I have tried three mattresses so far 
(thank god for the free return policy!) The problem seems to be that I have very broad shoulders (but am not large) and I have back problems. Firm enough to support my back leaves my shoulders/arms numb and aching. Soft enough for my shoulders (and feels good at first on my back) leaves my back, hips, quads are messed up… so the solution seems to be some kind of zoned mattress- i.e. softer in the shoulder area, but I can’t seem to find anything like that! Right now I have a soft topper over the top of the mattress and that kind of helps, but is weird and uneven. Any suggestions appreciated! I’m buying a twin mattress (my husband already has a twin that works for him and we’ll create a king together). Oh, I live in the US
Hi liodjfas,
It’s certainly possible that the 3 mattresses you tried (which I’m assuming were purchased online) just weren’t suitable for you in terms of “comfort” firmness, and PPP and that another mattress either with or without zoning may be a more suitable choice.
Having said that … zoning systems of various types can sometimes be useful and worth considering for people that have more difficulty finding a mattress with the right “balance” between comfort/pressure relief (under the shoulders especially) and support/alignment (under the hips/pelvis especially) or who have more challenging circumstances or sensitivities, body types that are more difficult to “match” to a mattress, more complex medical issues, or who have a history of having more difficulty in finding a mattress that works well for them. There is more about zoning in this article and in post #11 here and the additional posts it links to but the only way to know whether any specific mattress (zoned or otherwise) will be a good “match” for you in terms of PPP will be based on your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) or your own personal experience.
I don’t keep a record of the individual mattresses or their specs that the retailers and manufacturers in the hundreds of forum lists throughout the forum carry on their floor or have available online (it would be a bigger job than anyone could keep up with in a constantly changing market) but checking their websites and making some preliminary phone calls to the retailers/manufacturers that are on the local lists is always a good idea before you decide on which retailers or manufacturers you wish to deal with anyway. This will tell you which of them carry mattresses that would meet your specific criteria, are transparent about the materials in their mattresses, and that carry the type of mattresses that you are interested in that are also in the budget range you are comfortable with. Once you have checked their websites and/or talked with the ones that interest you then you will be in a much better position to decide on the ones that you are most interested in considering or visiting based on the results of your preliminary research and conversations.
There are hundreds of zoned mattresses in the market in many different mattress categories most of which use “fixed” zones but there are a few that use customizable zones as well. Some of the ones that use customizable zones include Flobeds vZone and the Reverie Dream Mattresses (although they aren’t “zoned” in the more traditional sense of the word because they have cylinders that can be rearranged to provide different levels of firmness and feel), I believe that Bay Bed & Mattress (which are innerspring/latex hybrids) also offers some zoning options, some of the Sleeptek/Obasan mattresses also have separate zoned sections that can be changed and Elements of Rest in Atlanta also have some mattresses that have customizable zoning (although they aren’t all latex). There are probably others as well that don’t immediately come to mind.
If you let me know your city or zip code I’d be happy to let you know about any of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in your area so you can check to see if any of them carry zoned mattresses.
Phoenix