Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We replaced a coil mattress with this Novafoam gel foam mattress and have been sleeping on it for two months so I think I can now give an informed assessment. Initially, when we got the mattress I found that it was extremely supportive although definitely on the firm side - not as enveloping as the leading $ T brand mattress we tried out in the stores. I found it extremely comfortable to sleep on in all positions except the stomach at which point it seemed slightly too firm. In spite of the initial firmness, each night of sleep was wonderful and far more comfortable and ache-relieving than any other previous mattress. It is clear why people are transitioning more frequently to these foam mattresses. On the other hand, my spouse found the mattress too firm and was insisting that we return it and purchase the T mattress. As a last ditch effort to avoid this expensive purchase, in my research I discovered that this mattress only has 2 inches of gel covering versus the 4 inches of memory foam of the big T brand. As Novafoam sells a 2 inch gel memory foam mattress topper independently, I decided to get this and see if this would make the spouse happy. Indeed, the additional topper yields the same "enveloping" effect of the much more expensive brand and now we are both happy. I find that the additional topper makes it extremely comfortable to sleep on my stomach albeit much more difficult to move around in the bed and it makes the mattress quite thick which is a fitment problem for some of our mattress cover sets. We do not find it detremental to marital acts as has been reported by others with this mattress type. I have not found the mattress to be noticeably hotter than our other mattresses and I tend to be a 'hot' sleeper. Perhaps this is partially mitigated by the gel technology but, as this is the first foam mattress I have had, I cannot compare it to other types. I highly recommend this mattress alone if you prefer firm bedding and the mattress with separately purchased topper if you like a medium/softer mattress. Even purchased together, you are saving significantly over the high priced foam mattresses.