I moved into an apartment a few months ago that came with a queen-sized mattress. Problem is, it's way too firm for me and on top of that I think it's pretty old. It was uncomfortable enough that I was consistently waking up halfway through the night whenever I entered light sleep. I grabbed a cheap mattress topper from Target, figuring that since any good mattress or mattress topper would be quite an investment (I'm fresh in life, only a year into my first job), I could try a cheap one for starters and see how far it takes me. Well, it did just enough for a few months, but now I've been waking up from it regressing to being too hard for about a week straight and I think I'm losing my mind. Time for a new solution.

I know that lots of people say that a mattress topper is not an appropriate solution for a bad mattress, but I'm just not sure that a new mattress is the solution for me right now. They all seem MUCH more expensive than I''m immediately willing to put down money for, and I'd much rather buy a mattress when I'm living somewhere that I know I'll be at for longer than a year. (I realize the hassle of moving a mattress may pale in comparison to the sleep I might be getting, but that doesn't make the thought of it any less fun) Really, I'm looking for something that can get me through next year, maaaybe two, until I'm at a point where buying a mattress is much more stable of an investment.

I'm trying to do some research but everything just seems so subjective and it's hard to tell how to reasonably decide what kinds of materials, sizes, and brands are for me. I go from post to post seeing people say "I LOVED the Gorpnish latex mattress topper, felt like a cloud!" and others say "Every Gorpnish topper is trash. Never buy latex! Felt like a rock." and I feel like I'm not learning anything. I could also just be too exhausted after the past week of not being able to sleep for more than 4 consecutive hours - I usually have better research skills than this. At the very least, I understand that I should be buying a mattress topper that is tailored to my needs, situation, and sleep preferences (I typically sleep on my side/stomach, I'm pretty light, and my body doesn't provide a whole lot of cushioning in those areas on it's own.)

There's got to be a more reliable guide out there somewhere that isn't a slew of opinions or a website covertly trying to sell me something - does anybody know where I could be pointed to actually figure out what kinds of topper materials, sizes, and brands (or anything else I should be keeping in mind) would work for me?

EDIT: My new mattress is arriving next week.