I’m hoping that you can help us.
I have read thru a lot of your posts (very informative- thank you) but have not found what I am looking for…
We have a bed with slats and a metal centre beam. We have tried a couple of mattresses, but I didn’t realize that the type of mattress might make a difference. We are both side sleepers and prefer a pillow top feeling with support below. From the tag off my mattress, it looks like we have a Latex Rubber mattress. (Polyurethane Foam, Latex Rubber, Visco Elastic Foam, Polyester Fibres, Cashmere)
The one BIG issue that we have is that the centre beam is the highest/ firmest part of the bed, with insufficient support elsewhere. We tried putting a piece of plywood under the mattress, which helped a little, but we still wake up at night.
We don’t know if we need to buy a new mattress or a new bed, or both.
Would a “Bunky Board” help?
While I don’t know the specifics of the design of your mattress and the type and thickness of each of the layers and components inside it … based on the information you listed I would guess that your mattress wouldn’t legitimately qualify to be called a latex mattress or even a latex hybrid mattress (latex top layers with a different type of support system) because there may not be enough latex inside it to make a significant difference to the feel and performance of the mattress and I’m guessing that your mattress is possibly a major brand mattress (such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster) that only uses a relatively thin layer of latex that is more for “label copy” than anything else in combination with the other materials that probably include some lower quality/density and less durable foams that would be much more likely to soften and break down much more quickly than latex.
This could be the result of either the support system you are using under the mattress, the mattress itself, or a combination of both.
Your support system under the mattress may have a rigid center support beam with legs to the floor that provides good support in the center of the mattress but it may not provide suitable support on each side of the center support beam. If the support system flexes on each side of the center or if there are gaps in the support system that are large enough to allow the mattress to sag into any gaps in the support surface then you can end up with ridges or “hills” in the middle of the mattress and “valleys” on each side where you sleep. This can be particularly common with king size mattresses where each edge of the two twin XL foundations meet in the middle so there would be no flex under the center of your mattress while each of the two twin XL foundations on each side may have some flex which can lead to the dips on each side and a ridge in the middle of your mattress.
In addition to this … if your mattress uses some very low quality and less durable materials (which is very possible given your description of the materials inside it) then the top layers of the mattress where you sleep more often can develop soft spots or visible or virtual impressions under the areas where you sleep much more quickly than higher quality and more durable materials and the area where you sleep less in the middle of the mattress may still be maintaining more of it’s original height than the parts of the mattress where you sleep more often. This can be particularly common in pillowtop mattresses that use thicker layers of lower quality foam in the comfort layers. In some cases the foams or fibers can also shift away from the areas where you sleep more often and bunch towards the middle of the mattress where you sleep less often.
If the layers are bunched and are somewhat “stuck” inside the mattress it may be worthwhile trying to carefully grab the edges on each side and try and lift and “wave” or pull the layers towards each side to see if it helps (but again you need to be careful not to rip or tear the materials inside the mattress). It may also be worthwhile sleeping more in the middle of the mattress for a while or even flipping the mattress upside down for a few days (although this would be relatively uncomfortable without a topper on top of the firmer support surface) with the plywood underneath it to see if you can even out the sleeping surface to some degree. Of course this won’t help if the reason is lower quality foam layers that are compressing and developing visible impressions.
You mentioned that putting plywood under the mattress didn’t help (or only helped a little) and if you try some of the other suggestions and it still doesn’t help it would “point to” the problem being more in the mattress than in the support system underneath it
If nothing else helps then there are also some suggestions in post #4 here for mattresses that are too soft or that have developed visible or virtual impressions that may also be helpful in some cases or to some degree … at least on a partial or temporary basis.
Thank you!
I will try some of your suggestions and see what happens…
btw: I had a chance to check; it is a Simmons Beautyrest World Class Connoisseur.
Thanx again!!
Unfortunately Simmons, Sealy, and Serta (and many other mainstream manufacturers) all tend to use lower quality and less durable materials in their mattresses that tend to soften and break down prematurely, Simmons in particular uses top foam layers in their World Class mattresses that are as low as .7 lb density (see here for an example) which is the lowest quality/density I have seen in a mattress.
I hope some of the suggestions are helpful and that you have the chance to share your feedback once you’ve had the chance to try them.