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Beds on holiday

Kevin Mulligan asked
12th May 2016

Despite my wife buying a hard mattress (Sealy Posturepedic Alexandria Ortho ) to alleviate her back pain it still does not work.However we have been to Barbados and Spain over the last year and she has experienced no back pain from their beds,especially the one that we used for 3 weeks in Barbados.April /May2016.Now we are back home the back pain has returned so it must be the mattress ..Have you any ideas or comments on the difference between commercial holiday beds and normal household beds..Many thanks.Kevin Mulligan.

1 Answer
Lee Staff
answered 8 years ago

Hi Kevin,

Sorry to hear your wife is struggling, no wonder, that model is as firm as can be. It features a super firm gauge open coil spring system, you can read about why these are a bad idea and flawed here.

Without your weights, its going to be difficult to recommend a tailored mattress but can give some suggestions.

The issue with orthopaedic mattresses is that the advice they are good for a bad back has been largely discounted in the past 10 years. The best route to take with back ache for a mattress is something that supports your weight (ie a spring unit that can compress and deflect according to the weight of the sleeper) and has a comfort layer that allows for hips, shoulders, bums, tums and ankles to sink enough so they can rest in a comfortable posture. The problem with super firm mattresses is your body ends up contorting and conforming to the mattress sometimes making the pain and discomfort worse!

BodyweightSpring tension
Upto 16 Stone / 50-101kgMedium (1.4mm)
16 Stone / 101kg UpwardsFirm (1.6mm)
Available in Bespoke Products (Please Call)Soft (1.2mm)

As for holiday and hotel mattresses, they tend to go one of two ways. Super firm so that they don’t settle quickly, like Greece and most of the Asia or super plush and soft topped to give that sleeping on a cloud feel such as Spain and some of the USA motels. I know in the tropics a lot of foam mattresses are used and some synthetic latex as these won’t suffer the same humidity issues as a traditional mattress. This may be the type of model you had as a guess.

Our Fusion 3 solid core 100% natural latex mattress would be ideal for pressure relief but latex feels very different to springs so I’d ask you go try one in a showroom first. They are also much more expensive than an open coil cage sprung mattress such as the Sealy.

Looking at the price point of the Sealy Posturepedic Alexandria Ortho have a look at either our Origins comfort which has a super soft top layer or the Origins 1500 a more medium feel. Then maybe call us to get more specific advice based on your weights and heights.

Origins Pocket sprung 1500 mattress

Have a look and then maybe get back in touch with us on 0161 437 4419. Hope that helps get you started!

Kind regards Julie

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