| I wake up with low back ache every morning so decided to get a new mattress- mine is 15 years old. I am a side sleeper and have purchased a Simmons Beautyrest Eagleville firm set. Now I wake up in the middle of the night with excruciating low back pain. I can exchange my new mattress for another one, so am considering either getting the same one I have in a soft version (the firm one I got is like sleeping on a board), or a memory foam mattress. I laid on the firm beautyrest for about a half hour and it seemed to feel good in the store. One question I have about the memory foam mattresses is if they actually have enough support to relieve backache. I'd like to stay in the $600- $700 range. Any advice? |
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anstine wrote: I wake up with low back ache every morning so decided to get a new mattress- mine is 15 years old. I am a side sleeper and have purchased a Simmons Beautyrest Eagleville firm set. Now I wake up in the middle of the night with excruciating low back pain. I can exchange my new mattress for another one, so am considering either getting the same one I have in a soft version (the firm one I got is like sleeping on a board), or a memory foam mattress. I laid on the firm beautyrest for about a half hour and it seemed to feel good in the store. One question I have about the memory foam mattresses is if they actually have enough support to relieve backache. I'd like to stay in the $600- $700 range. Any advice? Be aware that when you do an exchange to another mattress at your retailer, that 2nd mattress will likely be yours for good, as in no refunds or exchanges thereafter. I got caught on this when exchanging to an iComfort memory foam mattress at Sears. They were very coy about it before the exchange like, oh yeah, should be returnable. Went very plush with the mattress. No sign of it hurting in the store, but over about 3 weeks, my neck started to be out of whack. I had exchanged to that iComfort, then no refund. Ended up selling it on craigslist for $175, when I paid $1500 for the set. People don't pay squat for a twin XL mattress. Big loss. My policy is this - Never exchange again. If I don't like a mattress, I return it even if there is a restocking fee. Some retailers will not allow you to purchase for 6 months if you do a return. But there are other retailers. Tricky business it is. This message was modified Sep 26, 2011 by slpngoc
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Beyond that, I believe generally that side sleepers do better on 'plush' mattresses, whereas a firmer mattress is better for back sleepers. You can sort of tell if the mattress is correct firmness if you have a good side sleeper pillow, and the pillow feels just about the right height for your head when sleeping on side. One other thing is the feel of a mattress always changes somewhat from its feel in the store. Also, the feel changes when you've been laying on it through the night. Most feel pretty good when you first lay down or after 15 minutes. The real test is how good is it after 7 hours laying on it. Good latex and memory foam seem to provide the best comfort after 7 hours. The cheaper batting and lightweight foams found in typical innerspring comfort layers .... not as comfortable, but most people do ok on them. Careful of the foundation you get also. They can contribute to mattress sagging. Even an incorrect frame can cause problems. This message was modified Sep 26, 2011 by slpngoc
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I think it really helps to think of the "support layer" (the actual mattress, not including pillowtop) and the "comfort layer" (the pillowtop or other cushion layer on top of the mattress) separately. After our old plush pillowtop mattress started sagging in the middle, we bought a new Simmons Beautyrest Classic plush-firm mattress, but there was nothing plush about it. It was *really* firm when we actually slept on it all night. We added a 3" soft latex topper, but even that wasn't enough, and I had shoulder and neck stiffness in the morning. We almost exchanged the mattress for the plush version, but after testing it out in the store, we realized the plush mattress was just going to turn into our old mattress in a few years, so we added a second topper instead. We decided on a 2" convoluted zoned memory foam topper for $80 and we put that under the 3" latex topper. We put it underneath the latex because memory foam near your skin gets too hot (latex foam doesn't sleep so hot).
It is incredibly comfortable for side sleeping now, while still giving us the benefit of the firm mattress underneath (great motion separation and no rolling together in the middle of the bed). If you got a firm mattress, you might want to exchange it for "plush-firm" , but I wouldn't go down to a plush, because then you'll have 15-gauge coils (softer) instead of 13-gauge coils and you will lose support. Then just build your own comfort layer by adding toppers. Both of the toppers we got are available on Amazon.com. The 2" Isotonic 6 Zone memory foam topper was less than $80 for a queen size, and the Invigo Fresh 3" natural latex mattress topper was $264. This message was modified Oct 5, 2011 by Vlaurend
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