Too many sofa beds fall short of being useful as either a sofa or a bed. With firm cushions, bad support, thin mattresses and clunky mechanisms, they’re usually not met with great enthusiasm by house guests. Thankfully, there’s a whole new breed of bed designs that solve the problem, with those at the top of the range being so comfortable they’re good for use every day. As always with large furniture pieces, think about size, access to your home, and guarantees that indicate sturdiness and good craftsmanship. 1. Willow and Hall Appley 2-seater Sofa Bed: from £554, Willow and Hall This small but comfortable bed from Willow and Hall folds out easily by pulling the wheeled base. Good for spare rooms and studies, the two-seater version is 122cm wide, and the armless design means it’s good for getting through small doorways. The frame is steel, and the cushions are foam and fibre. It’s available in 90 different fabrics and leathers, and is handmade and delivered in four and five weeks.
2. Sofa Workshop Jude Corner Sofa Bed: from £1,994, Sofa Workshop More of a sofa with an added bonus, the Jude sofa bed hasn’t compromised on comfort in order to discreetly include a pull-out double bed within its design. Made by hand in Britain, the sofa bed has a 15-year guarantee, a hardwood frame, foam seat cushions with fibre-filled back cushions and a deluxe double mattress that will give your guest a good night’s sleep. 3. John Lewis Clapton Sofa Bed: £349, John Lewis Great for small budgets and spaces, the petite Clapton sofa bed simply folds flat to go from day to night, rather than involving a bulky pull-out mechanism. The hardwood frame is guaranteed for 10 years – a good investment for a small price. Best for occasional use, the bed is a compact 182cm x 109cm when flat, and may need a mattress topper for added comfort. 4. Habitat Honovi Sofa: £1,700, Habitat If you’re dead set on impressing guests, the Italian-made Honovi sofa from Habitat is a three-seater that converts to the equivalent of a kingsize bed, with a luxurious 14cm-deep sprung foam mattress.
Foam is used for the deep seats cushions, and feather-filled for the back. The covering fabric is removable (dry clean only), making it practical too. Delivery takes eight to 10 weeks. 5. Loaf Pavilion Medium Sofa Bed: £1,445, Loaf The slouchy design of Loaf’s beds and sofas put comfort first, with deep seats and feather-filled back cushions across the range. The Pavilion sofa bed is no exception. Proving comfortable as both bed and sofa, it has a 12cm deep folding mattress and a mechanism that’s easy to use. The sofa comes with a 10-year guarantee. There’s a medium, large and love seat/single bed combination available too. 6. Made Jefferson Sofa Bed: £999, Made The ingenious folding mechanism makes Made’s Jefferson sofa bed stand out. The whole piece glides smoothly from sofa to bed in one action, with the back cushions stowing under the legs. With a 14cm-deep mattress it’s comfortable enough to be used every day – great for studio flats or small bedrooms.
The polyester fabric comes in grey and dark red versions. 7. Esme Sofa Bed: £970, Living It Up Esme is a smart-looking sofa bed with extra care given for your guest’s sleep. There’s a 13cm-deep pocket sprung mattress with layers of cotton, fibre and insulator pads. The sofa bed also locks into place at six points, giving good support. The small two-seater version folds out to a bed of 85cm x 186cm. The sofa has loose back pillows making it better suited to occasional rather than constant use. 8. Next Brompton Occasional Sofa Bed: £950, Next Next’s Brompton bed has a design to suit traditional interiors, with scrolled arms and a high back that look great in tweed and checked fabrics. It comfortably sleeps two with a fold-out size of 194cm x 98cm, and has a standard pull-out mechanism. There’s great scope to design a sofa to suit your needs, with a choice of three feet colours and 91 fabrics. Delivery takes six weeks. 9. Aissa Two Seat Sofa Bed: from £1,410, Sofa
This charming sofa bed looks small but packs a lot of space. Thin arms allow it to deliver a generous area for seating and a surprising mattress size of 193cm x 153cm. Comfort is key: the seat and back cushions have feather in the fillings, and the mattress is 12cm deep. There’s a choice of 100 fabrics and the frame has a lifetime guarantee. 10. Backabro Sofa Bed with Chaise Longue: £725, Ikea Ikea’s solution for combining corner sofa and bed is neat and practical – including hidden storage space under the chaise longue section for pillows and blankets. The pocket-sprung mattress is on the firm side, designed to give support, and the overall sleeping area is a huge 200cm x 248cm. The cover is a cotton and polyester blend. For unexpected guests, Willow and Hall’s Appley occasional sofa bed is sturdy and comfortable for a good price. Its compact boxy looks are made with the guest room or study in mind. If you’re opting for a sofa bed that can be used every day Made’s stylish Jefferson sofa bed delivers on comfort with a 14cm-deep mattress.
