Mattress Forum

I went to three stores; my goal was not to try to buy anything, but rather to get a feel for what is firm, medium, soft, and what is in the mattress to make them such.  I plan to make a modular bed and really wanted to get a feel for what all the numbers felt like so when I order I will be getting the correct firmness and materials etc… I am not going the route of a spring bed, obviously.  My objective at this point is to make a bed that I can change in case I don’t like it, but with minimal money to make the correction.

I slept on a latex medium/firm bed at my Mother’s for 3 nights.  My first night I slept really well and my back felt good the other nights I slept poor, but not because of the mattress…too much to drink.  My lower back pain was less.  My mind was already made up for a full latex bed, but when trying out mattresses…

I did find I like the feel of foam beds, at least the top part of them and the bed that felt the most comfortable was one that was made from 5”acella-flex base with a 3 inch 4lb memory foam topper. It was comfy and soft, but felt firm below the top layer.  I also like the feel of some of the tempur-pedic beds….never thought I would like them, but they felt good to me.  Although one almost gave me motion sickness, as I felt I kept sinking –their top of the line one.  I think I liked the classic and advantage….can’t remember.

So putting my experience together, I think I am going to take this approach.  Buy a latex base in 2” or 3” increments and then put a 2-3” of memory foam on top.  If I don’t like the memory foam I will just add latex in its place.  It seems medium and firm mattresses in the stores consisted of a 5-6” base at 35-36 ILD to start then deviate to different top layers, makes sense to do this, but I am going to go a little firmer on the first layer to about a 40ILD…would that be too firm?

Side and Stomach sleeper.  5’ 9”, weigh about 170lbs, big shoulders and chest, tiny waist(I think this causes issues)

I think my first stab at layers will be something like this…

2” of 40ild

3” 0f 35ild

2-3” memory foam(Sensus and mem-cool/Aerus)

Then I will go from there.

Questions:

-Do they make a 100% Natural Talalay in anything firmer than 35ild, or do I have to go to Talatech?

-What is Acella-flex foam?  Any info and thoughts on it?

-What is the best place to order from online for LI latex?  SLB, foamsource? I can’t return anything, due to my locations, so looking for the best price..  I am also slightly considering FBM, but figure you get what you pay for.

Any thoughts to my insanity?