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Mattress Buying Guide – What To Look For

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How to Shop for a Mattress

So you are interested in buying a new mattress? Perhaps your current mattress is hurting you, or you wake up tired. Maybe you just want a bigger size. Maybe you’re moving and don’t want to lug your old mattress from place to place. Whichever is the case, my goal is to help you select the right mattress so you don’t make a mistake and so you don’t pay a penny more than you have to.

A mattress is perhaps the most important piece of furniture in your home. If you get the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, you will spend at least 1/3rd of your life in that mattress.  That means if you keep that mattress for 9 years (which is about the average), 3 of those years will be spent on it. However, many of us don’t think about our mattresses and how it impacts our lives every day.

What is the Best Mattress?

This is one of the most common questions.  It’s a simple question, but the answer is not.  The real answer…it depends.  Mattresses are not one size fits all.  Your decision should be based on your specific sleep preferences.

What to look for in a mattress: the major factors

If you can find a mattress that keeps you in proper alignment while not causing any pressure to your body, you’ve found a good mattress for you. There are some other minor factors to look for. They include motion transfer, edge support, and temperature.

There are two major factors to look for in a new mattress. They are support & comfort.

How to Test for Support in a Mattress:

The most important factor in finding the correct mattress is proper support. You need the mattress to push up on your body to counteract your body weight. So that means a hard, firm, stone-like mattress, right? Wrong.

Your body isn’t a straight line. Whether you sleep on your back, side, or stomach, your body has curves, and a mattress must come up to support the curves and arches of your body (similar to how a good shoe will have arch support).

How to Test for Comfort in a Mattress:

The second most important criteria for selecting the right mattress are comfort (or as you may hear it called pressure relief). If a mattress is too hard, it can cause pressure to your body. This cuts off circulation and pinches nerves (ever wake up with a “pins and needles” feeling in your hand?), and will cause you to change positions frequently.

If you’re frequently changing positions, your sleep is fragmented and you don’t get into the deeper stages of sleep (such as REM sleep). This means you’ll wake up tired, even if you thought you got 8 hours of sleep. When you’re trying out the mattress, you should be able to lie in one position without moving around for at least a few minutes. If you can do that, you’ve found a good mattress.

Those are the two main criteria. If you find a mattress that keeps you in proper alignment which doesn’t cause pressure to your body, you’ve found a great mattress for you.

What mattress should I buy: Types of mattresses

There are three basic categories of mattresses.

  1. Specialty foam. These will usually be made of different types of foam. Two categories of specialty foam are latex and memory foam. (Leesa is a favorite in this category).
  2. Innerspring. These are the traditional mattresses with springs (or coils if you prefer). They can be all tied together or individually wrapped (US Mattress has the best selection in this category).
  3. Hybrid. In recent years, brands have come out with “hybrid” options for people interested in certain aspects of both foam and innerspring. They have features similar to a specialty foam mattress but on an innerspring support. (Leesa Hybrid is a favorite in this category).

Beyond these three major categories, you’ll find a few other types of mattresses. Some manufacturers make air mattresses, that use air chambers instead of coils for the support. Also, there are still some waterbeds around, in which water is used for the support. The biggest air mattress manufacturer is Select Comfort with their Sleep Number bed. There are several small waterbed manufacturers.

Specialty foam / Memory foam mattresses

Foam mattresses are becoming much more popular, and they tend to get higher customer satisfaction ratings than innerspring mattresses (though they might not be what you’re used to). There are two major types of specialty foam, and a foam bed will usually have at least one of them, if not both. There is latex, and memory foam.

Memory foam is probably the most recognized type of foam in bedding. It is a slower-response foam (meaning it takes time to return to its normal position). This has the benefit of not causing pressure to the body. Memory foam is perhaps the best pressure-relieving material that is used in beds today.

Memory foam is often mixed with a type of gel to add additional support and to help keep a more neutral surface temperature. Older styles of memory foam (and cheaper Chinese memory foams) tend to retain heat. Most modern memory foam mattresses don’t have this issue.

Latex foam is the other type of common specialty foam. It tends to be more supportive than memory foam, a lot more durable (I personally have a latex pillow that has been in the same good condition for the past 6 years), it responds a lot more quickly than memory foam, and naturally keeps a more neutral temperature without relying on gel. However, it does not relieve pressure as well as memory foam does, and isn’t as good at separating motion.

Most of the time, these types of foam will be put on a base of what’s called “poly foam,” which is just a high density, resilient support foam. It’s not really designed for comfort, but it will hold the mattress up. Some lower-end mattresses are only made of poly foam, and these tend to feel harder.

Most of the new direct-to-consumer mattresses are foam mattresses because they’re more easily compressed for shipping. This can be an inexpensive way to try out a foam mattress if you’ve been curious about them.

The last thing to be careful of with specialty foam is to be wary of foams made in China. They tend to be lower quality and won’t hold up as long as many foams made in America or Europe.

Innerspring / Hybrid mattresses

Most mattresses you’re likely to run into are the “innerspring” type. They have metal coils inside of the mattress with foams and fibers on the top.

