Judging by the amount of thinking that goes into it, buying a new mattress might seem no different from, say, choosing someone to marry."What if I change my mind?" "Will it last a lifetime? "Does it give back rubs?""After all you, spend a 1/3 of your life in bed," said Lori Dennis, a Los Angeles-based interior designer.
We quizzed an array of experts to cut through the overwhelming — and sometimes conflicting — advice out there and boiled it down to what really matters, so you can find the mattress of your dreams. How does the price correlate with your experience?"You get what you pay for," Dennis said. "So I always advise people to buy the highest-quality mattress." With prices starting at $300 and easily exceeding $10,000, you can't help but ask yourself how much more rest will you be getting from sleeping on top of a small fortune.The construction and the materials play a huge role in the price, explained Roberson Keffer, Macy's vice president fashion director of home.
Maybe you have your eyes on a coil spring mattress. The more affordable version tends to have an hourglass-shaped coil. While it does provide adequate support, it is also going to wear out faster than a pricier continuous-S-shaped coil mattress, Keffer said.As for materials, memory foam mattresses, for example, are usually 10 percent less expensive than the latex ones. However, if you get overheated easily from tossing and turning in your sleep, Keffer suggests going for latex, a natural material that "breathes" better.A hefty investment might also prolong the comfort. "High-quality foams and springs ensure that a mattress will feel as comfortable after years of use as it did in the store," added Kristopher Beck, Hilton Worldwide's director of product management.The terms often used to describe mattress features seem more appropriate for combat gear: "best edge foam encasement," "precision edge systems," "Tencel fabric."Do you really need all of that?Not really, according to Keffer: "If you are not suffering from back pain or allergies, then a traditional coil spring mattress is a good option."
No matter how basic the model, test it for proper support. "You just have to lie down and try it out," said Keffer, who recommends brands like Tempur-Pedic and Sealy. If you'll be sharing the bed, shop with your partner and look for the words "motion transfer." "Back in the day, every time you moved or got out of bed, your partner would be jolted along with you. Today's mattresses have come a long way in reducing that transfer," said Keffer. He advises shoppers to take turns moving around and getting up, while the other person lies still, before making a purchase.Going organic with your mattress, for instance, might seem like the next step when you've already done so with your food and clothes. "I think it's worth the cost. Otherwise you're breathing toxins all night," said Dennis, who added that Parker&Morgan has an affordable line of organic mattresses.Say you're the type who catches up on emails at night or just loves unwinding with a book at the end of the day. Both Keffer and Beck encourage you to jump on the adjustable-bed-frame bandwagon.
And if you're tired of begging your partner for back rubs, there are options. Some models, like the $1,299 Serta Motion Select, come with built-in massage technology. Make sure to pair an adjustable bed with a mattress made from flexible materials like memory foam or latex foam.Foundations incorporating sleep monitors are also on the rise, said Beck. For $1,199, the Smartmotion Base from Simmons promises to capture precise readings of slumber patterns and offer ways to improve them.No matter the choice, there are times of the year to buy mattresses cheaper. Your next best bets? Columbus Day and Presidents Day. "You're bound to find a great deal during these events," said Keffer.Andreea Ciulac is a freelance writer. How to buy bed pillows, for every type of sleeperHow to buy a pasta-maker“People buy shoes online even though you can’t try them on… a mattress is no different, right?” Faced with buying a new mattress two years ago, I uttered these words to Mrs. Frugalwoods and then embarked on a frugal slumber experiment.
My goal was to see if my wife and I could buy a mattress online, save tons of money, and still get a great night’s sleep. Let’s start at the beginning. Mrs. Frugalwoods is what we would lovingly call an “active sleeper.” She is a tiny woman with powerful kicking legs. Must be all that yoga. We had a double bed for the first several years of our marriage and I have the scars to prove it! So when we moved back to the Northeast a few years ago, getting a bed large enough to provide Mrs. Frugalwoods with room to roam and myself to sleep without being pummeled was on the top of my list. And holy mother-of-pillowtop are king sized mattresses expensive! This low-end tempurpedic is $2,400! Our car isn’t worth $2,400! The Mrs. and I saw those prices and were not impressed. It also quickly became apparent that mattresses are extremely profitable and sold in a manner similar to used cars. I do not need a salesperson to assist me, thank you very much. But we really needed a mattress.
So we made a list of our snoozing requirements and asked the internet. anyway (gloves for hound teeth brushing, for example) so it was a natural place to start looking. Turns out, they have an entire mattress section. After reading through a bunch of the firm mattress reviews, we settled on the LUCID 8″ Memory Foam Mattress. It checked all the boxes and 2 years ago was only $279 for the king size. Plus, and this is the really crazy part, Prime Shipping! That’s right, Amazon shipped a king sized mattress to our door in a mere 2 days from ordering it, FOR FREE. When it arrived, we warily eyeballed the heavy, awkward, long tube that the mattresses was vacuum packed into. The box was plastered with warnings to put the box in the room where you want the mattress before opening it and releasing the tightly coiled foam. We carefully put the box in the bedroom and then slit the straining plastic holding back the surging foam mattress. As dramatic as it sounds (and as we had imagined it), in reality the foam just slowly unrolled itself and started gaining the shape of a mattress.
Did it smell a little “new car-ish” (for lack of a better term)? Yes, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The box suggested leaving the windows open for a few hours while the foam attained its shape. We opened the box when we got home from work and by the time we were ready to go to bed, the smell was no longer noticeable. So how does a $279 mattress from the internet feel? I actually remember chuckling as I lay down for the first time. We picked the 8″ version specifically because it was the firmest (they also make 10″ and 12″ which are softer) and wow does it deliver. Firm but comfy and extremely supportive of our backs. Two years later, internet mattress is still firm and supportive! Since this mattress has foam layered in a specific order, you can’t flip it but you can rotate it. We do that every 6 months to try and keep the wear level the same. So far I haven’t noticed any significant settling of the foam. One of the things I was most concerned about was how it would feel during the summer.
I’d heard from some people that memory foam can hold the heat next to your body. In practice we haven’t noticed any additional heat. In short, it’s been a great mattress and we expect to get many more years of good sleep on it! Over the past two years, I’ve evangelized buying a mattress from Amazon to coworkers and friends, several of whom have bought the same or similar mattresses. So far no complaints! Take a look at the Amazon mattress section, in particular the Lucid foam mattress, and keep it in mind the next time you’re in the market for a bed. Have you purchased a mattress online? Ever thought about it? Think it’s the weirdest thing ever? Let me have it! Note: I bought the mattress with my own money. No one paid me to do this review, I just think it’s a pretty awesome way to save money. The links to the mattress are affiliate links, which means if you also score a deal on a great mattress, Amazon will pay the Frugalwoods Family a small percentage of the sale. F