Ultimate Dreams 10' Latex vs Ultimate Dreams 13' Gel Foam

[phoenix]

Hi wh200,

Thanks again for this great forum, Phoenix!! This is amazingly helpful to so many people. Do you do this full time?

Does an average of 16 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year count as "full time?

I am currently debating between the Ultimate Dreams 10’ Latex Mattress and the Ultimate Dreams 13’ Gel Foam Mattress. I have not had the opportunity to lay on a latex mattress, so I’m not sure what to expect. I did feel a latex pillow recently, and it was completely bouncy like a balloon. Is this the feel I should expect of the Latex mattress? Would it be like sleeping on a big inflated latex rubber glove? I would greatly appreciate if you could describe the difference in the feel of the two mattresses…especially since the Latex mattress is only a 3" topper (on top of a foam base) and not a total latex mattress.

Latex and memory foam is really an apples to oranges comparison because they are completely different. You can read more about the comparison in post #2 here and the links it includes.

The "feel’ of a latex mattress will depend on the design and layering of the mattress. Latex is certainly more resilient than other types of foam but it’s resilience (bounce) and feel can be modified by the design of the mattress, the softness/firmness and type of latex, the cover and quilting in the mattress, and the other components of the mattress. There really is no “one” feel for latex and no substitute for testing both because different people will feel and describe the differences in different ways depending on the type and design of the both the memory foam mattress and the latex mattress they are comparing. Both have a very wide range of different “feels” although properties like “slow response” or “energy absorbing” for memory foam and “fast response and high resilience” for latex are common to all versions of both materials.

Because the quilting material in the Ultimate Dreams uses a relatively thin layer (1.5") of polyfoam … it will modify the response of the latex and will have a surface feel that is less resilient or “bouncy” than sleeping directly on latex itself that has no other quilting materials to modify it. Some people prefer sleeping directly on latex while others prefer some type of quilting foam or fiber (such as wool) to modify the feel and performance of the latex.

Phoenix