Thank you so much for this site! It has been tremendously helpful and informative. I’ve learned so much about things I never even thought of when I started looking into purchasing a mattress.
I was thinking of purchasing a Dream foam Ultimate Dream mattress from Amazon after much research through this site but having a hard time deciding on the firmness level.
I am 5’5 145lbs and she is 5’ 110lbs. I am generally a side/stomach sleeper and she is a back sleeper but we have been tossing/turning so often at night that we do not know which position anymore
We both preferred on firm mattress so we have come to a choice between the 2 or 3 firmness level with the bed. I was wondering if the level 2 firmness would be too hard for us. I was wondering if anyone had some more insight of just how soft/firm they might be.
This is one of the most common questions on the forum (ie. which mattress type or firmness level would be better for me?) and there is some fairly extensive general information in the mattresses section of the site (particularly in the sections about sleeping style, preferences, and statistics along with putting the layers together and the page on tips and tricks here) that can give you some general concepts, guidelines, and insights about the effects of different body types, sleeping styles, and mattress designs for different people but this is only generic and not specific to any particular person and may be more complex than you really need to know.
The mattress shopping tutorial here has the basic information, steps, and guidelines including suggestions about how to test a mattresses for for what I call PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can simplify your search and help you make the best possible choices. Perhaps most importantly it can also help you avoid the worst ones (like the major manufacturers or any manufacturer or brand that doesn’t disclose the quality of the materials in their mattresses and most mass market stores that have little knowledge about the mattresses they sell).
There are far too many variables and unknowns (body types, sleeping styles, preferences, physiology, age, health conditions, sensitivities, special circumstances etc) to use any formula, specs (either yours or a mattress), or “theory at a distance” based on basic height/weight/sleeping position information or any other person’s experience to choose a suitable mattress that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful and objective testing on local mattresses (using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post) that you can use to decide on a mattress that is “best” for you in terms of PPP (whether it is for a local purchase or as a guideline for an online purchase)
If personal testing on similar mattresses locally isn’t possible (either because there are no reasonably similar mattresses that you can find locally or because you have difficulty finding out more detailed specs of mattresses you are testing) … then the next best way is more detailed discussions with an online manufacturer or retailer themselves. They are much more familiar with their own mattress designs and materials than anyone else (including me) and they can use the information you provide them about your body type and sleeping positions, your preferences, your history on different mattresses, and the results of your local testing to make suggestions based on the “averages” of other customers that may be similar to you. The more accurate and detailed the information you provide them the better you will help them to help you make the best possible choices out of the options they have available. Of course the options you have available with each retailer or manufacturer (or with a particular mattress) and your ability to exchange layers or the mattress itself or use other forms of fine tuning after your purchase or the return policy may also be an important part of your personal value equation or to offset the risk that can go with any online purchase.
Post #2 here also has more about the different ways to buy a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for your body type, sleeping positions, and preferences that can help you assess and minimize the risks involved in each of them.
So I’m always happy to help the forum members here with “how” to choose, to act as a "fact check, or to help them find better manufacturers or retailers that have better quality and value but “what” to choose in terms of either a mattress or the balance between comfort/pressure relief and support/alignment that may be suitable for a specific person is always up to the only person who can feel what you feel on a mattress and best left to personal testing and your own experiences or more detailed discussions with the more knowledgeable people at the retailers or manufacturers that sell a mattress you are considering.
I will also add that in most cases … if you have a roughly equal choice between two firmness levels that it can often be “safer” to go with slightly firmer because you can always soften the upper layers and improve pressure relief and “comfort” by adding a mattress pad or a topper but it’s much more difficult to firm up the support of a mattress that is too soft (unless you can exchange a layer) because this involves removing or replacing layers or components that are too soft (instead of adding to them) which in most cases can be much more difficult to do.
