Hi TMU, I’m a 5"10 155-165 lbs~ side sleeper. Since moving into my new apartment in February, I’ve purchased first the IKEA Haugesund mattress and then the standard Douglas mattress - both have proven to be some of the worst mattress decisions I’ve ever made in retrospect.
Some of my “symptoms:”
I wake up with intense shoulder/trap soreness and find the middle back also pains me albeit to a lesser extent.
Despite being a predominant side sleeper and (on the rare occasion) back sleeper, I’ve found myself waking up to a stomach sleeping position, which has never happened prior to getting the Douglas.
Tempurpedic Adapt Teal (And what I believe are the Align Soft and Pro-Align Medium) > Bloom Air > Bloom Cloud > Bloom Mist > Kingsdown Hewitt
Despite heading over to Sleep Country and The Bay the trials weren’t really helpful as I don’t trust my subjective feel of the mattress. I knew how to generally rank the list above, but it felt like I was doing it haphazardly without any objective measures for how it’d feel 90, 180 days out… i.e. the IKEA felt ok at first but turned out to be a monster of a sleepwrecker.
I suspect the issue involves BOTH the mattresses’ (IKEA and Douglas) support and core layers being too firm, so I’ve been looking at soft mattresses like Silk & Snow and Novosbed Soft.I’ve considered MFC but couldn’t get past the lack of a return policy and their physical location is in British Columbia so I couldn’t test anything out. I’ve also read parts of the Mattress Selection guide but don’t know how to address my lack of trust in my in-person testing experience.
I’ve considered MFC but couldn’t get past the lack of a return policy and their physical location is in British Columbia so I couldn’t test anything out.
I would really appreciate any recommendations here and advice. Thank you in advance.
Whoa we’re going through the exact same things right now. Similar height, weight, sleeping habits and issues, and being in Canada trying to navigate the crap mattress industry.
The Douglas definitely doesn’t work for us because the top layers are ultrasoft and pretty low-quality mem foam, and then just 32 ILD poly, so we go right through the soft comfort layers and rest on the firm support. And because the memory foam is so soft, it also gives no lower back support or anything. I also found that out the hard way.
I’m currently in the early stages of experimenting but I’ll definitely report on what I find in case it helps you. I know how frustrating it is.
I do still have the Douglas, and the 20 ILD Organic Dunlop 2" topper from MFC should be here on Friday. I’ll put it on the Douglas first and see if it helps with the issues we’re both having. It might not, because it’s basically like adding another 2" of softness on top of 4" of already soft layers, so support might be an issue, but takes nothing for me to try so you have an idea.
If you can’t return the Douglas, I wonder if you could strip the top 4" of their soft mem foam and just use the 32 ILD 6" support core as a base, then add something more suitable to your body type/sleeping positions in terms of comfort layers. You’d already have the cover for 10" so that’s some cost savings. Maybe someone else could chime in about that; I’m also still learning.
Are you also feeling that the comfort layer is too firm? If the mattress is too firm, it’s not impossible to remedy with a topper. However, if you’re facing sort of a too-soft comfort layer with too-firm other layers…that’s a little more problematic.
This is where a 100 night sleep policy can be useful, or purchasing from a place with a rock solid return policy (like Costco). Are you looking to stay away from any materials in specific, or not so much?
Thanks for that! Not sure if this is helpful but I experimented with one of Dormio’s softest latex mattresses today and that was a no-go for me after much internal debate. It’s ultimately still too firm and I feel like latex as a material doesn’t have enough “give” for my taste.
I’m not even sure if what I’m referencing is the comfort vs. support layer being too firm… I have a gut feeling when I physically evaluate I’m typically only judging the softness of the comfort layer. I don’t know if you have any input about this but I was at a place with a Casper Nova Hybrid today for 30% off and I loved the mattress, but no returns are allowed. How’s the composition of the Nova Hybrid in your opinion long-term?
Sorry for the delay, work picked up this week so I haven’t had as much time to test.
The 2" Dunlop 20 ILD topper from MFC came early this week and I put it on the Douglas for a few nights. The good thing is that my shoulder/trap soreness is gone, as is some middle back discomfort, and my neck pain.
But the problem is that the 2" of soft Dunlop on top of the 4" of soft foam of the Douglas still lets my hips sink in too much, which causes dull leg pain throughout the day. Almost like an overextension pain you’d get from exercising with bad form, from my butt down past my knees. Whatever the dominant side I sleep on is, the pain is most noticeable.
So I don’t think this is a good solution. I plan to return my Douglas since I’m still in the sleep trial period and start my DIY instead.
It seems the Douglas with it’s 4" of very soft foam seems to limit the potential of a topper addition for people in our situation.
Hopefully this helps a bit and I can update once I’ve got my DIY situation figured out in case that’s any help to you
Hi, thanks for the response! Since my previous posting, I’ve purchased a Casper Nova Hybrid from SleepCountry. They’ll negotiate down to roughly $1100-1600 if you call around and ask for floor models - it has definitely been an improvement so far but I’m still negotiating some back pain/ trap soreness; unsure if it’s residual pain from the Douglas. I might end up purchasing a Silk & Snow memory foam to test what the “softest of the soft” would feel like for me.
I’ve also purchased a Buckwheat Hull pillow, might recommend that. Good to hear you’re starting on a DIY build.
