I am a side sleeper
weight is 210 pounds
height is 6 feet 2 inches
side sleeper
low back pain
:unsure: I got a Tempurpedic allura about 3 weeks ago. It feels firmer to me. Is this going to be right mattress for me given above information?
How will Allura work?
If this is not going to be right mattress for me, what mattress should I buy? From where?
I live in dallas-Ft worth metro.
Thank you so much.
Hi richardb,
The “right” mattress is a combination of objective and subjective factors that can’t be known for sure until someone actually sleeps on it. There are too many variables in terms of the differences in each person’s body type and sleeping styles that even people who are similar in height/weight can have many differences in what they need and prefer. In the same way, there are an infinite amount of variations in sleeping positions that affect how a mattress responds to each person and an equal amount of subjective perceptions that are important for the quality of sleep for each person. What some people call too firm others will call too soft so “how and why” and “what part” of the mattress is too firm and the specific “symptoms” you are experiencing in which parts of your body will help identify the more specific reasons why you are feeling what you are feeling.
On the face of it … the Allura would seem to be a reasonable choice for you because it uses denser HD memory foam (to accommodate your higher weight and improve durability) and thick enough memory foam layers to accommodate your side sleeping.
It will take some time for the initial softening of the memory foam to reach it’s more “long term” feel and performance and you will also have developed some degree of “body memory” from your previous mattress so it can also take some time for you to adjust to a new sleeping surface as well. 90 days (and often less) should cover both of these adjustment periods.
I would first reach the point of deciding whether the Allura is going to work for you before deciding on whether to exchange it or shop for something else completely.
If you do reach this point … then your experience on the Allura (the specific reasons and symptoms connected to why it “doesn’t work”) will be a factor in deciding on the type and construction of your next mattress.
In general … I tend to focus on where I buy a mattress before I focus on what I buy. The knowledge, skill, and experience of the outlet you buy from to help you “fit” a mattress to your needs and preferences and the source of the mattresses they either make or sell is the most important first step. Major brands tend to have poor value compared to many smaller independent manufacturers that either sell through better sleep shops or factory direct from the manufacturer. The first step is always to identify these before you try to identify which mattress may be best for you. This article will help you avoid many of the traps and pitfalls of mattress shopping if you do decide to start all over again.
Some of the better options in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area are in this thread.
Phoenix
I have a dormeir wool pad underneath the Allura. And a Egyptian long cotton 600 thread count sheet on top of that.
Should I use this combination? Thanks
Hi richardb,
All I can tell you is that these are both good quality products and materials. the “shoulds” are up to each of us to decide for ourselves based on our own personal and unique needs and preferences and “value equation”.
Phoenix
I was hoping for a specific answer. Honestly, your answer does little to help. This is tempurpedic mattress. Will a dormeir wool protector and 600 thread count sheets help or will they negate the benefits and feel of the allura tempurpedic. thanks.
Hi richarddb,
Unfortunately you are asking me for a “specific answer” or decision that only you can make. Each person has a different sense of how different materials and combinations feel and a different set of priorities that make each material more or less attractive to them. My role is to help people know about the quality and properties of different materials and constructions so that they can make decisions based on their own personal needs and preferences. The “should” and “shouldn’t” is always up to the individual.
A forum title search on “protect” and on “cover” (you can click the links) will give you a good sense of all the tradeoffs involved in different mattress protectors and the different effects each can have on the materials below them. The Dormeir is a very popular choice because wool protector is very breathable and good at regulating temperature but it also may (for most but not all people or mattresses) affect the memory foam below it more than the thinner membrane types of protectors because they would isolate the memory foam more from the heat and “firm it up” a little.
600 thread count egyptian cotton is a breathable, high quality material (assuming the manufacturers description is correct) but you are also concerned with sleeping temperature and in some cases (depending on various factors) … higher thread counts can be less breathable. Any “no iron” finish on the sheets can also affect breathability. It may also be worthwhile considering linen (flax) sheets which are also very cool sleeping and durable.
