Does the type of mattress make any difference?
 

I just ordered a new latex mattress which is sort of an expensive science experiment, but I wanted to do two things. First, eliminate the pressure points associated with inner spring mattresses and 2nd to eliminate chemicals. I've never seen an ounce of research suggesting that PN or RLS has anything to do with chemicals or with mattresses, but I figure if I go this way I rule it out for sure. I am avoiding visco foam, just because my primary symptom is that my legs feel warm at night and I figured that type of materials could make it worse.

Has anyone had luck with the relief of symptoms due to their bedding?

This is something I plan to consider myself. Hadn't really given a great deal of though to my mattress (other than I'm never able to get comfortable). Please keep us posted. I'm really keen to find out now! Best of luck to all of us.:hug:

Well I have had probably 4 different mattresses in the last 4 years. I can't say any help or hurt my areas of pain but some for me are more comfortable then others. Right now I am staying at my gramps and the bed is like a rock and it is not good. I have not thought about the chemical issue. I think everyone's body is different. For me even with a good mattress I usually get a foam topper. I would go into a couple mattress stores and try out some and see how you feel.

IMO, chemicals do matter. Toxic chemicals cause and contribute to PN. The flame retardants and formaldehyde in many are cumulative. Why put the extra burden on your body if you can avoid it/afford it.

A client of mine recently purchased a mattress for her son and the next morning, he awoke with swollen hands and feet and a rash on his body. Any time he got near it, he started to react it. She thinks that since it was wrapped in plastic, it had a lot of out-gassing going on.

A new mattress may not resolve your problem but it will not contribute to it either, making it worse. Anything you can do to minimize the toxic overload in your body, the better.

the only thing that was very helpful re. bedding (back in the day when I had severe pain, before it all went blissfully numb) was to put a single matress on top of my regular bed. That gave me troughs on each side, and I was able to use pillows to wedge my hands into positions where they weren't touching anything. Even brushing the sheet caused incredible pain, so sleeping with my hands up in the air was very helpful.

hth

raglet

So my new mattress arrived
 

I've put the new mattress together and have been sleeping on it for 3 nights now. Its funny, I just told my neuro doc that the buzzing foot symptom had gone away for over 1 year and the night I got the new bed it came back!

My RLS/PN whatever the heck I have has seemed pretty bad this week, last night I got fed up and just took two of my gabapentin's and slept like a log.

Overall I like the mattress, but its an adjustment. I will keep you posted on if it seems to help any of my symptoms.

I've resorted to putting a memory foam mattress of two inch thickness on top of my firm pillow top mattress. I use an insulated cover on it so it doesn't get hot and while it doesn't help the neuropathy pain, it helps alleviate the pressure on my limbs and joints. FWIW..ee

If you like the memory foam topper, you may like latex. It sleeps a bit cooler than memory foam. You don't sink down into it so much, but its reputed to be fabulous for relieving pressure points.

Hi. I built my own bed YEARS ago. My husband and I always wanted a Temperpedic mattress but the price was too much for us to do, so I went on Overstock.com and bought 3 of the 4 inch memory foam mattress toppers.

They come all compressed and you have to unroll them to their full size. I laid each one (I bought them all at different times because when you lay on one you say "oh, I should get another one, etc.)

So once they have aired out for 24 hours, you simply bring it over to the bed, lay it on top and that's that.

So picture 3 4 inch memory foam mattress toppers on our bed.

Talk about sleeping on a cloud!!!!

Too bad my husband sleeps on the living room couch because he's up all night and goes to sleep at about 5 in the a.m.

So I get this nice big PILLOWY bed. I mean, I sink in it and I sleep for 7 hours.

I love it.

I have the pillows too!!!

Melody

Do you know what density the foam is? There are quite a few tempurpdic knockoffs out there that are less than 4lbs. That weight foam will wear out much faster. I'm not saying buy just tempurpedic. There are other makers of good foam, but there are vastly more makers of foam that will wear out in a shorter time. Check out SleepEZ.com for some good articles about this.