Nothing is more relaxing than snuggling into bed after a long day. But buying a mattress? That event is almost ZERO parts zen. There's much to consider when hunting for the centerpiece of your bedroom -- but the mattress-buying process doesn't have to be a nightmare. Here's a quick briefing that will ensure your shopping trip is as smooth as a midday nap. There is indeed a "cheapest" time to buy. Most experts recommend purchasing a mattress near a holiday -- like Presidents Day, Labor Day, the Fourth of July, and Memorial Day -- or in the month of May, when mattresses are usually marked down in showrooms. In January, you can start prepping for your mattress purchase at "white sales," which are deeply discounted sales for bedding. Higher prices does not mean better sleep. One of the biggest complaints when buying a mattress is price, and figuring out why they cost so damn much. This is usually attributed to large markups, which depends on the brand. We recommend staying in the $500 to $1200 range, as anything over that price doesn't necessarily indicate better quality or better sleep, and probably has the same amount of cushioning and support as more expensive mattresses.
You can negotiate your price. Though it may surprise most people, it is possible to negotiate the price at most of the bigger mattress chains. Robin Wilson, an eco-friendly interior design expert, says that if you bargain "at a department store, you might be able to get tax taken off the mattress price, or delivery for free." You'll also have a better chance of getting a discount or redeeming a coupon if you go to the store to purchase a mattress, rather than buying online. "Firm" mattresses are not the same "firmness" everywhere. Yes, labels may tout a mattress's level of firmness, but one brand's "firm" may be another brand's "soft," according to Consumer Reports Expert Shopper Tod Marks. "The only way to determine if the cushiness and the firmness is right for you is to lie down on the bed and try it for yourself," he says. It's harder to return a mattress than you think. Most mattress retailers (from IKEA to Tempur-Pedic) will allow you to try out your mattress for up to 90 days, but they differ on the amount of money you'll get back if you return it.
Other stores require an exchange fee or disposal fee, which can cost hundreds of dollars. There are organic options. The squishy foam on mattresses is often made from petroleum oil, which (not surprisingly) can cause health problems for some. Organic mattress brands like Keesa use their own foams that put plant oils into the mix. While they may be more costly, all-natural mattresses are worth it, says Wilson. "We spend one third of our lives sleeping," she explains. "Consider your mattress a health investment." You can order a mattress online as easily as you can order a pair of shoes. Yup, you'll find mattresses right in the Amazon store, many listed with free shipping. And a whole new suite of boutique mattress retailers (like the newly-popular Casper) operate solely online, sending mattresses to your door in a nice, neat box. These new online retailers often allow returns for a full refund, without any fees or charges whatsoever. But the old standby brands -- which you might find on discount sites like Overstock -- likely won't do the same, so it's smart to go test them out in a store first.
You don't need to buy your mattress from a brand you've heard of. The aforementioned Casper is an online retailer that aims to ease everyone's mattress-buying headache with a 100-day trial period and sleek design. Other sites like Saatva (which has an eco-friendly focus) and Novosbed (which also boasts free delivery, free trial periods and free returns) also deliver to your door in a snap. Hop on the bandwagon, because this is the future of mattresses.3. Memory foam mattresses are made of polyurethane and additional ingredients. This type of mattress is a popular choice for people who suffer from back and neck pain. The memory foam conforms to your body shape and springs back to its original shape when you get up. It has good motion isolation properties, but sleeps hot. Latex mattresses are a hypoallergenic alternative to memory foam.5. Organic mattresses, such as those made by Canadian manufacturer Natura, are made with certified organic materials, including 100 per cent organic wool, organic cotton and 100 per cent natural rubber latex – all of which are renewable and biodegradable resources.
These natural materials are grown, processed and manufactured without toxic chemicals.• Know your budget. Mattress prices vary tremendously, but most (other than the cheapest – that is, from $200 to $600), will be durable.1. Comfort: A comfortable mattress relieves pressure and pain, and promotes relaxation and a good night's sleep. Low-end innerspring mattresses transmit more motion from one person in the bed to the other than high-end innerspring and foam/latex mattresses do. Some foam/latex mattresses make changing positions difficult because of the way they conform to the body.3. .Click here to find 12 stylish headboards that will revamp the look of your bedroom.For many of us, it’s about 40 prone, self-conscious seconds, clothes on, in a showroom, staring into a fluorescent light, followed by an “I’ll take it” that’s more about relief than approval. But wait, there’s not a lot of relief, because the markup on mattresses is mysterious enough that it’s impossible to know if you’ve been taken or not.
And your 40-second test didn’t tell you much anything about whether this is a good location for you to sleep, fuck, and scan Twitter for the next two decades. That’s why a new approach to selling mattresses is so novel, and so welcome. Casper is one of these new-age businesses. Based in New York City, it doesn’t have a showroom. It ships the mattress to you, in a compact box. That’s right: Your mattress comes to your house in a box via UPS! You cut along the dotted line and—voila!—like a pool toy or a Stephen A. Smith diatribe, the mattress inflates. You position it on the bed, and then comes the really relaxing part: You have 100 days to decide if it’s the mattress for you. This approach marks Casper—and a similar rival, Leesa—as part of the new wave of consumer goods sellers with a decidedly consumer-first focus. Think Warby Parker and Netflix. The queen-sized example Casper sent to my home goes for $850, with a $50 discount coupon floating on the Web, which is very competitive for a good mattress.
