7 questions to ask before committing to buying a mattress

You may have finally admitted defeat with your current mattress and decided that you really need a new one. However, buying a mattress can be a tricky, time consuming and confusing process. Retailers are set to confuse you with the descriptions, lack of detail and high-pressure sales. Here's our list that ensures you're not spun out!

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How do you know you&#;ve picked the right bed? Do you even know what to look for when buying a new mattress? The comfort you&#;re wanting or mattress type? If not, how can you find out? We have put together the 7 questions you need to ask before committing to buying a mattress:

1. What&#;s Your Bed Budget?

Before you start searching online for mattresses or hitting the shops, you really need to take a moment to think about how much you&#;re willing to spend.

Knowing exactly what you can get for your money when buying a new mattress is crucial to set your expectations. It also means you will be better prepared to spot a fake mattress sale or misleading description. Yes, that&#;s right. By knowing exactly what you can expect for your money you can quickly avoid false advertisements or deals that are too good to be true.

How much to spend on a double mattress?What can I expect for my money? Under £500Will not get you much at best a 13.5 gauge open coil/cage sprung with a thin polyester layer or a solid foam mattress. £500Entry level spunbond springs with some form of synthetic upholstery. Usually one sided mattresses. £750The beginnings of a basic pocket springs unit with 800 &#; count. No substantial amount of filling other than foams and synthetic materials. Two sided models. £Should get you away from most low ranges and into the mid-range pocket spring models. £Should get you a decent pocket sprung mattress with some Natural Fibre content. £Should get you many manufacturers mid-range models with Natural Fibres £-£Should get you a Hand Made primarily Natural Fibre Quality Mattress £+You should expect 100% Natural Fibres and Traditional Hand Made Construction Method. £+A Bespoke Hand Made Sleep System, High-end Spring Units & Featuring the Worlds Most Luxurious Natural Fibres.

2. Natural Fibre or Foam Mattress?

This is the second question you need to answer. Are you going to opt for a chemical-based foam as the primary mattress material or go down the higher end of a natural fibre route? We know that, at the lower end of the budget, foams and synthetic fibres will dominate. This is because they are far cheaper to produce.

However, the move towards boxed foam mattresses has seen the price point rise as well. This is mainly due to million-dollar marketing campaigns.

If you can afford a natural fibre mattress, then these are always preferable over foams and heat retentive man-made materials. Not only do natural fibres provide far better comfort, but they also last longer and don&#;t retain as much heat.

3. Do You Want a Soft, Medium, or Firm Mattress?

This is where most people come unstuck when buying a new mattress. 90% of people that get in touch with us have incorrectly chosen the spring tension of their new mattress believing it is the same as the overall comfort of the mattress. This leads to disastrous nights in their new bed.

When buying a new mattress, the spring tension is always identified by your body weight. This is because the springs have been specifically designed to work with these weights. See below.

It is then the comfort layers, such as natural fibre upholstery, that create the overall &#;soft, medium, or firm&#; comfort feel. This is where you need to put in the majority of your research efforts to know how these fibres work together, the GSM (grams per square meter), and the blends of the fibre.

(Alternatively, you could just get in touch with us to help explain any mattresses you&#;re looking at!)

4. Are You Sleeping Alone?

We don&#;t mean to get personal so quickly but it&#;s an important question to ask. If you sleep alone, then it&#;s slightly easier to choose a mattress because you&#;ve only got your own preferences to contend with.

Both weight and comfort preferences are your own to choose. In the past, finding a mattress for two sleepers, especially if different weights or comfort preferences, was a matter of compromise. Sometimes resulting in the &#;best alternative&#;, which is not something you want to settle for in a new mattress.

Zip & Links or a Split Tension can resolve issues when sleeping with a partner

But that&#;s luckily a thing of the past! With our Zip & Link and Split tension offerings, you can have two separate mattress spring tensions in one model.

Meaning no more compromises.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Mattress Bed.

If you&#;re disturbed by your partner during the night, Zip & Link models can almost eliminate transference &#; you can sleep soundly whilst your partner moves about.

5. What Size Mattress Do You Want?

The most popular bed size in the UK is now a King size, whereas ten years ago it was a double. People are realising that to a degree getting the biggest bed you can for your bedroom is actually an advantage. It allows for more freedom and space when sleeping with a partner.

With Zip and Link models, even large Superking sizes can fit up tight staircases. It&#;s always worthwhile getting in touch with your room dimensions to get advice on the right size of mattress for your bedroom.

6. What Bed Base is it Going On?

This is another often overlooked question. You spend weeks researching your new mattress, doing your comparisons, and checking out online reviews of beds. However, you forget to give any attention to the base it&#;s going on. If you&#;re changing just your mattress, it&#;s imperative that you know your mattress base type.

