Mattress Forum

Welcome and hopefully you will find your answers here!  Most of us here have spent many thousand$ and tried many toppers.

I am 170 lb, 61 years young, combination side and back sleeper, and have lower back lumbar pain issues.  Further, I don't like the sinking feeling of memory foam or the higher heat factor from it, because of its physical structure and the fact that it wraps and forms to your body and restricts air flow.  I am among the hardest to get right I have actually owned or swap tried in home 23 mattresses and have tried over 100 toppers including latex, memory, polyurethane.

Since I no longer have the wrap of muscle I use to have, my "boney" hip and shoulder are very sensitive.

Search my ID  shovel99 for my inputs which will relate to your situation, and cheaper sources.

Sleeplikeabear.com will accept returns of like new (but used under a protective cover) latex toppers, but they are higher priced.  They are one of few that offer 14ILD.

I have chosen to buy 1 inch layers and stack... gives you more flexibility to try combinations.... and stacking order does matter.

I am sleeping quite well for first time in 6 years on 4 inches, top to bottom, below, on top of the mattress springs of a Firm Serta... you;ll see details in my posts about mattress surgery.

Top 1 inch 4 lb memory foam.  For a 110 lb person, this on top  of your mattress may be enough. Eco Green topper at overstock.com less than $70.  The memory foam is the only one that provides body conform for the top layer, after many, many tries of wishing and hoping that latex would work for me.  Latex has linear characteristics... ";pushes back hardest" where pushed hardest... i.e.  the force back from the topper at your hip will be hardest.  That is why memory foam that melts to your shape is the only solution.  But only the top 1 inch... for me... is critical.  For my bad back, the thin top layer must wrap, and the following layer or layers.. which for me is on top of my springs, because I needed the control of what was underneath when all those attempts were fruitless.  You can also view sandman's mattress surgery as a sticky at the top of the form.

my second layer:  1 in of supersoft poly urethane from foamdistributing.com.  I even tried 20 ILD latex on this 1 inch but it was not soft enough for me.  Maybe $40 for queen.. you will have to trim to queen but easy.

3rd layer.... 1 in. 20 ILD latex from foambymail.com, sister company of foamdist.  above.

4th layer.... another layer of 1 in supersoft poly from foamdist.

If your mattress is significantly firm, you may indeed be able to just add one or two inches of latex or memory foam or perhaps one of each.

Start with the single queen of 4 lb mem foam.  1 inch may do it, you can fold it in half to try 2 inches.... the stuff gets heavy, so it is easier to move around one at a time, and it gives you more options.

Oh... is there a significant other?  Weight, back or side, preferences will matter.. but at least with toppers you can cut them in half and build firm for one side, soft for the other.

Good luck.

Paul

If the Foambymail.com stuff is quality, that may solve my hesitation problem.  The price is certainly right and it states that the latex toppers are 100% natural talalay.  From your previous posts it looks like you were happy with the quality.  Let me know of this is not the case.

I only need to cover half of the mattress (my husband likes a rock-hard surface and we got him a piece of xfirm conventional foam.)  I may order a 1" in the soft 20 ILD and see how it feels.  Does 2 one inch layers of the same ILD feel the same as 1 two inch?  From what I have read here, it may feel different.  My current mattress by itself feels okay, so 1" might be enough.  I have tried a very firm mattress that was torture on my back, especially on my side. 

I am thinking that because I do not weigh a lot, that the soft 20 ILD may feel more like soft/medium to me?  I'm not sure, but for $80 for a 1" full size, I think I can give it a try without feeling like I am throwing a ton of money away if I don't like it.  ($80 is still a lot of money to me, but it's better than $200+.)

Thanks for all the website links,  ~Becky

my wife and i are going through kind of what yu are but to a more expensive ordeal, however the same result. we have a very firm latex bed and we are trying to soften it without losing support in our hips and back but with giving our shoulders someplace to sink into. believe it or not my wife is 5' 3" 130 so close to your body type. and she has found that 1 " of 19 on top of a 1 inch 20 has worked. still has the support from the orignal mattress but a softer gradual feel to the top.

sleeplikeabear does do exchanges and there twin xtra long run around 132 for a 1 inch wich is spendy but they talatech latex is from latex international and i think is one of the best you can buy. we have spent almost 6000 in wrong beds and know now that layering latex is the best solution. hope this helps

take care good luck

So, I ordered the 1 inch 20 ILD natural latex topper from FBM.  (It was a great price and shipped quick - good quality as far as I can tell, but I have nothing to compare it to.) 

I think it may be too soft, though.  Even a 1-inch layer makes my back ache after just 10 or 20 minutes.  I even tried it over my husband's x-firm foam layer and it just feels flimsy.  I haven't even been able to sleep on it a full night.  If the mattress is too firm, I get sharp pains in my lower back, but it seems that if the mattress is too soft, I get a dull ache.  But I don't have a clue what will make it feel "just right."  I would probably just stick with the mattress alone at this point, but now my hubby is on a 2 inch layer on his side and it just feels weird to have him on a different level (not to mention it makes the bed look pretty weird.)

FBM has a medium natural talalay latex that is 32 ILD.  I don't know if I should give that a try? 

Or maybe something entirely different?  Wool?  Convoluted foam with some kind of cool layer on top?  I can't do memory foam due to intense heat in the middle of the night.  And I really don't like the sinking feeling of memory foam anyway.  Any kind of conventional foam would have to have a substantial layer of cotton or wool on top to cool me down.

Any ideas out there??  I'm a little lost.

Gary

I have slept on 2 inches of 20 ILD natural talalay latex (1 inch folded in half) for four nights now.  It feels okay, but not great.  I do not have any back pain while I am sleeping, but I wake up with considerable stiffness and ache in my lower back.  This stiffness usually gets better as I walk around or take a hot shower.  (My back never feels "normal" no matter what I do because of my disc problem.)

My problem is that due to the unique qualities of latex (both soft and springy) I cannot for the life of me pinpoint whether the latex is slightly too firm or slightly too soft. 

I still do not feel like I have the pressure-point relief that I am looking for, so I am leaning toward the slightly too firm side.  (Ignore my previous post!) The latex feels to me like someone is pushing against my backside.  (I guess this is the support that the latex advertisements talk about.)  Not sure if I should try something softer underneath?  Or softer - like 14 ILD latex - on top?  I would like to keep at least 1 inch of latex on top for the ventilation.  Poly-foam makes me wake up boiling hot in the middle of the night.  (I also like the fact that latex is a natural & sustainable product, but at this point I just want to sleep well without adding to my back issues.)

Any advice??  I need to decide pretty soon if I am going to keep the 20 ILD latex or send it back. 

Thank you!

Not saying this is the case for you, so keep trying, but some just don't prefer the feel of latex.  I do like that springy pushback feel you describe, & it can be tamed, it's just not for everyone.

But when you say synthetic foams make you hot, is that any MF at all (& what densities?), or an entirely synthetic, MF over polyurethane TP style mattress?  If only the latter, maybe a not too thick/dense MF topper over an innerspring mattress won't sleep too hot for you.  Even an inch does wonders for pressure relief, & it won't be so tall that you sink to uneven depths, causing potential alignment issues.  Don't be afraid of lower density MF either.  It's frowned upon around here, & might not last as long, but it will sleep cooler & is less expensive.  But some very high end mattresses use layers as light as 3lbs for pressure relief. Or maybe even try an inch of it over an inch of your latex.