We’d suffered far too long. Our 2 year old Temper-pedic mattress was painful to use.

I couldn’t find a comfortable way to sleep anymore and was tired nearly every day and had too many aches and pains many mornings. My wife complained that her neck hurt frequently and that her shoulders and back were sore. As our Temper-pedic mattress was nearly $2500, we were reluctant to replace it so soon. But, we had to do something. I hated that bed and was dreading trying to sleep at night. The marketing by manufacturers suggests a memory foam mattress nearly to be the fix to every problem you have sleeping. Yeah, sorry. It’s not.

I’d done quite a bit of research and there were several schools of thought.

1. Buy a new mattress. There’s no fix.
2. Place something firm under the mattress.
3. Buy a mattress topper of some type
4. Crazy ideas…

As a last resort, buying a new mattress remained an option. However, not only did we not want to spend that amount of money again on another mattress, we were uncomfortable with throwing out a mattress that was so new. It hasn’t even developed the slightest hint of wear (there aren’t any sunken spots where we obviously sleep most frequently).

The second option didn’t make much sense given the density of the mattress. While I could see how it could potentially work for traditional box spring mattresses, our mattress didn’t require or need a base. Further, the base our bed rested on was pretty firm anyway. So, I didn’t see much reason to pursue that.

The challenge then was to buy a mattress topper. Was there something that was firm enough that it would mask the overly soft Tempur-pedic bed?

I read so many blogs and advice sites, with no clear answer. The general opinion was that a mattress topper could help, if you bought the right one and it was properly supported. In fact, some people bought toppers and then placed hard rubber mats underneath the topper to help provide a more solid foundation. As I was worried a bit about the off-gassing and smell of that solution, I looked for other options.

After extensive research, we settled on this:

Pure Green 100% Natural Latex Mattress Topper – Firm (3″ King Size)

The king sized topper arrived in a large box, folded once in half, rolled and protected in a thick plastic “bag.” We were careful to not damage the bag when removing the mattress topper in case we needed to return the topper. It did make removing the topper from the bag a bit more work than if I’d carefully sliced the bag open. Thankfully (according to the seller on Amazon), they do accept returns and offer to send a box to return the mattress topper if necessary.

So, after a few minutes on the floor, we hefted it onto the bed. It’s not lightweight, and as it’s extremely flexible, it was more awkward than we would have liked. I’d recommend folding it back in half so it’s easier to lift and move onto your bed. As you shouldn’t need to do this often, I wouldn’t be concerned about the one time lift. If you’re by yourself and trying to place a King sized topper, it may take a few more minutes and some grumbling. It apparently weighs about 65 pounds, so some amount of dragging it into place may be necessary.

Our sheets JUST accommodated the extra height. Just. If the topper had been 4″, the sheets wouldn’t have worked. The topper, while designed for a king was a bit “proud” of the size of the bed and was about 2″ total wider than it needed to be. I’m not sure if that’s normal, but it didn’t affect our sheet fit thankfully. Be prepared to potentially buy new taller sheets.

The first night was a welcome relief, even though the bed was noticeably more firm. We were both worried at first that the topper would still “sink” too much into the Tempur-pedic, but it doesn’t seem too. The next morning, we both felt far more rested and less sore than we had in 6 months. The second night, ahhh. Nice.

Some folks online have said it’s not “firm” enough. As firmness is subjective and personal, I can only say that it’s a comfortable firmness for us. If it were less firm, I’d suspect that it wouldn’t do much good. We’ll probably need to rotate the topper occasionally to prevent sunken/wear spots.

There was zero smell that we could notice both out of the packaging and when placed on the bed. Older reviews mentioned that the latex would crumble some. As ours is new, we haven’t experienced that. If it does, we’ll buy a simple cover for it. The topper is manufactured in many different sizes, from Twin to California King.

If you’re like us, suffering for buying a mattress that’s too soft and doesn’t offer enough support, I’d recommend the mattress topper (or something similar). Of course, it’s a bit risky to buy something like this sight unseen given the price, but as you shop around, make sure there’s a liberal return policy and be willing to return it if it doesn’t work out.

Two weeks later, our only regret is not buying it sooner.  

Other Information

Our current memory-foam Tempur-pedic mattress is of medium softness (we own the TEMPUR-Cloud Prima). I sleep in nearly every way possible, except flat on my back, and my wife sleeps mostly on her back.

An IKEA mattress topper was suggested in a number of forums. As we don’t have a nearby IKEA, we couldn’t evaluate the option in person. While it is an option that IKEA will sell online, the shipping/handling was extremely high to our location and most people said that it would still need another layer of very firm support under the topper. While overall the option may have been less expensive I suppose, it didn’t seem as promising as the option we purchased.