Hi all! Im looking for some guidance after doing alot of research.
For some time ive had back low issues and have been diagnosed with retrolisthesis. A spondolothesis condition where one of my lumbar vertebrae is sliding backwards posteriorly. Im a back/side combo sleeper that weighs 230lbs 5’ 10" and has very broad shoulders.
I originally replaced my old mattress with a costco novaform 14". Sank way too much at my hip area.
Then tried an off brand “firm” made by brookly bedding. One of there cheap offerings made for 3rd party suppliers then rebranded. Still sank too much.
I then tried a couple higher end offerings from jonathan stevens, a local MI company using high grade materials. Still sank too much.
Im trying an engineered sleep duo in memory foam latex combo at 4" depth on top. Still sank too much at the hips. I then swapped the memory plus top for the latex plus topnwith 4" of dunlop latex and still sank too much at my hip area.
Now i have opted to return the ES duo completely. The past few nights i have slept on the ED latex plus top ONLY at 4" of dunlop latex. I placed the top section directly on top of plywood over my bed frame slats and this has been the best sleep ive gotten in months. The first night i woke up cracking and semi sore but by the second night i woke up refreshed and nearly back pain free. I do bottom out the 4" dunlop topper to where i can feel the hardness/solid plywood however its still borderline enough cushion for me.
So which mattress would you suggest for what im currently enjoying? Ive been looking at the back science offerings for the added lumber support, however idk if this would be firm enough to where my body would be held up with a little bit of contouring just enough to fill my low back and replicate the 4" dunlop on plywood i currently have. Which suppliers offer a truly firm mattress with nearly no give to replicate the current plywood setup?
Hi Firm95 and welcome to the forums and thanks for reaching out on this! If 4" of Dunlop worked for you but you just want to keep from bottoming out, I think a 7" all-latex mattress could be ideal! You could order it with 2 extra firm layers if you’d like, and if it’s too firm you could request a layer exchange within the trial period where, for $30 we’ll send you a firm layer and you send back an extra firm layer, for example. You can read more about the mattress here - https://sleepez.com/product/natural-latex-mattress/
Thank you for your reply! Do you think the 2 layers of extra firm would be ideal for what i want? What are the firmness specs on your firm and extra firm layers? As far as ILD rating?
OK, in that case, I’d recommend 3" of soft over 3" of firm and that should be very close in feel to what you’ve tried but should keep you from bottoming out on the mattress.
For both Talalay and Dunlop, our soft is 19-22 ILD, medium is 30-32 ILD, firm is 37-40 ILD, and extra firm is 44 ILD. In terms of actual densities, soft is 65 kg per cubic meter, medium is 75, firm is 85, and extra firm is 95. Soft is 4.06 pounds per cubic foot, medium is 4.68, firm is 5.31, and extra firm is 5.93.
I am 235 at 5ft 11in. I have BackScience 2. The lumbar support is great! No more back pain. Hips sink down about 2.5 inches. BS2 is a luxury firm. If you want more firmness, there is BS1. I didnt spend much time on BS1 because it was simply too firm to me.
It looks like you’ve received some good help from EZ. If you need to look further, check out Sleep on Latex. They offer Med. and Firm.
The Medium is often described as being very firm. They will happily provide all of the specs on the latex layers. Good luck!