The most common two types are a Divan base or a Slatted base. Divan bases are the best form of mattress base, as they can go with any mattress and offer consistent support. They are most likely to get you the true feel of your mattress.

Slatted bases are more troublesome with mattresses. The gaps between the slats are often spaced far too wide apart. This causes damage to the mattress over time and can cause sagging. It&#;s important that, if you must keep your slated base, that you board over it. (Handy guide on how to do that here).

If in doubt, speak to one of our helpful team members to work out what&#;s best to do with your mattress base. In most cases, if they are not damaged, you can use most mattresses with most bases if given a few tweaks!

7. Do You Want a Mattress Made Just for You or One &#;Off the Shelf&#;?

Now, this may sound a bit rhetorical but it&#;s really quite important as your final mattress buying question. The majority of mattresses are mass-produced or imported from factories. They are made on a contract basis with a one size fits all approach.

More often than not, retail models spend huge amounts on marketing, shop fronts, and TV campaigns. However, all these costs are then directly applied to the mattress retail price. Additionally, you&#;re not getting any real expertise from the salespeople or tailoring for your money.

Why settle for a mass-produced mattress when you could have one hand made for the same price?

The alternative is to choose an independent mattress manufacturer like ourselves, where our small friendly team of experts can help identify your requirements. We cut through the jargon you may have experienced in showrooms and recommend a handmade mattress rather than a mass-produced one.

Between emails, social, my blog, and other avenues I answer a lot of questions every week about mattresses and sleep, so I wanted to bring the most common questions together into one easy location.  As always, if you don&#;t see your question answered here please drop me a note via my contact form or a comment below. I&#;d be happy to answer it.

Mattress Questions List

Click the questions to jump to the individual Q&A below.

What&#;s the most cost efficient latex mattress (or brand) in terms of quality?

The problem I have with 100% latex mattresses is you basically have 2 varieties. 1) super high quality, but very expensive or 2) low quality, and inexpensive. There just aren&#;t that many good options in the middle. For this reason, I really don&#;t find that latex mattresses offer a great value. Most of the new online mattress companies (Casper, Leesa, Yogabed, etc.) doing online mattresses get this, and most of them make hybrid mattresses. Hybrid mattresses combine multiple foams, like latex, memory, Avena, or custom polyfoams. This gives a &#;best of both worlds&#; type of a situation. I personally love the Leesa mattress. It uses a top layer of Avena foam (which reacts exactly like latex, except it&#;s more durable) and a middle layer of memory foam. It&#;s $890 for a Queen and extremely well made / high quality for the money. Casper is another good option, which you see just about everywhere these days. They use a latex foam top layer and a layer of memory foam also. Casper has less specialty foam than Leesa though, which gives it a bit of a firmer feel for some.

Not about mattresses specifically, but what are your views on box springs vs. platform beds?

Personally, I love platform beds. I got rid of my traditional boxspring about 6 months ago when I purchased my first platform bed. I like their look, the profile, and their weight in the room. Everything about platform beds just works with my style and functional preferences. If you want / need a taller bed having a boxspring still makes sense. And if you don&#;t have a platform bed as an option using a boxspring is still better than no foundation at all. I wrote a brief guide a few weeks ago about the pros and cons of having a boxspring if you are interested.

What can you tell me that would alleviate my concerns about buying a mattress online?

I totally understand your concerns. You&#;re in the same boat as most consumers. What gave me the push to make the leap is quite simply the trial periods offered by all of these online mattress companies. They all understand that you really do need to lie on a mattress to know for sure. Which is why they all offer in-home trial periods.

• Tuft & Needle &#; 100 days
• Saatva &#; 120 days
• Loom & Leaf &#; 120 days
• Casper &#; 100 days
• Leesa &#; 100 days
• Yogabed &#; 101 days.

If you don&#;t like it returns/refunds cost you nothing on all of the above. In most cases they simply will have you donate the mattress to a local charity, so you don&#;t even have to deal with shipping it back. Once you have donated the mattress they&#;ll refund 100% of your money. I went through the process with Tuft & Needle, the first mattress I bought&#;which just was too firm for me. It was extremely easy. Took the Salvation Army a week to come pick it up, they gave me a receipt, sent pic of the receipt to T&N, and my money was refunded the next day.

Are hotel mattresses better quality than normal ones?

That would depend on the hotel. But there is nothing stopping you from purchasing the same mattresses that hotels get for your own home in most cases. Nicer hotels will certainly have higher end mattresses. Better materials and better construction invariable lead to a better night&#;s sleep.

What&#;s the best mattress for sex?

