Dear Pete,
My wife and I are thinking we may need a new mattress. Currently we have a 15 year old Stearns & Foster Hampton King which has served us well. It shows no sag or visible signs of wear. Only issue is that sometimes my movement in bed disturbs my wife. Recently she has been experiencing back & shoulder pain which was relieved when she slept on another bed while on a recent trip. She is 57 years old, 5’ 2” tall, 130 lbs. and a side sleeper. I am 59 years old, 5’ 10” tall, 180 lbs. with occasional lower back and upper neck issues adequately managed with regular visits to the chiropractor. I sleep mostly on my side as I snore too much when sleeping on my back. Both of us toss & turn frequently through the night.
My wife and I are thinking we may need a new mattress. Currently we have a 15 year old Stearns & Foster Hampton King which has served us well. It shows no sag or visible signs of wear. Only issue is that sometimes my movement in bed disturbs my wife. Recently she has been experiencing back & shoulder pain which was relieved when she slept on another bed while on a recent trip. She is 57 years old, 5’ 2” tall, 130 lbs. and a side sleeper. I am 59 years old, 5’ 10” tall, 180 lbs. with occasional lower back and upper neck issues adequately managed with regular visits to the chiropractor. I sleep mostly on my side as I snore too much when sleeping on my back. Both of us toss & turn frequently through the night.
Today we went mattress shopping (Nebraska Furniture Mart in KC, KS). My wife was most impressed with a Serta King Prodigy Everfeel. I found an Omaha Bedding King Warren Firm foam mattress that had a 1” latex top layer to be as comfortable at a considerable lower cost. They did not have all latex mattresses for us to try. My wife is more pressure point sensitive than I and we would like a bed that could help alleviate her back/shoulder pain. We do like the adjustable base as it appears to provide more comfort when watching TV in bed, which we do often.
We’ve been impressed reading about latex mattresses and/or mattresses that utilize latex. We have concerns about the long term effectiveness, durability & safety of memory foam, especially when considering the high costs. In addition, we worry that memory foam will be too warm. It is difficult to judge how any bed will perform night after night based on a few minutes “test” in a store environment or by reading on-line reviews. Our priorities are having a quality, cost effective mattress that provides healthy, long term comfort & support.
Questions are: Should we consider getting just the topper for the time-being or is our mattress past its life expectancy? If we get a topper, would our current bed linens still fit? If a new mattress is purchased, which ones would you recommend for us? Which mattresses help minimize adjoining movement? Is getting an adjustable base a bad idea? Are there mattresses better suited for an adjustable base? Based on reading your blog, you often recommend getting a Beautyrest Luxury Firm w/a 2” Talalay latex topper. What is the difference between the Firm, Luxury firm & Ultimate Firm models? Would a Therapedic one or two sided mattress be a better choice? Which of the latex mattresses would you currently recommend as a good value? Do any of the mattresses you recommend require box springs? Any other factors we should consider?
Thank you in advance for your assistance. Michael
Hi Michael,
What you have, the H grade Plush S&F, was one of the last great mattresses made. I truly miss those days. It was a legitimate business back then.
20 years ago, memory foam was just being introduced...mainly on the home shopping shows.
I remember the very first time I saw the TV commercial for it...where they press a hand into the foam, hold it there for a couple of seconds, then remove the hand.
The result was a hand print that remained in the foam. I remember thinking, "Who, in their right mind, is going to thing that's a good idea?!".
Memory foam is made from a chemical soup, with some of those chemicals being toxic and carcinogenic. The bad smell it has when it's delivered is the off gassing of those harmful chemicals.
Complaints range from sinus headache to bleeding sinuses, as a result of the off-gassing. Fact is, it's bad for your health and the health of every living being in your home.
Recent developments have seen produced, by some, a plant based, all natural memory foam. That solved that problem.
I didn't know about the chemical make up when I first saw it advertised. The health factor is a good reason to avoid memory foam, but, its not the only reason.
What I saw on the commercials, is a foam with zero support.
Support is the part of the mattress that pushes against you...the part that holds you up.
The support system in your mattress had been the work horse of the industry since first introduced in the 1920s...and used by every innerspring mattress manufacturer, until the early 80s, when the industry started seeing some significant changes....mostly about marketing, looking for greater market share.
It was at this time that Serta introduced their continuous coil system. It wasn't nearly as strong as the coil system in your mattress, The Bonnell Coil, but that didn't stop them from advertising that it being better. From that day to this, Serta makes a third rate product....in my humble opinion. They rank highly by Consumer Reports...who, a couple of years ago, published a mattress issue, where the stated honestly, "The mattress industry is far too complex for us to understand", and offered no recommendations.
Which brings us back to memory foam.
Memory foam, plant based or chemical filled, is a temperature sensitive material. Polyurethane foam, the parent of memory foam, is not. It, like all natural latex foam rubber, are pressure sensitive materials. Also introduced in the 1920s, Latex Foam Rubber has been thee most comfortable and most durable upholstery material on the planet from then to this day.
But, I'll get to the virtues of latex foam, later in this response.
When you lay on memory foam in the showroom, it's a love it or hate it experience. If you are among the lucky ones to hate it right off, congratulations, you've dodged a bullet.
The "Love It" people are seduced by a deceiver. It feels the way you love it when it's new. If you are young and fit and without physical damage, you could continue to enjoy it for several years...
...if you've gotten past the initial odor...and don't mind sleeping a little warm.
If you happen to be more like the majority of people in this country....NOT young and fit and without physical damage...well, there's just no other way to put it, "You're screwed".
