Hi shoshacapps,
[quote]Well, we got the mattress and my partner loves it but I am in terrible pain! Started in my shoulders, moved to my neck, and now my whole body is stiff and sore. and I can barely even look from side to side. I have a recurring lower back issue, but upper back/neck pain is pretty new for me. While I know an adjustment period is expected, I can’t imagine it’s supposed to be like this, and after a little experimenting (details below) I see that my alignment on this mattress is nowhere close to a neutral spine.
The problem is, I have no idea if I should go softer or firmer to get there.[/quote]
While it’s not possible to “diagnose” mattress comfort issues on a forum with any certainty because there are too many unique unknowns, variables, and complexities involved that can affect how each person sleeps on a mattress in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or any “symptoms” they experience … there is more 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 identify the types of changes that have the best chance of reducing or eliminating any “symptoms” you are experiencing … at least to the degree that any symptoms are from your mattress rather than the result of any other circumstances or pre-existing issues you may have that may not be connected to a mattress.
The first step I would take though is a more detailed conversation with SleepEZ. They will have more experience than anyone else about the type of changes that would have the best chance of success based on your conversation and on the “averages” of their many customers over the years that have similar circumstances or “symptoms” to yours.
You didn’t mention whether the Savvy Rest layers you tested or the SleepEZ mattress you ordered was using Talalay or Dunlop or a mix of both but if I had to guess based on your comments and feedback I would suggest that the most likely issue is that your upper body and shoulders aren’t sinking in as much as they need to rather than the issue being that you need additional firmness under your hips and I would probably suggest exchanging one of your firm layers for a medium so that you have a little bit of additional softness that would “allow” your shoulders to sink in a little more than they are with the middle firm layer. Having a medium layer would also allow for a wider range of possible configurations that you could try to see how they affected your “symptoms” than having two firm layers.
[quote]Then I had the idea to lay perpendicular to the way the bed was designed (pretty easy to do on a king) so that my hips and lower back were on the firm-firm-firm side and my shoulders were on the firm-soft-soft side…and viola! Perfect alignment, super comfortable. Can’t sleep on it that way, though, because it only works if about 2/3 of my body are on the firm side, and that makes my legs dangle off the bed.
SO…why am I having this issue??? Is there any way to resolve it without a zoned bed? (And what are the chances SleepEZ will cut me custom pieces to make my side of the bed firmer around my hips?)[/quote]
Latex is a very “supportive” material and has a high compression modulus (the rate that a material becomes firmer as you sink into it more deeply) so zoning is generally less necessary with latex than with other types of materials but having said that … zoning systems can certainly be useful and well worth considering for people that have more difficulty finding a mattress with the right “balance” between comfort/pressure relief (under the shoulders especially) and support/alignment (under the hips/pelvis especially) or who have more challenging circumstances or sensitivities, body types that are more difficult to “match” to a mattress, more complex medical issues, or who have a history of having more difficulty in finding a mattress that works well for them. There is more about zoning in this article and in post #11 here and the additional posts it links to.
Phoenix