There are many factors that make a mattress better or worse for sex&#;bounce, responsiveness, noise, edge support, durability, comfort, etc. Of all the mattresses I have tested and reviewed my two favorites for sex are the Leesa and Yogabed. Leesa is just an all-around great pick and it does well in every category. Yogabed is also a good all-arounder and has amazing bounce. You can find my full write up here: best mattress for sex. Note: I haven&#;t added Loom & Leaf or Saatva to the list, but they&#;ll both be contenders also. Saatva has great bounce, a little better than the Yogabed.

I was looking at the &#;Tuft & Needle&#; mattresses? Are they what they claim to be? Would it be considered a good buy?

Tuft & Needle can certainly be a great choice if you like the feel and firmness level. Personally, I wasn&#;t a fan. But many people do love T&N. The questions I always ask people when they are thinking about Tuft & Needle. 1) Do you like a slightly firm mattress (6.5-7 out of 10 on the firmness scale, where 10 is the most firm) and 2) Do you like a buoyant mattress? IE, very little sinkage and very little hug. You really sleep on top of the foams with the Tuft & Needle. If you answered yes to both of these questions you&#;ll probably love the Tuft & Needle. Otherwise, there is probably a better mattress for you.

What&#;s the best way to determine the level of firmness I need in a mattress?

I will admit, this is perhaps one of the most difficult steps. Even going in to a mattress store to try to get an idea of the firmness you like can be difficult. Many times what you think you like in the store with a 5-10 minute lie down you find you don&#;t like when you sleep on it for an entire night. Unless you know with a fair degree of certainty you definitely want a very firm or a very soft mattress, I would recommend just looking for a neutral firmness. 85% of sleepers like mattresses in the 5-6 out of 10 on the firmness scale (where 10 is the most firm). Chances are high you&#;re in this group. Almost all of the online mattresses sit in this 85% neutral firmness level.

What is the weirdest mattress that you have ever slept on?

I don&#;t feel like I have a great answer here. Most of the mattresses I&#;ve slept on I would describe as fairly &#;normal&#;. If I had to pick one it would probably be the Loom & Leaf by Saatva. It has a layer of gel foam, which is something I have never seen in another mattress. The result is an extremely cool top layer.

Do bunkie boards really provide enough foundation for a mattress? What can I do to help improve my saggy mattress situation?

If your mattress is already sagging at 3 weeks I&#;m doubtful that a bunkie board will be enough. Bunkie boards can offer a little more foundational support than a traditional boxspring in some cases, but it&#;s not a miracle fix. I would definitely recommend taking a look at your warranty. Your mattress shouldn&#;t be sagging at 3 weeks. If it&#;s severe enough you may be able to get a replacement mattress. If that&#;s not an option you might check out this product. It&#;s called Mattress Helper. I haven&#;t had a chance to actually use one yet, but I have heard them discussed and they do seem to get decent reviews.

I have a 4 inch memory foam mattress topper, what are your thoughts on mattress toppers?

Memory foam mattress toppers can be a great temporary solution. They work great if you are trying to extend the life of your mattress by a few years or you have an uncomfortable mattress that you&#;re trying to soften up or add support to. They aren&#;t a replacement for a good mattress, but work great if you&#;re on a super tight budget or are otherwise stuck with your current mattress.

Can any bed be good if it has memory foam?

Absolutely. Many people like the feel of 100% memory foam beds. They certainly have a distinct hug / body contour, but for some it&#;s a great fit. Many hybrid mattresses use memory foam cores as it provides great support and pressure relief. The memory foam is usually below a layer of latex (or similar cool feeling foam) to help with temperature retention, comfort, and bounce.

Do you receive tons of free mattresses?

I wouldn&#;t say it&#;s a ton, but it&#;s a fair number. I currently have 7 King sized mattresses in a fairly small 1 bedroom apartment. These all were used as part of my review series of each of these mattresses.

Have you tried any &#;safe&#; or &#;healthy&#; mattress brands like Essentia or IntelliBed?

Unfortunately, I haven&#;t had an opportunity to try either Essentia or IntelliBed. However, they are both on my list to review. I have heard many good things about Essentia and I&#;m excited to review that one. Most of the mattresses I have reviewed, including Leesa, Casper, Yogabed, and others are certified CertiPUR-US. This indicates they were made without many harmful chemicals, heavy metals, and have low VOCs. Loom & Leaf is probably the most healthy bed I have reviewed. They use organic materials in many areas of construction, including plant-based foam, organic cotton, and natural thistle as the flame retardant.

Sleepopolis Team

The Sleepopolis team is all about helping you sleep better. We live, eat, breathe, and sleep (ha!) all things, well, sleep! Whether you need a new mattress, are having trouble sleeping, or are just tired of counting sheep, we've got you covered. Check back here often for the latest and greatest in mattress reviews, sleep news, or health tips, and in the meantime, sleep well. 

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