Its clever fold-out mechanism makes using it easy to use daily. IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testingThe Best Mattress for a Better Night's Sleep Buying a new mattress? Here are tips for finding the right mattress for you. You spend about a third of every day in bed. Whether that time is spent blissfully slumbering -- or tossing and turning -- depends a lot on your mattress. "A mattress can impact a person's sleep," says Michael Decker, PhD, RN, associate professor at Georgia State University and spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. One way that your mattress affects your sleep has to do with the network of fine blood vessels, called capillaries, that runs underneath your skin. "When you lie on any part of your body for an extended period of time, the weight of it reduces the flow of blood through those blood vessels, which deprives the skin of oxygen and nutrients," Decker says.
This causes nerve cells and pain sensors in your skin to send a message to your brain for you to roll over. Rolling over restores blood flow to the area, but it also briefly interrupts your sleep. Ideally, a mattress that reduces the pressure points on your body should give you a better night's sleep, Decker says. Yet the ideal mattress is different for each person. Which Mattress Is Right for You? Finding the right mattress isn't about searching out the highest-tech brand or spending the most money. "A much more expensive mattress doesn't necessarily mean it's better," Decker says. A high price tag is a product of both the materials that go into the mattress, and the marketing that helps sell it. Instead of focusing on price and brand name, think about what you want in a mattress. "Selecting a mattress is very personal," Decker says. Some people prefer a firmer mattress; others favor a softer style. Although there isn't a lot of scientific evidence to prove that one type of mattress will help you sleep better than another, people with certain medical conditions do seem to rest easier on a particular mattress style.
Anyone with back or neck pain should take a Goldilocks approach to mattress buying: not too hard, and not too soft. "If you're on too soft [of] a mattress, you'll start to sink down to the bottom. But on too hard of a mattress you have too much pressure on the sacrum, and on the shoulders, and on the back of the head," says Howard Levy, MD, an Emory University assistant professor of orthopaedics, physical medicine, and rehabilitation. A medium-firm mattress, or a firm mattress with a softer pillow top, will give your spine that "just-right" balance of support and cushioning. An adjustable bed can be a good buy if you need to sleep with your head raised. Doctors sometimes recommend elevating the head to help people with COPD breathe easier, or to prevent nighttime heartburn from GERD. These beds can also allow you to adjust your knees and hips to a 90-degree angle, relieving some of the pressure on sore joints, Levy says. If you have allergies or asthma, you might have considered buying a bed labeled "hypoallergenic."
"There are a lot of claims made by mattress manufacturers that their mattresses are hypoallergenic or don't support the growth of dust mites, but I don't know of scientific evidence to support these claims," says Paul V. Williams, MD, a pediatrics professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and an allergist at Northwest Allergy and Asthma Center in Washington state. Williams says dust mites will live anywhere there's food -- and that food is your dead skin cells. Instead of investing in an allergy-free mattress, slip on a washable mattress encasing. It will form a barrier that prevents dust mites from getting to you. A mattress encasing cuts allergen growth by robbing dust mites of their food supply, Williams says. And what about those space-age memory foam mattresses, which can cost thousands of dollars? There is some evidence they can help with back problems and improve sleep, but their advantage over a regular coil mattress is only slight. Where memory foam mattresses can really help you sleep is if you have an active bed partner who is keeping you awake, Decker says.
Foam mattresses reduce motion transfer, letting you lie still while your partner tosses and turns. Test Drive a Mattress Before You Buy "You wouldn't buy a car without test driving it," Decker says. So why would you invest hundreds -- or even thousands of dollars in a mattress without trying it out first? Take any new mattress you're considering for a test nap. "People should not be embarrassed to go into a store and lay on a mattress for 20 minutes," Decker says. For a more realistic test, sleep in the beds at different hotel chains when you travel. If you get an especially good night's sleep on one of them, ask the desk clerk what brand it is. When you test out a mattress, make sure it feels comfortable in every position, especially the side you favor for sleeping. The mattress should be supportive where you need it, without putting too much pressure on your body, Levy says. Time for a New Mattress If you've been having trouble sleeping, the problem might not be your mattress type, but its age.