Mattress Forum

I won't go into the specifics of what I did yet, but I have 2 questions about zoning it:

1) You guys say to make the hip section thicker. Why thicker and not just more firm?

2) If I do add a layer - do I add it down low, towards the bottom, or towards the top - say, under the topper? And should the added layer for the hip zone be something soft, medium or firm? (I Irecognize these answers may not be definitively answerable but give it your best guess please)

I did add a layer in my hip secton today but I was half asleep when I did it and I think I added it too close to the top and too soft... ;-(

1) I hit upon making the hip section thicker just by accident: When my old mattress started sagging I stuck an old flattened feather pillow under all my toppers to fill up the ditch. It made the mattress slightly higher there, but I discovered when I slept on it the pillow squashed down under my hips but contoured to my waist making everything more comfortable and supportive. After reading mccldwll's post about the Beckley it seems like I was on to something. Simply put, thicker makes the mattress more comfortable where you are apt to feel pressure points and the contouring offers better support. Firmer on the other hand might just be hard. That's why I had to cover the carpeting--which makes the mattress firmer--with something that also made it comfortable to lie on.

2) I would put everything under the topper. This keeps all the pieces in place and provides a more or less uniform surface. However, if you have multiple layers you might find that placing various components at different levels in relation to the top layer fine tunes your comfort level more effectively. For instance I was experiementing with my 1" Brylane latex topper again. I liked the way it felt under the 1" visco but for some reason my pillow felt a little uncomfortable and I was getting a twinge of fatigue across my shoulder blades. This suggested to me that it was just too soft despite the fact that I had a layer of carpeting underneath the toppers. That got me thinking that I could just move the section of carpeting under my shoulder up one level and place it between the latex and the visco. This is why I like working with 1" layers. They are much more flexible than 2" layers. Moving the carpet section firmed up the shoulder area and fixed the problem.

As to whether the hip area should be soft medium or firm. That's something you'll have to experiement with. Since you have lower back pain and need to keep your hips from sinking into the mattress, I'd say you need to go firm and then tweak the comfort layers as needed. This is where half inch HR foam comes in handy. You can place a layer or two over the firm support material and build it up to eliminate pressure points until you strike the right balance between the two. I'd try to stay away from using really soft foam in the lumbar area. I found this was making my back ache. HR foam is more supportive.

Hi, which thickness of the Thermarest are you using?

We do have one of these but it's very narrow and not too thick - just used for camping. I think our's is way too narrow to use even for my twin bed. 30" wide might work. Too bad they don't make them 37" wide! Then we'd really have something we could play with in our modular mattresses!

As to tweaking them in the night, are you using it right on top, below your sheet or what? If I put it under my topper(s) and fitted sheet I sure wouldn't want to get up in the middle of the night and re-make my mattress - take off the sheets, get down under the topper(s) and add or release air... But it would work as another "topper layer" in my mattress, perhaps the next layer from the top, under some latex or soft PU foam.

The 1" memory foam is some cheap stuff from Overstock.com. I think it was $39 any size. I  have no idea what the density is. Could be 3 lb, could even be less, it doesn't feel like the 2" 4lb topper I have. The reason I ordered it was because I missed the cradling sensation of my 2" topper but that one made my new mattress, which already has 4 or 5 inches of built in foam, way too soft for me. The 1" offers just a bit of cushiness without going too soft. It also has the added benefit of sleeping much cooler than the 2" 4lb visco. It seems to be holding up just fine. I haven't noticed it getting soft where my butt's been lying on it, but it's only about 7 months old. In any case, at $39 I'm not too concerned. If I have to replace it in a year or two no big deal.

Have I tried other materials? Oh yeah! Lots of them. Fiber pads, eggcrates. I also have one of those Brylane toppers which I'm keeping for when I reconstruct my mattress. And then there's carpeting and HR foam and a flat feather pillow.... It's very complicated. Overall I like the feeling of memory foam best. It has this nice cradling feeling. Talalay just feels jiggly and unstable to me. PU foam is too mushy. I like HR foam for it's firm supportive qualities. But back to memory foam. I'm not really crazy about 5lb visco. It's too temperature sensitive and too slow to recover. In general I've found the lower the density the cooler the foam sleeps and the faster the recovery. This makes it behave more like conventional foam so you don't find yourself rolling back into a ditch.

I know there are some new visco foams out there that are supposed to be ventilated to sleep cooler and some higher density foams that sleep firmer, but I like memory foam primarily as a soft top layer over firmer support materials.