I don’t consider myself to be an expert on bedding materials but the St Geneve site (who make the Dormeir) has some very good information about the different types of fibers that are used in sheets. This short 2 page article also has some good basic information about different sheet choices. These should help you make the choices that are most suitable for you.
If coolness was my biggest priority I would consider linen.
Phoenix
what happened to other the coolest material? 600 thread count sheets Egyptian long cotton. I spilled water on them 1 time and it did not penetrate the bed, it stayed on it. Are they breathable?
I visited the Mattress factory, the guy - boss seemed to know little about body alignment. he had 2 latex beds - firm and medium. They were very hard like bricks. He then brought a gel pad and put it atop one of the latex beds and I laid down on it. My head was sky high my body pushed deep down on gel and me misaligned and he said that was great! He did not have high opinion about tempurpedic mattresses. I asked him about latex international he said he never heard about them! I asked him about latexco and same thing.
He had no advice for me. Visit was waste of time.
I have not more then 1 good night of sleep on allura. I am begining to doubt tempurpedic claims about their mattresses being supportive. I am waking up with pains on my whole body.
The advertising claims by tempurpedic about their mattresses being this or that - I have not experienced them yet. Not 1 night of good sleep yet.
If it continues to go like this I am getting another mattress.
Hi richardb,
The two main functions of a mattress are pressure relief and alignment.
Pressure relief depends on having a comfort layer thick and soft enough to speread the pressure over the surface of the body and away from pressure points. Because each person is very different in their maeup and sleeping positions … a “pressure relieving” mattress for one person may be completely unsuitable for another.
In the same way … spinal alignment is the ability of a mattress to keep you in the range of your natural alignment in all your sleeping positions. Once again … each person is different in terms of weight/height/body shape, in the infinite variations in sleeping positions, and each can have a wider or narrower range of “natural alignment”.
In order to achieve “natural alignment” in all your sleeping positions … the materials in a mattress need to hold up different parts of the body to different degrees as you change positions in your sleep and depending on your unique weight and shape. So “support” is the means to the goal of alignment … not the goal in itself.
So “support” is nothing more than the ability to hold weight and all materials have this to different degrees. The art and science of mattress construction is all about making different mattresses that can achieve the best combination of pressure relief and alignment for different individuals. It is up to the consumer to buy a mattress that fits their pressure relief and alignment needs and also has the “optional” preferences that they like the best (things like the overall feel, temperature regulation, motion isolation, etc).
So Tempurpedic, like most mattress manufacturers, makes a range of mattresses that all have different combinations of pressure relief and support so that each individual that is considering buying one has a choice of mattresses in the line and can find one that may be most suitable for their needs (pressure relief and alignment) and preferences. Of course this doesn’t mean that any of them would be suitable for any particular individual (there are more types of people than there are Tempurpedic models) but it also doesn’t mean that Tempurpedic doesn’t make mattresses that can keep people in alignment or relieve pressure. It’s always about how suitable any specific mattress is for a particular individual.person because they all have some degree of pressure relief and support. It’s just a matter of finding (hopefully with the help of an “expert” who can help you in real time and in person) a mattress that has the right combination of support and pressure relief for you … regardless of how supportive or pressure relieving it may be for someone else.
Tempurpedic (like all other manufacturers) makes a range of supportive and pressure relieving mattresses that may be suitable for the needs and preferences of many people (even though they don’t have great value). The real question and challenge is finding out if you are one of them and how well you may “fit” any of their different models.
Phoenix
If I knew which would be best, I would not have come to this site. I have tried 2 - supreme and rhapsody and now on 3rd Allura.
Given my 210 lb weight, 6 feet 2 inch height and side sleeping and low back pain, I asked which one would suit me best. But I am getting theoretical answers which are of little use to me. To a lay person this is not much help.
