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I had back pain for a few months last year due to an old innerspring mattress that I slept on while trying to research the new mattress I'd purchase. I'm 5'8 and 250lbs. I purchased a SleepEZ mattress in April: Dunlop firm, Talay medium, Talay soft. I own a high end memory foam pillow and am a side/stomach sleeper.
Over the first 3 months the mattress felt like it might be a little firm, but it seemed to soften with time. By mid may, my back pain was relieved. From July to August, I loved the bed. Starting in September, I began having back trouble and neck/shoulder pain again. My back pain isn't muscle spasms like I'd normally expect, but lower back fatigue. The muscles just feel tired with any sort of activity--even just walking. Additionally, the top of my shoulders are stiff and sore, like I over worked them.
I'm looking for insight on where I should be looking for a the culprit. Too firm, too soft, wrong pillow?
I did rotate the matress a couple weeks ago and I can say that I felt that there may be a depression where I had been sleeping. I typically sleep on the left side and after I rotated it, I felt pulled over to the right side of the mattress, and would always wake up on the right side. Shaun at SleepEZ told me to take out each layer and put it on the floor (not EZ when you have a back problem), but I did that and I can't see anything. I don't want to ship back layers only to pay shipping 2 ways and not have a valid warranty claim. Last week, I took my bed apart and just put the mattress on the box spring (topped with plywood) on the floor. Next I plan to remove the box spring all together. I hate tearing apart my house for this. This message was modified Dec 29, 2011 by thewayiseethings
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This sounds like a great reason to rotate the mattress during the 1st 6 months very often. I usually counsel my clients (when there are two sleepers) to rotate regularly (about once a week) during the first 3-4 months. This is a tremendous hassle, but I find it does wonders for breaking in the bed evenly and allowing a more comfortable sleep for both partners. When it is a single sleeper on a mattress, it is slightly different information. Sleeping all over the mattress can help that "high area/low area" on a Queen or King mat with one sleeper. Rotating becomes even more difficult since it is one person doing all of the work, but the principle is still the same, if you break it in evenly during the first 3-4 months, then you can feasibly expect the entire mattress to feel good after that. Once the initial 3-4 months are complete, I suggest single people rotate the bed 1x every 3 months and couplke to rotate 1x every 6 months. This seemes to have been very effective with the clients I work with on a regular basis.
Good Luck and Sleep Well "thewayIseethings"! |
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What sort of mattress are you advising on? SleepEZ advises that their latex mattresses never need to be rotated. I am completely open to hearing contrasting opinions on this. My understanding had just been that latex does not need to be rotated in the same way that innerspring and foam mattresses require. This message was modified Dec 29, 2011 by thewayiseethings
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thewayiseethings wrote: What sort of mattress are you advising on? SleepEZ advises that their latex mattresses never need to be rotated. I am completely open to hearing contrasting opinions on this. My understanding had just been that latex does not need to be rotated in the same way that innerspring and foam mattresses require. I sell a lot of latex here, but I also sell a lot of memory, Tempur and coils of varying types, so I spend a lot of time educating my customers on the reality of the physics of their sleep system and the things they can do to truly take care of their backs and their beds. You may have the perfect mattress for you (and it sounds like it definitely started out that way) but as soon as your back recognizes alternate feels in the surface area, you will most likely start to experience some discomfort. You might try walking/crawling/sitting on the parts of the bed least used to try and condition them up to the level your sleep position has been conditioned to (this includes the other side, the corners, etc), but it will not be immediate. I just did the same thing with my Cloud Luxe and literally felt a 3 inch difference in the used to non-used sides! It's kinda like sleeping on the new mattress all over again! In my case that is a great thing, but some people may not find that as encouraging as I have. The most conditioned (or broken in) part of your mattress is where you heaviest part of your body is, so typically your feet section will feel slightly higher also... not just your unused side. Even though I am a sleep consultant (commonly referred to as a salesman), I take a great deal of pride on having a return/exchange rate (inside of 100 days) at around 3% for those 5 years... most companies accept anywhere from 6%-12% depending on their business model and how they track those returns/exchanges. But this has only happened because I try and filter out the manufacturer's "angle" they give to the retailers and focus on what I experience when I try the mattresses myself... and I try every one at least 1 time every two weeks in my stores. I want to tell each client exactly what I think they will experience before they actually begin to test any model... it proves my knowledge and understanding of my products. I am not sure if this has helped at all, but definitely by opinion on the rotation, break-in stuff for latex. Sleep Well! |