You were probably conceived on one and you’ll probably die on one. You spend nearly 3,000 hours a year sleeping in one. It’s where you spend the most time with your partner, and where you first bond with your children. Hundreds of thousands of people are injured by them each year. In short, there aren’t many things in your home more important than your bed. Which makes it all the stranger that most of us give them so little thought. For many, a mattress comes a long way down the list of domestic priorities. But it has been estimated that a quarter of the British population suffers from sleep disruption, and often a bad mattress is at the root of this problem. The wrong sort of sleep can also cause cricked necks and bad backs – not to mention domestic tension. David Villaverde knows this better than most. As a furniture specialist at John Lewis on Oxford Street in central London, he spends his days showing people how to get a good night’s sleep. As I sprawl out over his show beds in the middle of the day, he takes me through the bed basics.
“The first thing I tell people is to slow down,” he explains. “Most want to get it over with in five minutes. It’s such an important item – you might as well take the time to get it right.” David says that you should spend around 45 minutes choosing, and lie on each mattress you’re interested in for at least 10 minutes. First I try the glossy newcomer to the market, the Tempur mattress. I say “newcomer”, but it’s a relative term for a product that has been around for 20 years. The beds world, you may not be surprised to hear, is a relatively slow-moving industry. The Tempur mattress is made from “memory foam”, derived from a material initially developed by Nasa to cushion astronauts against extreme g-forces. They have become hot property in the past few years. It’s easy to see why. As I lie on it, each bit of my body is absorbed and supported just as much as it needs to be. If you are used to a firmer mattress, you might find it a bit too squishy, but I think it’s great.
It’s like lying on an enormous marshmallow. Next up are two more traditional models. Jensen, the Norwegian company, is widely seen as the market leader in pocket-sprung mattresses. This is the classic design, in which the stuffing is held in place by togs. I test an “Ophelia” model. I ask if the name means that purchasers sleep in it alone and cry a lot. David doesn’t think so, and as I lie on this two metre-wide monster of comfort, I’m rather inclined to agree with him. In the middle of the department store, I have a sudden sensation of being in a five-star hotel. A Jensen bed comes in three parts – the base unit, the mattress and the topper. They work together to provide the right resistance. The mattresses are “zoned” so that they’re firmer in some parts than others. “Your bottom and your shoulders stick out more than other parts of your body,” says David. If your partner prefers a firmer mattress, or is much heavier than you are, you can even have different levels of tension on your respective sides of the bed.
The final bed I test is from the hand-sprung Vi-Spring range, “the Rolls-Royce of mattresses”, as David explains. This venerable British brand, founded in 1901, is the leading “hand-sprung” model. These mattresses are hand made, and filled with a mixture of lamb’s wool, silk and mohair (the Jensen uses a blend of natural and man-made fibres). This makes the mattress more breathable. “People sweat on average between half a pint and a pint while they sleep,” explains David. Like good sportswear, a mattress must be breathable, to let out all that excess body heat. Poor breathability is often the cause of heat itches, which can seriously disrupt sleep. I certainly don’t think I’d be disrupted on this particular bed. I feel as if I should be eating grapes, and ordering soldiers into battle far away. None of this technology, care and quality comes cheap. A top-of-the-range Jensen will set you back almost as much as a small car. Unless you’re a serious art collector, or have a loo seat made out of gold, your bed can easily be the most expensive thing you own.
“It’s an investment,” says David. “And though they’re all covered by warranties, I’d say 99 per cent of the people who take the time to buy one of these beds are satisfied.” Compared with the tetanus-threatening, mite-ridden, prison-style bunk I usually make do with, all of these beds seemed excellent. I understood Heidi’s joy when she goes to Frankfurt and learns that it’s possible to have more than one pillow. I could have slept the day away on any of them. But forced to choose, I’d go for a Vi-Spring. British beds for weary British heads. The Tempur original, without a frame, starts at £1,500 for a double and goes up to £2,175 for a king-size “Sensation” Prices for a Vi-Spring go from £1,000 for a mattress up to £5,000 for a set Jensen mattresses start at £1,950 and go up to £4,050 for an Ophelia bed and mattress set Five tips for choosing a new bed 1 Take your time You’re going to spend many hours sleeping on your new mattress, so make sure it feels comfortable.
2 Think about long-term value £100 spent on a mattress is just 2.7p a night spread over 10 years. Even £5,000 works out at less than £1.50 a night. 3 Check your allergies Even mild allergies to some fibres can seriously disrupt your sleep patterns. Mattresses are available to accommodate every sort of problem. 4 Hunt in pairs When testing mattresses, make sure you go with whoever you’ll be sharing it with, so that you get something suitable for both of you. 5 Pay attention to details Pillows, toppers, sheets and duvets all make a big difference too. Spend your money equally, rather than blowing it all on a mattress and scrimping on the rest. MORE: The best mattress toppers MORE: How to choose a mattressMattresses have become so technological – some are even based on research from the US space agency NASA – that they now sometimes go by the name 'sleep systems'. And at up to £40,000 a throw, some even cost as much as a mid-range BMW and command the same sort of social status.
