JOIN USDo not be intimidated while choosing a new mattress. There
are several simple ways to pick the perfect one for you, assures Steven Kurutz.
Not long ago, Marcie Judelson went shopping to replace her 25-year-old, increasingly lumpy spring-coil mattress and fell down a consumer rabbit hole. “I went looking for a basic mattress like the one I had and was shocked to find that world is gone,” said Marcie, an advertising copywriter who lives in San Francisco. “The mattress industry took something simple and made it incredibly complicated. And not for the better.”
Is there any home purchase more confusing and fraught with anxiety than buying a mattress? Study after study points to sleep being vitally important to our health and happiness, and it stands to reason that a mattress is a foundational component of a good night’s rest. And yet to choose the right one, shoppers must navigate a Kafkaesque maze.Choosing a brand is really hard. How do you pick one, when they are all so confusing? Then there is the incomprehensible tech-speak: advanced pocketed coil technology; PrimaCool gel; viscoelastic memory foam. It’s as if mattress manufacturers are selling not what is basically a large stationary cushion but a spaceship.
A sea of white
It would help if mattresses were like couches or dining tables and came in easily distinguishable styles, shapes and colours. But as Brett Swygman, a vice president for sales and development at Simmons, admitted, the products his company and its competitors sell have a baffling visual uniformity. People walk into a store, Brett said, “and see a sea of white rectangles.”
Not only do most mattresses look alike, but their essence - the components that distinguish well-made models from lesser ones - is hidden. Perhaps that’s why bed names can reach a baroque absurdity in their effort to convey opulence, comfort and engineering superiority.
If you cut through the marketing-speak, though, identities emerge among the major manufacturers. Simmons trademarked the pocketed coil, a barrel-shaped, independently-moving encased spring.
Still, that isn’t always necessary, depending on where you shop. The selling floors of department stores and bedding chains of most high-end mattress stores tend to resemble a gentle pond. The more you’re willing or able to spend, it seems, the less you’re overwhelmed with options.
A new manufacturer wants to eliminate the dilemma of choice altogether, by changing the way people shop for mattresses. Earlier this year, Casper, a New York-based startup, introduced a single, one-mattress-fits-all product in standard sizes that can be bought online and shipped inside a box.
Philip Krim, the company’s chief executive, said he was inspired by hotel beds. “When you check into a hotel, they don’t ask you, do you need medium, firm, plush-firm or plush-soft?” Philip said. “There’s one mattress.” He added: “You don’t need 80 different choices. You don’t need to spend $5,000 on a mattress.”
The Casper mattress is made of memory and latex foams and sells for $850 for a queen. To make consumers feel comfortable buying a mattress that they haven’t tested in person, the company offers a 100-day trial period and an easy return policy: If you don’t like the mattress, the company will send a courier to remove it for a full refund. “I think sleep has never been more top-of-mind for consumers,” Philip said. “And yet, a mattress is bought in a confusing and antiquated experience. We didn’t see anyone speaking more basically about the product.”
Ed Perratore, a journalist at Consumer Reports, which tests and rates mattresses, sees the focus on engineering as a smokescreen. “Things like how many foam layers, how many coils there are, the type of coils - some of this could help you, but it’s meant to keep you off-guard,” Ed said.
In the luxury bedding world, the focus shifts from construction to materials. Hästens beds, for instance, use horsehair that is sterilised for up to a year before going into the mattress.
Shane Bahng, director of global retail development for Hästens, said horsehair “naturally wicks away moisture from your body.” It also makes for a mattress that lasts longer than one made of synthetic materials, he said. “There’s no bringing it back once the synthetic materials break down. A bed made of natural materials can last a lifetime.” Duxiana has a similar pitch, touting its Dux 101 as “handcrafted from the finest materials” and made with “Swedish steel springs.” Leaving aside the question of whether Swedish steel is somehow better than other variants, Ed said, the bed doesn’t necessarily provide a better night’s sleep.
When Consumer Reports tested the Dux 101, it performed about the same as a $540 mattress from the Original Mattress Factory. “It was very good for side support,” he said. “Back support, it was good. Wouldn’t you think for it being a $5,000 mattress, it would score fives across our tests?”
In its surveys, Consumer Reports has found that most people tend to spend between $800 and $1,200 for a mattress, though a good mattress can be purchased for less.
“From the models that we’ve tested, they seem to start getting good in the $600 to $700 range,” Ed said, adding that even the $540 inner-spring mattress from the Original Mattress Factory made Consumer Report’s recommended list. And because prices are fluid, especially at the chains, Ed said, there’s no reason not to haggle with the salesperson, even if you arrive a day late for that big Columbus Day sale.
In the end, Marcie bought a $2,500 Stearns & Foster pillowtop mattress that she found too hot as a sleep surface. She returned it and ended up spending $2,000 for a Simmons Beautyrest Pemberton Plush, a name that made her laugh.
She didn’t find the rest of the experience as amusing. One senses that Marcie settled on the Pemberton less for its comfort than to put the whole thing behind her. “Because of all the confusion - every aspect of it - it wears you down,” she said. “To the point where you say, 'Please just let this be over.'”
You are feeling sleepy
All those studies about the importance of sleep have made the mattress a high-anxiety purchase, but a bed is just one part of a good night’s rest. Don’t view a mattress as a sleeping pill, and don’t stress too much over its purchase.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet of things to keep in mind when out shopping:
l Don’t bust the budgetl Read the fine printl Look for savingsl Comfort is king