Fix for a Too-Firm Mattress?

[Transpac]

We've only recently started spending nights on our boat, and while our mattress feels comfortable at first, I'm waking in the middle of the night with hip pain or worse (e.g., sciatica-like pain up and down my leg). There's no 'give' to the mattress, making it too firm for a side sleeper like myself.

I had already added a 2" foam topper, but it clearly hasn't helped. Because our mattress is an odd shape (in a v-berth), I need to be able to cut whatever topper I buy to fit, which I assume (?) rules out gel-filled toppers and several others.

I can try a thicker foam topper, but I'm curious if there are any other ideas (besides ordering a new custom mattress)?

 

[AZ2Loop]

You may have better luck with a new mattress vs a topper. It does not need to be custom. There are many great mattresses now that come shipped in a box that get amazing reviews. You can cut them with an electric carving knife to fit the shape of your space. Several brands like Tuft and Needle, Purple, etc. are out there. You can read reviews and decide, but many are very good quality. We love ours. I think it is Tuft and Needle, but I am not 100% sure.

 

[Transpac]

You may have better luck with a new mattress vs a topper. It does not need to be custom. There are many great mattresses now that come shipped in a box that get amazing reviews. You can cut them with an electric carving knife to fit the shape of your space. Several brands like Tuft and Needle, Purple, etc. are out there. You can read reviews and decide, but many are very good quality. We love ours. I think it is Tuft and Needle, but I am not 100% sure.

I had no idea--gotta love this forum! I've just searched YouTube and sure enough, there are tutorials for how to do this. Thanks so much!

Still looking for ideas, though, since we're going on a two-week trip in a few weeks and I don't know that we could get a mattress shipped and cut to size in time.

 

[firehoser75]

If I remember right, Tom, from Alaska Sea Duction, wrote about getting a new mattress like AZ describes. He was very happy with his.
Personally, I would have tried just what you did Transpac, but it appears to have not worked. Next step, replacement?

 

[magna 6882]

After two motorhomes and a boat one thing they all had in common was firm mattresses. perhaps they are light weight but didnt work for us. We bought latex toppers in all cases.2 1/2 to 3 inches of pure latex and they work great. The boat had an odd shape so i trimmed and had a cover made for it.

 

[Comodave]

We put a 6” memory foam mattress in our last boat and it was way better than the one already in the boat but still not good enough. Added a 2” memory foam topper and it was the best sleeping we had ever had. We used an electric kitchen knife to trim it to fit.

 

[psneeld]

I was having similar pains...but it was a softer mattresses that hurt the back and with side sleeping the harder mattress hurt the hips (maybe).


Though I have never tried it before, sleeping on my stomach reduced to almost nothing on both issues. Went from struggling to walking a 1/4 mile without back spasms to 2-3mi regularly with no pain.


I have always found softer mattresses to cause more problem...now mattresses as hard as the floor aren't the answer for me either...maybe for some though as they sell them.

 

[FF]

For real soft , and real comfort , simply ask your friends to save any feather pillows there done with.

Simply sewing 2 good sheets to form tubes and transferring the feathers is simple and works fine summer or winter.

Biggest hassle is an open hatch and rain , the feathers take a long time to sun dry.

In the Carib we installed automatic hatch closing gear.This consists of a small scrap of wood glued to the hatch opening with a hole drilled that will pass a chop stick.

An aspirin is used over the hole and the chopstick placed on the aspirin to hold the hatch open till it rains. . Aint science great?

 

[C lectric]

A Memory Foam topper of 3" would be a good bet. We had aging foam mattresses , 3", which crushed to allow us to contact the plywood below. Talk about sore.

I got a good 3" memory foam topper, cut it to the originals' shapes and installed it atop the old foam. We used that for another , more than 10 yrs, and it was a comfortable bed once the memory foam was installed.

Eventually we did replace the whole thing last year. But this time was about a
$2K bill.

 

[Transpac]

I've ordered a 3" memory foam topper that we'll cut to fit. If that doesn't work, we'll look at ordering a new mattress. Thanks everyone for your input!

 

[rgano]

After an agonizing night or two aboard our new-to-us Pilot, even with a mattress topper, I pulled the mattress I and found it to be an inner spring. Being a bit oddly shaped I took it to a guy who does upholstery and an occasional canvas job for me. We went through two iterations of foam before we ended up with 4-inch medium density topped by 2 inches of memory foam, all tucked into the original mattress cover.

 

[Transpac]

rgano, that's an interesting (and much tidier) solution. Did you add a topper to the inner spring, or fully replace it with foam?

 

[rgano]

rgano, that's an interesting (and much tidier) solution. Did you add a topper to the inner spring, or fully replace it with foam?

That spring mess was trashed. The six-inch mattress is now all foam, 4 inches medium density foam topped with 2 inches memory foam.

 

[ak-guy]

I'll tell you something that didn't work. Our new V berth mattress was too firm. I bought a foam drill bit that is like a hole saw but for foam. I drilled a 1.25" hole every few inches all over the foam. It didn't make a difference at all.

 

[SteveK]

I'll tell you something that didn't work. Our new V berth mattress was too firm. I bought a foam drill bit that is like a hole saw but for foam. I drilled a 1.25" hole every few inches all over the foam. It didn't make a difference at all.

I'll bet you drilled vertically and NOT horizontally per directions, there is your problem.





Kidding.

 

[Datenight]

We ordered out NP 45 without the mattress so we could buy our own memory foam mattress. Cut it to shape as mentioned above.

Sweat dreams!

Rob

 

[janice142]

Seaweed has a firm 5" of foam as the bottom layer aka The Rock. Then the Kidlet extolled gel as it is "so cooling" in the summertime. It was hard too. Ugh. Cool, but I prefer squishy. So I bought another layer, a 3" memory foam topper.

My bunk is now perfect.

Suggestion: also purchase a waterproof mattress cover. These are not the plastic rubber sheets of yesteryear. They are fabric, and will keep your mattress dry if you leave the hatch open and it rains. The fabric is PUL (a poly something-or-other laminate) and the mesh edges easily tuck around the mattress layers.

 

[SoWhat]

I've ordered a 3" memory foam topper that we'll cut to fit. If that doesn't work, we'll look at ordering a new mattress. Thanks everyone for your input!

Buy 2 cans of 3M 77 spray adhesive to glue the pieces together. The memory foam may slide otherwise.

 

[Takoradi]

Until I needed a new mattress for my aft cabin, I didn’t realize how close mattress factories are. Maaaany of the name brand mattresses are built under license by small factories all over the country. I found 3 in Sacramento, chose a small family run business, and they built exactly what I wanted. Picked it up in less than a week.

Tak

 

[MVDarlin]

Temperpedic type memory foam toppers are wonderful. Easy to cut to any size. About $100 at Costco.