Because you are contradicting yourself. You said if you sleep on side you need 3 inches of soft comfort layer. But then you say allura could be good. But allura has no soft layer. Only 2 inch of hd foam on top of 2.8 inch of hard foam. So you see that is confusing and contradicting.
Hi richardb,
The goal of this site is to help give you the tools and information and help you find the “experts” that can help you make these choices more effectively. In the end though … nobody but you can make these decisions and determinations. There are just too many variables in different people and different mattresses for anyone else to say for certain which is the best mattress for you. While there are many people who can give you the “in person” help and guidance that can greatly improve your odds of success and buying a mattress that works well for you … even with this only you can really know how a mattress performs and feels to you. Only you can feel what your body feels.
In “theory” and based on what a large group of people would experience … the Allura is a mattress that would work for many people with your body shape and sleeping style but this has nothing to do with knowing if you are in this group of people. There are always exceptions and only your own personal experience on a mattress can know if you are one of the exceptions. There is no expert in the world who can feel what you feel or experience what you experience to the point of making decisions for you. A mattress may be perfect in terms of pressure relief and alignment (your needs) and yet you may still not like it at all (preferences) in terms of how it feels or some of it’s other qualities besides the “essentials”.
This is because any advice that you are given by someone else is always theory. If it’s given by someone who can’t see you on a mattress then it’s what I call “theory at a distance”. Only you can know what you actually experience on a mattress. Everything else is guidelines and recommendations based on shifting the odds more in your favor.
You are only reading some of the information and this is giving you an incomplete picture. 3-4 inches is a guideline to start from but if you read the rest of the overviews you will see that this can be affected by the different types of materials and construction and how different layers are put together and by an infinite amount of factors that are unique to each mattress and each person.
In addition to this there is no such thing as “supportive” memory foam. It is all soft which is why it’s is not used as a support layer. It is just soft in different ways from other foams and there is a “range of softness” between different types of memory foam. It takes more time to get to it’s level of softness though and for those who are “rating it” through it’s initial feel or because of how it feels with movement it can feel much firmer than it really is because it takes more time to get soft. This may not work well for those who are more sensitive to the “unsoftened” memory foam and they would do better to choose a faster reacting memory foam (or no memory foam at all) that has a narrower range between it’s relative softness and firmness level with different amounts of pressure, heat, and humidity. There are hundreds of different types of memory foam and you can read about the different variables that memory foam may have in post #9 here. HD has nothing to do with softness/firmness … it has to do with density which is very different and only loosely connected with firmness or softness. Higher density foams can be both softer or firmer than lower density foams depending on how each is made.
Of course I can see that anything that has to do with mattresses can be confusing and seemingly contradictory for many people who do not have the knowledge and experience to fully understand and sort out the many pieces of interacting and sometimes conflicting information. This is made worse because so much of the information that is out there is misleading or incorrect. It can take years (and some would say a lifetime) to learn the art and theory of mattress construction and how it relates to different types of people. This is why the help and guidance of someone who already knows what you would otherwise have to learn (with all the confusion and frustration this can involve when you are dealing with so many counterintuitive pieces of information) can be the most important tool you have.
Even here though … you need to trust the messages of your own body rather than experts who can only give you guidance but not make your decisions for you. People who can actually see how your respond to a mattress and can receive your feedback in real time are in the best position to help you but even this is “theory” and the only “facts” in the end are your own experience on a mattress and this needs to be the ultimate basis for your choices.
Phoenix
foam is not used as supportive layer? then why is tempurpedic using foam as supportive layers in all its mattresses?
Hi richardb,
Of course foam is used as a supportive layer. Memory foam though which is a specific type of foam isn’t. Tempurpedic uses polyurethane foam in their support (deeper) layers and memory foam in their comfort (upper) layers.
There is more information about the materials used in comfort layers here (along with more detailed pages in the section) and materials used in support layers here (along with more detailed pages in this section as well).
Phoenix