I am an average sized man (5’11" 160 lb) and sleep combo side and back. I’m currently on a purple hybrid (2" one) but it is causing me a lot of problems with my lumbar. Despite this one often reviewed as “too firm” my butt seems to sink down way too low on my back, while my lower and upper back barely do at all. I also trialed an Amerisleep AS3 but that was giving me problems higher in the back, probably from being too soft. My wife is on an AS2 and that is clearly too hard for me to side sleep.
I went over to Urban Mattress and sat on everything, expecting to like the memory foam or the latex hybrids. Surprisingly I like the essential collection which is HR cold foam. Specifically the silver lake firm which has the below construction
Stretch-knit fiber over 2 layers of 1.5 inch Certi-pur 3 lb HR Cold Foam
2 inches of Certi-pur 3 lb HR Cold Foam
Firm: 884 6 inch 14.5 gauge pocketed coil with firm edge
This bed felt very supportive to me om my back with limited store time, and soft on my shoulder on my side.
But I am paranoid now of going too soft after my last mattress. Is 5 inches of cold HR foam too much? And will these materials be quality and lasting?
Welcome to The Mattress Underground ! Thanks for your question.
Thanks for including your personal stats for providing insights on your sleep preferences, Charles. I’m sorry to learn of the lumbar issues you had with your Purple Hybrid, as well as higher back discomfort from the Amerisleep AS3. Good to know that your wife is sleeping well on an AS2 and wish that would work out for you both; however to your point, firmer mattresses can be difficult for the side sleeping position of your combo side and back preferences.
[quote]I went over to Urban Mattress and sat on everything, expecting to like the memory foam or the latex hybrids. Surprisingly I like the essential collection which is HR cold foam. Specifically the silver lake firm which has the below construction
[indent]Stretch-knit fiber over 2 layers of 1.5 inch Certi-pur 3 lb HR Cold Foam
2 inches of Certi-pur 3 lb HR Cold Foam
Firm: 884 6 inch 14.5 gauge pocketed coil with firm edge
This bed felt very supportive to me om my back with limited store time, and soft on my shoulder on my side.[/indent]
But I am paranoid now of going too soft after my last mattress. Is 5 inches of cold HR foam too much? And will these materials be quality and lasting?[/quote]
Congrats on your new mattress shopping journey ! Thanks for providing spec details on the Silver Lake/ firm model. I took a peek at Urban Mattress’s web site to see what other information may be there and saw that this model is recommended for back and side sleepers. Generally speaking, HR/ High Resiliency polyfoam is considered the highest grade of polyfoam and weighs in at 2.5 lbs per cu. ft. or more. A 3 lb density should provide a durable comfort feel, you would want to verify that its support factor is 2.4 or higher, an important part of why an HR polyfoam has the qualities it does, as it is made with a different chemical formula and has a different cell structure than that of HD or conventional polyfoams. I used Urban Mattress’s web chat to ask that question, but the chatbot responded that someone would be with me later (I did include an email address and will update you when someone replies). Based on the above specs, the Silver Lake/ Firm could be a good fit for you in terms of a firmer feel and durability, plus they guarantee a no sag/ 15 year replacement option, 100 night sleep trial, and one comfort exchange after a 30 day period. Have you tried any other models recently? Looking forward to hearing your updates and thanks.
Thanks for the detailed reply. Yeah I’ve spent a lot of time laying on mattresses. Before we got a new bed two years ago we had a latex topper on a spring mattress and it was fine, no pain, but I really didn’t like how springy the foam was. I could survive with a latex bed but it’s just not a feeling I prefer. Without the latex topper, the firm spring mattress made my arm numb on my side almost every night.
In my head I really want to like memory foam but I’m concerned about all foam beds and supportiveness. I feel like a hybrid option is right for me with a firm coil base and some sort of comfort foam. What kind of foam and the thickness is the question. While latex and HR polyfoam hybrids seem easy to find, I see fewer memory foam hybrids on coils. I was also looking at the ghostbed flex for this reason and maybe the nest Alexander hybrid, but wary of not being able to try them out first.
I wasn’t even thinking I’d like the HR option but when I laid on it it gave me a feeling somewhere between the bouncy latex and the dead memory foam that I enjoyed. Mostly I was worried about durability and supportiveness with the foam being so thick, but I’m thinking that won’t be an issue.
I went ahead and ordered the Silver Lake. Because of covid looks like delivery may take a while, but I’ll report back after I’ve had some time to sleep on it.
Congrats on your new mattress purchase, Charlie ! Hopefully the delivery won’t take too long, there are still some supply chain backlogs out there and the manufacturers are working hard to keep production schedules as timely as possible. I’ll be looking forward to your reporting on the Silver Lake HR Cold Foam mattress following a 30 day sleep adjustment period. Good luck and rest well soon!
Wanted to quickly update after 6 or so months on this mattress. It’s easily the best thing I’ve had for side sleeping, but I do still get lower back pain when sleeping on my back. Luckily I am really a majority side sleeper. I have to conclude that anything that works for me on my side is going to be marginally too soft for me on my back and I’m not sure a dream combo mattress exists, at least not for me.
One surprising thing is that the tufting is really deep on this mattress and depending on where my butt is in relation to the peaks and valleys it changes my spine alignment in a notable way. I’ve never noticed anyone talk about this before, but if I was doing it again Id probably look for a non tufted mattress. Not sure I’d you’ve ever encountered this before
! Thanks for your question.