the layers with a layer that was firmer (such as replacing the soft layer with medium so from top to bottom you would have M/M/F).
I think that the most important goal of a mattress is that it “disappears” underneath you rather than “wows” you and that you wake up rested and refreshed without any pain or discomfort. When it comes to mattresses … feeling less (pain, discomfort, pressure points, or “annoyance” because of how the mattress responds or from waking up) is usually better than “feeling” more and the “wow factor” is usually more a part of the showroom feel than your actual sleeping experience since you can’t feel your mattress when you are asleep anyway.
A cover can certainly have a significant effect on the feel and performance of a mattress because all the layers and components of a mattress will have some effect on every other layer and component and the mattress “as a whole”. There is also more about quilted covers vs thinner unquilted covers that are more “stretchy” in post #12 here.
Having said that … it’s unlikely that you will find anyone that has tested the effect of the different covers that are listed on the specific latex layers you are using to compare them in person but even if someone had compared them in person their experience and perceptions and how they compare them may still be different from yours.
You are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components would be the best “match” for you in terms of PPP based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing or personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
When you can’t test a particular component such as a cover in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart who will know more about the specific components and covers they sell and are in the best position to compare them to other covers they are familiar with than anyone else.
It may also be worth removing the top of the cover and sleeping more directly on the latex itself (using the layer combination that works best for you with only your mattress protector and sheets on top of the latex) to give you a better sense if you would prefer a more “stretchy” cover that has less effect on the contouring of the latex.
The first step in any “fine tuning” process is identifying exactly what you are hoping to change (pressure relief, support/alignment, or “feel”).