Sleepopolis is supported by readers. Product links on Sleepopolis are referral links. If you use one of these and buy something Sleepopolis makes a little bit of money. See how it all works here. Major Update: Check out our updated Tuft & Needle mattress review here. T&N has made some major changes since I originally published this piece. For Sleepopolis regular readers you may already know that Tuft & Needle hasn’t always been one of my favorite mattresses. A little over 6 months ago I was in the market for a new mattress and a co-worker of mine recommended I give the Tuft & Needle a try, which I did. All things considered, it was a good mattress and a great company, but after just a few nights it was apparent that it wasn’t the right mattress for me. The mattress at the time was quite simply too firm for my back. However, Tuft & Needle has been on the warpath these last 6 months and their mattress and foam formulation has gotten a complete overhaul. Tuft & Needle listened to their consumer feedback and went back to the drawing board.
Within the last 6 months the team at Tuft & Needle has made more than a dozen major changes to the mattress addressing consumer feedback, complaints, and other issues.A completely new and dramatically improved mattress. ’s most popular rated mattress. So with that said, let’s dive in and take a look at the major changes to Tuft & Needle. The biggest complaint, by far, that Tuft & Needle has received within the last several months has been around the firmness. As I mentioned above, the mattress was just a bit too firm for me when I originally tried it. Tuft & Needle took this feedback from their customers and began to go back to the drawing board of their foam formulation. The new foam delivered the same great support that so many have raved about on Amazon, but with considerable improvement to the softness. The new Tuft & Needle has a much softer feel and is closer to a true neutral firmness. This one isn’t as much of a change, but it’s so critically important, and it’s something I wasn’t aware of 6 months ago.
Unlike most mattress companies Tuft & Needle doesn’t use latex foam, Avena foam, memory foam, or any other patented foam. Because they simply don’t have as much control over the support and comfort of those foams. Tuft & Needle’s foundation isn’t in design or marketing, and they don’t have an army of venture capitalists backing them. At the core they are engineers trying to solve the problems that plague the mattress industry, all from an engineer’s angle. And what do engineers want most? Formulaic control of their product, data driven feedback from their customers, and an experience that simply works. Since they make their own foam they have incredible control over every aspect of the feel. By changing certain variables in the formulation and/or pouring process they are able to dial in support, comfort, firmness, cooling, sinkage, and virtually every other criteria you could imagine. Hybrid foam mattresses are fairly standard in the online factory direct mattress market.
In fact, Tuft & Needle itself was something of a 3-layer hybrid mattress when they first launched. Their newest model has gone from 3-layers down to 2. Instead of having two separate layers, one for support and one for comfort, they have developed a foam formulation that combines these into a single 3 inch layer. In addition to simply being softer, the new Tuft & Needle foam formulation has been designed to promote additional cooling. The foams draw heat away from your body as you sleep and expel the heat through the sides and bottom, resulting in a mattress that sleeps cool immediately and constantly, even after laying down all night. The active cooling is aided by the reduced number of layers and glue in the mattress, both of which help air to flow more freely. Quite frankly, I’m impressed with the new Tuft & Needle. They have always been a great mattress, even when they were too firm for me, but their ability to quickly adapt to the needs of consumer and create a truly adaptive and dynamic product is something to admire.
If you were on the fence before about the Tuft & Needle due to firmness concerns I would recommend giving them a second look.What I know about buying a mattress I’ve learned from the best: Insiders who have retired from the sleep product industry.It is impossible to compare by make and model from one store to another. No wonder mattress retailers are so quick to promise that if you can find the same mattress at a lower price they’ll give it to you for free. They know that will never happen because no other store carries that exact mattress.Each mattress manufacturer makes “levels” of mattresses for the stores that sell their brand: Very cheap, decent cheap, good and best. That’s not what they call them, but you can tell by the pricing within each manufacturer’s line of products.A very cheap mattress is about 10 percent materials (foam, steel, padding) and 90 percent air. A mid-level mattress is about 40 percent materials and so on. The more material, the better the product and the higher the price.
A high-quality mattress will be 90 percent materials which means it will be the heaviest of those you try to lift. Go ahead, lift the corner of a mattress. If it’s light as a feather you can be sure it is a very cheap, low quality mattress.The heavier the person(s) who will be sleeping on the mattress, the heavier you want the mattress to be. You spend 30 percent of your life on your mattress. It makes a lot of sense to spend twice the price of a cheap mattress to have it last four times as long.A pillow top mattress is a normal mattress with a layer of extra padding on top. The pillow top will wear out and flatten down long before the actual mattress begins to show a dent. But it is attached permanently. You’ll pay at least $150 more for a pillow top (double that if it has a pillow top on both sides). Buy a great mattress pad instead. Then throw it away when it mashes down and buy a new one. Using this technique, you will have a mattress that lasts many years longer.Once you’ve narrowed your choices to two or three, get comfortable for at least 15 minutes on each of the beds you are considering.