That nice new feel is gone before you can say, "What the hell just happened and where did my $3000 go?!"
This temperature sensitive material softens as it warms from the body heat you give off. The pressure from the weight of your body presses into it and you sink....the heaviest parts of your body first.
At first, it held you up some. After a matter of months, you'll feel that support go away. Now, your sleeping with your spine out of its proper alignment and,"BINGO", all your physical aliments come back...and worse than before. And, I dare say, if you have no problems and sleep on memory foam long enough, it will give you problems.
Let's not forget that it is a temperature sensitive product. Since memory foam hit the streets, the major complaint was that it slept hot. It absorbs your body heat and the pressure from your body squeezes that heat back out to you, as you sink in.
As you shop, you'll note that memory foam is now made with a cooling gel...either mixed in, or as an outer layer. This is the same gel that's used in Dr. Scholl's Insoles, that you see sold in pharmacies. It works to keep you cool. It would nice if it worked for a full 8 hours. Well, it doesn't. How quickly it takes for it to become saturated by the warmth around it, will depend on how hot of a sleeper you are. People can be very different in this regard. In their later years, my mom and dad had separate bedrooms. One slept hot and one slept cold.
A cold sleeper would have little affect on the gel, and possibly get through an entire night. . A hot sleeper can knock out the benefits of that gel in a couple/few hours...then it's back in the oven.
It's very easy to spend thousands of dollars on a memory foam mattress.
Memory foam is not an expensively made product. It's actually pretty cheap to make. The expense is to cover the enormous advertising budget.
Soon after your mattress was made, the rest of the mattress industry started to take notice of the market share they were losing to this newcomer.
What they were learning from the market share they lost was, you don't have to make a high quality product. In fact, if you make a low quality product, and spend more in advertising where you continually tell people how great it is, you'll sell more mattresses more frequently to the same people...rather than the old way of making a quality product where you take that customer out of the market for the next 10, 15 or 20 years. Now, that customer is back every 5 years, on average, with many people seeing only a year or two.
In an economy where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is disappearing, I find it unconscionable to take the path of corporate greed and take advantage of people in this way.
So now, mattresses are one-sided and not flippable...and, for the most part, are using a lot of memory foam.
S&F used to be among my favorite mattresses to recommend. There were models that I could turn to with no memory foam in them. Some, even had latex.
But, all good things come to an end. In 2013, Tempurpedic purchased the Sealy/S&F company...and in January of 2014, the new S&F line was introduced...using lots of memory foam in each and every model.
As bad as memory foam is, that's not all of it.
When you have a memory foam mattress or an innerspring with a lot of memory foam in it...like the S&F and Consumer Reports fav...the Serta iSeries & iComfort....and know that your mattress has failed....you're sinking in too far which is causing a myriad of aches and pains...you're just screwed. You call your retailer to register your complaint. They send someone out to measure the sustained impression in your mattress.
Here comes the diabolical part. When you get out of that crater you've been sleeping in, slowly the memory foam begins to recover. And before long, it's back to its original shape...or close enough to it that a sustained impression of an inch and a half is not measurable, (the industry standard since forever.....needed to obtain authorization to exchange).
You should hear them in Linked-In and everywhere you go among the retailers and manufacturers. Memory foam is the cause of an industry boon, that has never been seen at anytime in the past. They are selling more and more mattresses to the same people, and without having to exchange them as the did in the past.
And now, a generation has past since memory foam was introduced. Many of today's younger buyers will never experience the kind of quality that you have with your old S&F.
They will accept this as the way of it without complaint. And as time goes by, those who remember what a quality mattress was, will die off.
The mattress industry used to make mattress that were solely pressure sensitive...and not temperature sensitive. They had machines that they made to test mattresses and would use these machines to simulate 15 years of use....back when they cared about quality.
Consumer Reports acquired these machines and are using them to test today's mattresses.
However, today's mattresses are also temperature sensitive. CR's admitted lack of knowledge, allows them to be fooled by the results they're getting from the antiquated machines they're using to test them. But, memory foam will perform well, if you don't heat it. THIS, is why such crappy mattresses are rating so highly with Consumer Reports.
Latex foam rubber IS expensively made...starting with the sap from the rubber trees that grow in more tropical climates.
It has been the best you can buy all this time. It does absolutely everything that memory foam claims it will do....do them better, and much longer....and, with none of the negative side effects that memory foam produces. While just as expensive as some memory foam mattresses, it's much less expensive to use....given the many years that they last.
Latex is also available in thinner sheets than as a whole mattress. So, for hundreds instead of thousands, you can add a 2" latex topper to a reasonably firm innerspring mattress and get everything your body requires for a good night's sleep...and, at a reasonable price.
A latex topper will insulate you from the underlying mattress. It will soften the surface without sacrificing the underlying firm support. You don't sink through it, just into it a little. It holds you up. You feel suspended by it. Zero Gravity is a good way to describe the unique feel of latex foam. As you move, it moves with you...with no climbing out of a hole. Latex foam sleeps much cooler than any other type of foam. Latex is more resilient than any other type of foam. It is so resilient as to absorb your body weight, leaving much less work for the mattress and extending the life of that mattress far beyond what the manufacturer was hoping for.
All that said, Michael. And, I suppose I could have just said so...but, your particular question provoked a rant in me.
Add a 2" soft All-Natural Talalay Latex Foam Mattress Topper to what you have, while you figure out what you want to do.
It will not be a wasted purchase. You'll need it to top the mattress you do end up buying.
Take a look around our website. We are dedicated to providing high quality.
Here is a link to our latex toppers.
Thanks, Pete
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