We bought a Brooklyn Bedding 10" Essence Natural Latex Bed late last year with a medium firmness topper.
We recently got back from a vacation where the mattress was soft or had a soft topper. We co-sleep with our child and he slept the best he has in a very long time. I think he likes a softer bed. My wife also had the same experience. She likes the softer bed.
So, what are our options? With the Essence we have the removable comfort layer. Should we try to get a soft layer and replace the medium? I’ve seen some posts about toppers such as the lanoodle. Is it better to just put an lanoodle topper on top?
In short I’d like to know what are the recommendations of the community? Should we swap out the comfort layer or should we add a topper to create the softer feel?
You are past the timeframe where you would be able to exchange your comfort layer so you would need to purchase an additional layer to either replace the layer that is inside your mattress or to add as an additional topper.
There is some risk involved in both directions (replacing the layer or adding a topper) because there really isn’t any way to know whether a replacement layer or topper would match the firmness or the “feel” of the vacation mattress you slept on until you actually sleep on it … especially if you don’t know the specifics of the mattress that you are trying to match.
Since you will be making a choice based on guesswork I would probably choose a topper where you can make an exchange for a different firmness level if you make a choice that isn’t what you hoped for.
If you have the medium firmness level in your Total Latex Mattress (level 6) then the top layer would be 28 ILD. If you were to choose a 3" latex topper with a lower ILD that was either one or two steps softer (which would be 24 or 19 ILD) that would give you two options. The first option is that you could use the topper inside the mattress to replace the 28 ILD comfort layer that you currently have which would be softer than your current mattress (and would give you an extra layer) or you could add the topper on top of your mattress which would be softer yet. If you purchase the topper from Brooklyn Bedding or another source that offers a firmness exchange for their toppers (a list of topper sources is in post #4 here) you would also have the option to exchange the topper you purchase for a different firmness level at a reasonable cost if your sleeping experience indicated that was necessary as well.
Thanks for the reply. I purchased a lanoodle topper and I look forward to trying it out. If it doesn’t I’ll look into getting a different topper. I hope it doesn’t come to that because I’ll have to find a place to store our medium firmness latex topper. Those don’t pack down very easily!
As you probably know I own a Lanoodles topper and I think it’s a great product. It will add some extra softness/pressure relief and has a surface feel that I also like a lot.
They can also be used on top of almost anything because in addition to compressing the Lanoodles also “flow” around you so they are much less risky in terms of alignment issues.
I’m looking forward to your feedback when you receive it
[quote]We do have a mattress protector on top of it. I hope that it is not inhibiting the flow of the topper.
Do you have a mattress protector over it? Do you have any recommendations?[/quote]
Yes I would use a mattress protector over it but different types of mattress protectors will have a different effect on the feel and performance of your sleeping system (mattress and topper). Unless they were quite thick (more like a mattress pad than a protector) they should have a relatively small effect on the feel and performance of the topper. There is more in post #89 here about the pros and cons of different types of mattress protectors.
