Good evening honourable experts of the mattress underground,
I have been reading on this website for several weeks now and have been to a few shops to find a mattress following the tutorial articles & forum recommendations, but find it still difficult to make a choice. I have a bad history with my sleeping arrangement, so I am trying to keep it short. 
I am looking for:
a) An entire new sleeping system (mattresss + slats + frame) in queen size (or buy all things independently)
b) And a new pillow (but that is less important for now I think)
Current Problems
- Pressure points on shoulder creating a VERY stiff neck & upper neck
- Because 1, Tension headaches radiating from the neck onto back of head & face
Preface/Background/Health
1. Tension headaches (daily!) for 3+ years now.
Mostly caused by not sinking into the mattress & pillow being too low (side sleeping) or too high (back sleeper)
2. Impingement Syndrome for about 15months now
Got the syndrome through a stupid overhead movement. Have been going to physiotherapy, but back & neck being stiff & pressure on shoulder when side sleeping makes most of the physio undone. Will continue once I have a good sleeping system.
3. I have 9 pillows at home (none of which really works)
The best one is a really old tempur with a neckroll, but it is too low (when on side) & foam is breaking down into a soft mush
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Only slept on cheap IKEA mattresses or old second hand ones (so things got worse over time)
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I will move in 5 weeks to a new place & have to buy everything anew. Hence, have nothing I can take with except my duvet.
Sleeping habits
Side: 70%
Back: 30%
(Stomach usually only subconciously when the rest has become too painful)
(Also, getting a sleep DNA analysis now with a accelerometer to (dis-)confirm this intuition)
My data
Height: 5’ 8" (173cm)
Weight: 154lbs (70kg)
Budget: Max. 1800€ (I may move in 1 years time, so I am unsure as to buy something too expesnvie)
Sleeping style: Side (70%)x& back (30%)
Mattress Preferences
I like plushy soft mattresses. I wanna be able to sink in really nicely and feel like I am on a cloud.
Latex & Soft PU Foam toppers/comfort layers feel great. Memory foam feels nice too if it is soft and responds quickly. Otherwise can make me feel a bit trapped.
As long as the topper forms a nice cradle on me, I have no preference for core layer as long as it is durable. Because I tend to get warm, springs might be a good idea, but I think it is not a huge problem.
Experience with retailers
Most stores around a large chains with staff that is less knowledgable about mattresses & their own equipment than me after reading on this site for 2 hours.
At a smaller and more trustworthy retailer I got the opportunity to get my so-called SleepDNA & SleepID tested by:
- Have an automatically adjusting slatted frame contour to my body shape & print the results for different depths for shoulder & hip regions in units of the ErgoSleep slatted frame they sell. The adjustment felt GREAT removing ALL the pressure from my problem points.
- Get an accelorometer to have my SleepID measured over the next 4 days (will update post here with results).
He is a minimalist and thinks it makes most sense given my neck and shoulder health problems to buy a frame like that to get the nice sinking in effect. He said that a good mattress should do something similar by letting my pointy body parts sink in, but the frame has a much greater depth as a slate can be set to 5cm lower which a lot of mattresses cannot compare to. He said I could buy the ErgoSleep frame for a single bed (~750€) and try it with my current mattress and hold off on buying a new mattress unless I really feel after a month or two that I need a better one.
I then tried 3 mattresses of 90cmx200cm because I wanted to know what else he has to offer: 1 full talalay latex from LeDorm (~1500€), 1 full gelfoam mattress from SwissFlex (900€) and a full PU-Foam mattress whose brand I forgot (500€). The SwissFlex felt the softest/most cushioning, followed by Latex, and then the PU-Foam. Did not yet get details on ILD, FoamDensity etc.
At a different shop a week before that, I tried a boxspring compination with a memoryfoam or latex topper for 1500€ and liked it too, but it is difficult to compare these systems when not immediately followed by another, so I am unsure how good it is compared to the latex mattress & ergo frame combination.
Questions
[b]
- Is it worth buying an expensive adjustable slatted frame if I will buy a high quality mattress anyway? I.e. won’t the sinking-in qualities of the mattress strongly reduce the influence the adjustable frame has?
- For my budget of about max. 1700€ what sleeping system/mattress would you recommend given my neck & shoulder issues?[/b]