In fact, if it lasts as long as my previous mattress (20 years), it'll be a stinking bargain. (Casper does offer a 10-year warranty on top of the 100-day evaluation period, and claims that to sell the same product in stores it would need to charge three times more. Some of the latex mattress makers offer a 25-year warranty.) So the big question: Is this mattress any good? I put it through its paces for 30 wintry nights, then spoke with the Men’s Health sleep expert, Dr. C. William Winter, about what I learned and what you should be thinking about when you pick a mattress. (Check out the Best Sleep Positions to find out what the way you sleep says about you.) It wasn’t that long ago that nearly all mattresses were built around coiled springs. There were outliers, like the Temper-Pedic (memory foam) and Sleep Numbers (air bladder) brands that you likely heard marketed on the radio, but it was a world dominated by Serta, Sealy, and Simmons. That’s changed to a degree in recent years, with non-spring-based mattresses increasing their market share.
There are air-bladder-based mattresses, like those made by Sleep Number. They promise endless adjustability. You can change the amount of air in the bladder on a daily—heck, hourly—basis. But most people don’t want endless change; they want to set it and forget it, for a long period of time. On the negative side, the mechanical nature of the air bladder introduces the ability for your mattress to “break." A latex mattress is another option. Its selling points: personalization, durability, and eco-friendliness. "The cool thing [about latex mattresses] is that they are completely customizable,” says Winter, who sleeps on one, from Savvy Rest. “You could have a mattress split down the middle, where your side is different than your partner’s side. And the absence of springs means one less thing that can wear out. "Theoretically, the mattress never needs to be replaced. If part of it wore out or needed to be replaced, you could simply open the liner and replace the faulty layer with a new piece, which isn’t terribly expensive,” says Winter.
He adds: “If your needs change or your preferences change—or your partner changes—you can unzip the mattress and pull her layers out, and throw them out, and get new layers for your new girlfriend." Memory foam mattresses—like Tempur-Pedic—are celebrated for their body-enveloping support. People with back pain often sing their praises. On the other hand, that enveloping can make them uncomfortable on hot nights and can make moving around on the mattress difficult. And sometimes it’s very important that we be able to move around on our mattresses. “It’s like screwing on a marshmallow,” Dr. Winter writes in an email about foam mattresses in general, adding, "I unfortunately have to disagree with the band Spinal Tap's conclusion, 'The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’.’ The Casper is a bit of a hybrid, with a latex layer on top and the memory foam underneath. You get the benefits of both, Casper claims. What you lose, though, by purchasing from a startup with a lean business model and an eye on costs, is the ability to customize it.
Large, deep, cushy mattresses have taken the market by storm in recent years, with some exceeding 14 inches in depth. Dr. Winter said that while the plush tops no doubt feel very comfortable, a lot of factors go into what’s right for you. The Casper is just 10 inches thick, with a 1 1/2-inch synthetic latex layer atop a 1 1/2 inch layer, this one of memory foam, with 7 inches of foam as a base. The Leesa has a similar mattress, which was just redesigned (and a similar 100-day vetting period). Even if you go to the independent mattress seller’s store and put in the Consumer Reports' recommended 10 minutes of lying-around time, you’re not going to know much till you sleep a night on the darn thing. When you do, you might find the mattress is too firm and hurts your back, or what was pleasingly plush in the showroom is claustrophobically enveloping or sweat pore-dilatingly hot in the wee hours. In fact, the only thing that Dr. Winter recommends in purchasing a new mattress is that you have a guaranteed window to return or replace it.
“I’d avoid a mattress deal or a mattress dealership that says you buy, you own it,” Winter says. “You can’t just sit there, lie flat on your back in your street clothes, and say this is the mattress for me for the next X number of years. “I’d encourage guys to work out a deal so the mattress can always come back in, at least, the first month." While a 100-night trial period is great marketing, my experience was that it took about a week to make a decision. My first couple nights with the Casper were a bit off-putting. I had, strangely enough, grown accustomed to the trench that ran through the middle of our bed from 20 years of sleeping with my wife. Gravity—and our great love for each other, honey—pulled at us inexorably each evening. If we didn’t come together, it was because someone didn’t want to. And sleeping close to each other has its benefits. Recent research showed that couples that slept within touching distance of each other got more, better rest.
By Night #3 we were past the newness of it, and we settled in. Casper’s latex-over-memory foam construction gives it some of what Dr. Winter calls that “reinserted into the womb” feeling. At the same time, the latex is firm enough that you—and your sex life—aren’t swallowed by it. After a week on the Casper, my wife said that a pain she had been feeling in her leg and hip through the fall had gone away. "I know people who say they bought a mattress and the back pain they had for 10 years went away; I believe it,” he says. “I went on a trip to the Midwest and slept on a hotel mattress for two nights and my back never hurt worse. People often wake up after a bad night’s sleep and say, ‘Oh, my back’s all locked up and I have sciatica or whatever. It definitely works the other way, too.' All in all, we're sold—for now. The Casper is plenty comfortable, and we’re sleeping soundly, night after night. If you’re in the market, check out your options;