But is it really necessary to fork out to get a good night's sleep? The consensus is that a cheap mattress is indeed a false economy – spending, say, less than £200 is almost certainly not going to ensure a good night's sleep unless you are very young, very light and frequently sleeping somewhere else. Cheap mattresses also need replacing more often, perhaps as frequently as every two years. Spend a bit extra, say, more than £1,000, and you should not need to change the mattresses for 10 years, or, in the most luxurious pocket spring cases, up to 25. "Spend as much as you can afford," advises Andy Hills of And So To Bed. "The minimum should be about £700 on the mattress and bed base combined. It always strikes me as absurd that people will spend £3,000 or £4,000 on a sofa which they sit on for an hour or two some evenings, and much less than £1,000 on a bed where they will spend a crucial eight hours every night." Once you have fixed the budget, the next priority is looking for the right kind of support.
"People often ask for orthopaedic mattresses, but all that means is a hard one," says Hills. "Very few people actually need a hard mattress unless they have crushed a disc. For most other people, they will simply be uncomfortable, particularly for lighter women, creating shoulder pain and pins and needles sensations." Indeed, your body weight will largely dictate the sort of tension you require – the softer ones are better for an eight-stone woman, a firmer mattress will benefit a 16-stone rugby player type. Of course, many suppliers sell combination mattresses with different tensions on either side, catering for couples with greatly varying weights. Always remember to lie down on a mattress in the showroom and ask for professional advice Others sell two mattresses zipped together, a technique much improved on the old days, making it now almost impossible to tell that there is a divide. "We say if couples feel the zip, we'll give them their money back," says Hills.
With spring mattresses, the firmness is largely dictated by the number of springs. High-quality mattresses such as Vi-Spring, such as the superb double model, will often have soft cotton and lamb's wool to enhance the springs; the very best will have horsehair filling, which breathes well and acts like more tiny springs. Vi-Spring offer a comfort promise – try the mattress for up to 90 days, if need be, they will replace it with a softer or harder one. Tempur, a manufacturer of memory foam mattresses using material developed at NASA to relieve g-force pressures during space launches, offers a 60-night free trial. The viscoelastic foam is designed to eliminate pressure points by spreading body weight evenly. The foam cell mattresses, that start at around £1,040 for a double, reorganise themselves constantly to mould to the exact contours of a body, and because they do not harbour dust mites in the same way as more traditional mattresses, they are excellent for asthma sufferers.
Although good mattresses are expensive, they are surely worth it for health and happiness, even if it means making savings elsewhere. "People often put up with wakeful nights, constant tiredness and sore backs for a long time before connecting it to the mattress," warns Lucy Benham of John Lewis. "A good test is sitting on the edge and seeing whether the whole side of the mattress collapses. If so, the mattress needs urgent replacement. "Also, when looking at a new one, remember that quilted ones tend to be of lower quality. Tufted ones, which look like they have buttons going through them, are better as this means the filling is contained to avoid it moving around. Good stitching around the sides indicates that the springs are contained in pockets, which will be much more effective than open spring mattresses. "But always remember to lie down on a mattress in the showroom and ask for professional advice. Choosing a new mattress is a very important decision indeed."
Make sure the bed base is suitable for your mattress. A poor base will make even the most expensive mattress uncomfortable. Divan or upholstered ones are best for spring mattresses as the springs in both components complement each other. Memory foam mattresses are better if you have only a wooden slatted base. To gauge the right tension for you, lie on the mattress in the showroom, and push your hand under the small of your back. If there is a large gap, the mattress is too soft, no gap at all, then it's too firm. Just being able to pass your hand through suggests that the tension is spot on. If the mattress is too hard, your body will try to compensate by frequently tossing and turning during the night, up to 60 times. This will impair your and your partner's sleep. A good mattress will reduce turning to 17 times a night. A too-hard mattress makes the body do the work, rather than the bed. The shoulder and hips cannot sink into the mattress, so they curve towards each other, resulting in a bent and stressed spine.
A too-soft mattress lets the body sink into a hammock position, causing hips and shoulders to pinch in, the spine to curve and putting pressure on joints and muscles. Numbness and tingling can follow. The best spring mattresses tend to be pocket-sprung, where each individual spring is kept separate to respond to pressure from your body. Five of the best mattresses 1. Vispring wembury superb small double mattress, £1550 Made from British fleece wool, cotton and horsehair to added breathability, this Vispring mattress is guaranteed to give you a comfortable night's sleep. 2. Tempur sensation deluxe 22 memory foam mattress, £1899 The NASA developed Tempur material works to redistribute body weight and reduce pressure points while you sleep. The supportive foam layer also cradles the body throughout the night, making sure you achieve optimum relaxation. 3. Sealy Activ Geltex 2800 box top pocket spring, £1150 Sealy combines the latest technology and eco-friendly luxury fillings to provide the ultimate in quality sleep solutions.