Some body type background I am 6’4" 205lbs. Sleep 80% on my side and 20% on my back. Athletic build, Mid 30s.
So what I have now from top to bottom.
Bestway Foam 2" Memory Foam 3 lb/ft3, 8 IFD
Latex Mattress Factor 3" 19 ILD Talalay
Sleep on Latex Medium 3"
Sleep on Latex Firm 3"
I started without the 2" of memory foam on top and I HURT. The pain was terrible. With the memory foam it was great, but now that the mattress is starting to break in I am getting lower back pain at about 7 hours of sleep. Luckily all of my upper back pain is gone and my upper back and neck haven’t felt this great in year.
I like how solid the mattress feels. I had a coil base before from a LMS and it was really firm and bouncy. I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to a coil base, but I like the idea of a thin mattress that doesn’t take up a bunch of room. I think a zoned feature would help because I’m definitely at a very slight V. Not enough support under my hips is causing my lower back to hurt.
What I’m trying to figure out is how do I make this mattress “perfect” or at least approaching that precipice. I want to take off the memory foam because it’ll be spring and summer soon. My thought was taking away the bottom FIRM layer and replacing it with the Med 3" SOL I already have, and buying a new 3" 28 ILD Talalay Blend from Arizona PM as my middle layer.
All the companies I have purchased from have been really great to work with. Big kudos to all of you have gone through the hassle to make a great mattress affordable to all of us not in the industry. Its been a fun process.
Hi Lance and welcome to the forums and thanks for reaching out on this! Before you spend money on a new layer, my advice would be to move the firm layer up a level so you would be on memory foam over 3" soft Talalay over 3" firm over 3" medium. This should retain all the pressure relief and secondary back support you’re getting from the memory foam and Talalay layers, but it will increase the primary back support because the firm layer is closer to the surface. If you try that and things get better but not perfect, maybe move the firm layer directly under the soft Talalay layer.
My understanding is… the further latex gets compressed the more resistance it has correct? So given X amount of depth, at a certain point it kind of zones itself? Because your hips sink further into the mattress and experience more force against them. But this only works if the mattress isn’t over thick?
Like many materials the more you compress it, the more resistance it will incur.
The deeper you sink into a latex mattress, the more the material compresses and the greater the resistance you feel, which is especially noticeable at high-pressure points like your hips and shoulders. When a latex block is measure at 25% it will produce an ILD, and then at 65% compression, a higher ILD (the difference is know as its support factor or compression modulus as measured on a 4" thick block 20"x20")
As for your second point, yes, the thickness of the mattress can play a role. A mattress that is too thick may allow you to sink too far down before the latex material can effectively provide support, which could potentially lead to a feeling of being “stuck” or less supportive overall.
However, if the mattress has a reasonable depth, the material will compress at the right zones to provide better support, contouring to your body without letting you sink too much.
At least this is my interpretation. The two latex experts may see it differently, but this is more of a generalization.
Hopefully, this helps, but LMF and APM are the true latex experts.