The lower priced mattresses tend to use the older style coil in which they’re all tied together. The hourglass-shaped ones are called “Bonnell” coils, but other manufacturers have stronger variations on that type (like the “offset” coil and the “continuous” coil). These are generally a little less expensive than the individually wrapped coil, but don’t contour as well and transfer more motion.

The better innerspring mattresses will use individually wrapped coils. This type of coil allows the mattress to contour to your body from the coil level, which gives better support and causes less pressure. Additionally, wrapped coils are better at separating motion from side to side on the bed. So if one person bounces around or changes positions, the partner will not feel it as much. The downside? They’re usually more expensive.

The foams above the coils will have varying densities. You can get a mattress with firmer foams on the top or softer foams on the top. Some will be in the style of a “pillowtop” (which means the manufacturer sewed an extra cord around the side of the mattress to indicate it has a good amount of foam).

Don’t pay too much attention to the exact title of the mattress. One company’s “cushion firm” might be similar to another company’s “luxury firm” or even a “plush.” Just spend some time on each mattress and check for comfort and support, regardless of what the mattress is called or whether or not it’s technically a “pillowtop.”

How much to spend on a mattress

Many people who I talk to have no idea what a mattress is supposed to cost. They hear specials on the TV along the lines of “pillowtop mattresses, queen size sets for only $299!” and they assume that it’s for a good quality every night use bed, and there are options even less than that.

The mattress industry does itself a disservice by advertising like this because that’s usually the absolute rock bottom as far as price and quality go.

So how much should I spend on a mattress? You can find a mattress and boxspring set (in a queen size) for as low as $200 all the way up to as high as you want to spend. For example, a Tempurpedic Grand Bed with a motorized base can run you almost 10,000 dollars, and that isn’t even the most expensive mattress. So how much should you spend?

This will vary by retailer and by region. If you live in the northeast, the prices will be towards the higher end, if you are in the middle of nowhere, the prices might be a little less. Additionally, these prices are for a queen sized mattress and box spring sets. Subtract ~100-300 for the boxspring, or multiply by ~50% for a king.

$0-200: This is probably a used mattress from Craigslist. Eww.

$200-400: These are your basic guest room mattresses. These may or may not have a pillowtop, and will have a 1 to 5-year warranty. Can be used by an adult for every night use in a pinch, or if you’re on a really tight budget, but you don’t get much in the way of comfort or support.

$400-600: These range from some of the nicer guest room mattresses to maybe the bare minimum for every night use by an adult. You will either get nicer foams on the top than the cheaper ones, or stronger coils, but not usually both. The ones with a 10 year or more warranty will usually have no pressure-relieving foams up top at all. These tend to be good for college students on a budget.

$600-1000: These are about the average range for every night use mattresses. These are where a lot of your Sealy Posturepedic and Simmons Beautyrest lives. You will get the better coil systems and advanced foams for coil mattresses. This is also the price range that the lowest priced memory foams start appearing. If you find a memory foam mattress for significantly less than $600, you should be very skeptical.

$1000-1500: These mattresses will be the entry level of the luxury mattress. The coil systems might be a little more advanced, or they’ll use thicker layers of the specialty foams. The foam mattresses will be a bit thicker, and you start getting into the big name brand memory foam models.

$1500-2500: Mattresses at this price range will have just about everything you could hope for in a mattress. You’ll get the thickest layers of the best foams, strong coil systems, and longer warranties. Many of your Tempurpedics live in this price range. If you’re spending $2,000 on a mattress, you’re very likely to be getting a great one. Warranties tend to be longer here too, ranging from 10-25 years.

$2500-5000: There’s honestly not much you can add to a mattress to get to this price range. The best Tempurpedics reach this range, and some of the most expensive Stearns and Foster luxury mattresses come up this high as well. You might start hearing about materials such as “New Zealand wool” and “Mongolian horse hair.” Only spend this much on a mattress if the ones at the lower tiers don’t keep you in proper alignment or relieve pressure as well and you have the money to spend.

$5000+: If you’re considering spending $5000 on a mattress, make sure it supports you and is more comfortable than the cheaper ones. Don’t just buy it because it’s expensive. If you really want to spend $5000 on your sleep set, your money would be better spent on accessories like an adjustable base for the mattress. We’d take a $3000 mattress with a $2000 adjustable base over a $5000 mattress any day.

When is the best time to buy a mattress?

A mattress is often the most expensive piece of furniture that you’ll own.  Finding the right fit is really important.  But so is not breaking the bank.  These days, there are a lot of mattress companies that are “on sale” at all times.  However, if you happen to be shopping around a holiday, there is a good possibility you can find an extra discount because of the holiday sales events.

The biggest events of the year are typically as follows:

That’s not to say that you won’t find a deal around smaller holidays or other events that are specific to that brand.  Pro Tip: Sales usually start upwards of a week or so before the actual “main event.”  So if you’re worried about an item going out of stock, or just can’t want for a better night’s rest, you probably have some luck in the days leading up to the holiday.

Conclusion

To sum up, here are the bullet points about how to shop for a mattress:

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