I'm worried that my heat mat isn't sending enough heat though the substrate. I have a little less than half an inch of coconut fiber spread across the terrarium and have an thermostat controller set up as heat mat then probe then glass bottom. I use an infrared thermometer to check the substrate and it only records about 85F max and i'm at least able to feel the heat when placing my hand on it. The substrate used to be thicker, probably 1-1.5 inches of fiber, but then I couldn't feel any heat and the infrared thermometer only recorded somewhere in the mid 70s, even when I set the thermostat controller to +100F.

Previously my thermostat controller was set to turn off 95F and with the infrared it was about 85F on the surface. Currently I have it set to 105F and now it reaches barely 90F. Am I overreacting? Was setting my thermostat controller to 95F good enough and my infrared thermometer just gets messed up from the substrate or my ball python can feel more than what the thermometer is telling me?