I spent a lot of time at the great resource back in “the day” before I purchased my current mattress. I landed on a 6" Talalay medium firmness from a local producer, Portland Mattress Makers. I’ve had said mattress for almost 13 years now.
I’ve been generally happy with it, but my partner has always had some gripes, but ultimately it was a queen and hers was a full, so we went with the bigger bed.
We added a 2" soft SoL topper a little over a year ago, and while it seemed to add comfort at first, my partner is still experiencing pain/discomfort/soreness in the morning.
She’s mostly a side sleeper and says it’s her hips and lower back that both her in the morning. Whenever she sleeps somewhere else, even if she doesn’t find said mattress comfortable (some are much firmer), she always immediately notices discomfort after a night of rest back at home.
I’ll say she’s 5’ 5" probably 135#. That’s hopefully close enough to give an idea of her size.
She has finally conceded that I am right and we should get a new mattress, especially since we’ve decided to upgrade to a king due to our current dog being a bit of a hog…
While we don’t live locally anymore, we plan to swing by a Portland Mattress Makers showroom this evening so that she can try out some mattresses.
Would love to hear some recommendations & suggestions.
Hi Seanmells,
Welcome back to the Mattress Underground! 13 years is a nice run for a mattress.
It sounds like what you are saying is that she has less pain elsewhere, even on a quite firm mattress. Talalay is thought of as being more contouring, while Dunlop is ‘springier’, some people think of it as firmer, yet still having some contouring.
Many people find that they like a firm support layer, with cushioning on top (such as the SoL topper you added).
Hard to say over the internet, but you may want to try a firmer configuration, with a fairly firm support layer and a cushioning top layer or a topper added. When trying out the mattress, as your wife is laying down, see if her spine is straight. You want a neutral spine. If it is uneven, that can be one reason for pain. The right mattress will give you the right kind of support so that your spine is straight.
I don’t know where you are, exactly, but we have a showroom in Portsmouth, NH if you would like to visit. Most of our mattresses are customizable firmness. We specialize in those made from high-quality organic and natural materials. We’d be happy to help you!
I would say she specifically notices her pain and discomfort with our mattress when she returns to it.
For instance, she will sleep on a traditional Japanese-style sleep system, tatami mats with Japanese futon pad which is certainly on the firmer side, and find it uncomfortable in the moment. Yet upon returning home, she will have pain and discomfort in the morning from our mattress which feels more comfortable to her while she is falling asleep. The same was true when visiting my parents recently. They have a sleep sofa with a very soft air mattress. She immediately noticed discomfort when we returned home.
It seems obvious our current latex mattress is not supporting her, but I’m unsure of whether she needs something firmer or just "more supportive’. Perhaps our current mattress truly is worn out. She has mentioned she sometimes feels a sinking/sagging sensation.
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What is your mattress sitting on? Sometimes trying it on the floor or with a board underneath can tell you if you need more support or something firmer or not. (It’s not a long term solution - at least not on the floor - but it is a way to diagnose). If the slats are more than 3" apart, the mattress could be sagging from that.
We got a Thuma bedframe about a year ago to see if that might help. I seems to be high quality, certainly more so than my previous frame with some cheap flexy slats.
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Ah, ok - so that is not the issue.
If the mattress has a 10 yr warranty - then it may be possible that, at 13 years, it is done. As I’m sure you know, the warranty is often a window into the expectation of length of use.
Trip to the store was informative. I think we are now able to say she just doesn’t like the way latex supports her. After laying in many beds, she tried the full Talalay model and realized she thinks it might be too supportive and feels as though it is pushing her hips out of alignment when she lays on her side.
We narrowed it down to two options; a pocketcoil model with both latex and memory foam as comfort layers, and a full memory foam mattress.
The manufacturer mentioned for the pocketcoil model they are able to upgrade from 1-sided to 2-sided for 20% more. It seems that could be helpful for long-term wear and durability, but I’m also curious if it’s necessary considering either way it would carry the same pro-rated 10 year warranty. They are unable to finish the other side of the memory foam option, which makes sense.