Hi Phoenix,
Until 2 years ago, I never owned anything but an old-school innerspring mattress with traditional non-pocketed coils. Most of that time was spent on a relatively firm (cushion firm) Sealy Posturpedic which was great for 8+ years until the very minimal amount of padding compressed enough over the years to start causing pressure points. It was later replaced by a cheap Denver Mattress model (Winter Park firm) which I believe uses a similar offset coil design. The Denver Mattress was purchased solely as a ābaseā for a latex topper however and it served its purpose well until I moved out of state and left it behind.
2 years ago, we relocated back to Colorado (leaving the Denver Mattress behind) and purchased a Simmons Beautyrest Black plush model which worked great for a couple of months or so until my wife and I both started having pain in our hip area. We mistakenly thought this was pressure point related (tried various toppers unsuccessfully), but later realized that it was instead alignment related!
Over the past year, weāve unsuccessfully tried every DIY latex combination humanly possible and were never able to find one that we really liked. Too firm, too soft, alignment related pain in the hip/glute/sciatic nerve area, you name it. Nothing ever felt quite right.
Then we recently purchased a Tempurpedic Cloud series which was great for a few weeks and then softened up enough to where my hips seem to be sinking in too far again and causing pain in the hip/glute/sciatic nerve area by morning. The Tempurpedic went back to the store after 3 months.
Hereās the kickerā¦Iām 5ā11, 160 lbs max - side sleeper. My wife is 5ā3", 110 lbs max - side sleeper. Weāre not heavy people, yet we both experience similar pain and issues which I truly believe are all alignment related.
I travel a couple of days a month for work and sleep at a lot of cheap business class hotels (Holiday Inns, various Marriott brand hotels, etc) and I almost always sleep great with no pain in the morning! Occasionally, I end up on a too-firm mattress which gives me pressure point issues, but 80% of the time, I sleep great when I travel. The last couple of nights I was out of town and slept on what looked to be a roughly 10 year old Four Comfort Sealy Posturpedic āplushā model which was made for Four Points by Sheraton (ironically I was at a Holiday Inn but I believe they bought the property from another chain recently). It was a pretty firm bed overall (not sure how they came up with the āplushā label) and I slept great. I noticed the Posturpedic coil system (offset coils I believe) causes a wide area of the mattress to flex when laying on the bed, so there is a gradual slope that goes from my feet all the way to my hips, with the angle gradually growing larger as it approaches my hip area. But my hips donāt appear to sink in very far relative to the area around them at all. In fact, at first glance it appears that my hips are barely sinking in at all, but itās because the entire area around them has also sunken in. This is much different than pocketed coils, latex, Tempurpedic, etc where my hips always appear to be quite a bit lower āintoā the mattress than the area directly next to them. I believe that my hip/glute/sciatic nerve related pain issues lie somewhere in this difference.
Similarly, we rented a condo in Mexico for a week last month and slept on a cheap Serta Perfect Sleeper (it was a pillow top but quite old and very firm for a pillow top - it felt like most hotel beds I sleep on) and I slept PHENOMENALLY for the week we were there. No pain, slept like a log all week. Came back home and had pain again immediately after sleeping on the Tempurpedic.
So I figured Iād ask the expertā¦WHY do some of these more old-school coil systems seem to work better for me? I guess I need to go out and just buy a mid-grade innerspring without pocketed coils in order to finally get some relief! But WHY?
Last, if I go this route (and Iām starting to really think that I should), do you have any thoughts on offset coils (i.e. Sealy Posturpedic) vs. continuous coils (i.e. Serta Perfect Sleeper)?
Thanks Phoenix!