Reliable matress guides today? The Tempur-Cloud mattress from Tempur-Pedic rounds out the top 10 mattresses in our rating. The Tempur-Cloud is an all-foam mattress made with three layers of different Tempur material foam. Tempur material gives the feel of traditional memory foam, allowing you to slowly sink into the mattress. These foam layers mean that the mattress provides great pressure relief, a particular benefit for side sleepers to prevent too much pressure on the shoulders and hips. Tempur material is designed to adapt to body weight, shape, and heat, conforming to the body to provide support.
A more traditional composition of up to 2500 hand-nested pocket springs paired with all-natural hypoallergenic fillings such as cashmere, wool, cotton and silk the Herdwick from the Woolroom is a classic choice. It’s delivered by a two-man team, which is just as well as the king size our testers chose is both weighty and solid. No mind, the delivery team seemed well versed in getting large objects up difficult, windy stairs to unpack and place the mattress in the room of choice. They also took away all packaging, which was great. At first glance you can see the craftsmanship that has gone into this quality piece, with a soft-to-the-touch, chemical free merino wool ticking top secured with tufted ‘buttons’. It almost felt a shame to cover it up with sheets. We were testing on a slatted base and although the mattress felt quite bouncy at first, it was plenty firm enough for our back sleeper, while it was wonderfully easy on the hips and shoulders for our side snoozer. The natural materials make it breathable and help to wick away nighttime sweat, ensuring the hottest of our testers had a very comfortable, wriggle-free night. As with all traditional spring mattresses it does require both turning and rotating to keep it at its best and while it’s heavy, the sturdy side handles make it a 5 minute job when changing sheets.
If you’ve been lucky enough to sleep at a super high-end hotel such as a Six Senses or a Z Hotel, then chances are you were sleeping on a Naturalmat mattress. This five-star pocket sprung model is filled with 100 per cent natural fibres, as the name might suggest, including organic lambswool, cashmere and natural latex – even the pocket springs are nestled in their own cotton pockets. How cute! The result is a very nice, supportive, medium-tension mattress (although you can actually choose the tension you want). The natural latex gives it a subtle spring to help with movement overnight, while the springs themselves offer dynamic support. The individual springs also meant we didn’t feel our co-tester moving about, which was very welcome. The ticking is made from wool and cotton, and is naturally flame retardant – definitely no nasty chemicals here.
According to The Sleep Charity, the average person spends about a third of their lives asleep. If the average life of a mattress is seven years (we’ll come on to that in a minute), then that’s 20,000 hours you’ll spend on one. How do I know when I need a new mattress? If you’re sleeping well on your mattress with no aches or pains then you don’t need to change it. But it’s important to notice if that’s not the case and to take action. Simon Williams from the National Bed Federation advises you to look for changes in how well you’re sleeping [and] sleeping better in other beds when away from home. Other things to look out for are back ache, stiffness in the morning, lumps and bumps in the mattress, squeaks and creaks during the night when you move, rolling into the middle, discolouration of the mattress fabric or wearing away of fabric. Discover additional information at mattressly.com.
This buy online bed-in-a-box is probably the one most of us will have heard of, and offers free delivery, a 100-night sleep trial and free returns if it’s not for you. Conveniently packaged, the box in question is a cinch to get upstairs and in fact, one of us managed it on our own although it’s probably better with two. Instructions for unboxing are online rather than in the package but it’s simple to work out so we didn’t bother – although watch the scissors as you release it from the plastic as you could easily nick the mattress if you’re not careful. Getting it out of the box and onto the bed, once the plastic packaging was opened, it immediately started to get its shape and was ready to sleep on in just a couple of hours.