Your mattress is one of the most important home furnishings you can buy. After all, if you don’t have a high-end mattress, you’re not going to get a very good night’s sleep. And sleep is critical for health. But with all the commercials and ads you see about different kinds of mattresses, how do you know which one is the best? These tips for buying a high-end mattress can help you choose the right one for you.
Consider Your Weight
No matter how much money you spend on a mattress, if you don’t get one that appropriately accommodates your weight, you’re not going to be happy with it. Overweight individuals will benefit with a firmer mattress that offers extra support. Otherwise, their body weight will cause them to sink further into the mattress, causing misalignment of joints and bones. People who weigh less can usually find enough support on a standard mattress that is made of memory foam or latex.
It’s important to note, though, that these generalities aren’t true for everyone. Some people who weigh what they should need a bed with the same support as a person who is overweight. It all depends on your body shape and build. The best advice for people who are overweight (and even for those who aren’t) is to test a mattress for several weeks before determining which one provides the best support.
Consider the Materials
There are three primary types of mattresses: innerspring coil, air, and foam, with hybrid versions of coil and foam also available. Mattresses have traditionally been of the innerspring coil type and few high-end mattresses are made from this material. You can still find high-quality mattresses that have coils and if you tend to sleep hot, coils provide more air circulation room than other types of mattresses, but otherwise, you might be better off looking at an air, foam, or hybrid mattress.
Memory foam and latex foam are two of the most popular types of foam mattresses, and each have their benefits and drawbacks. Latex is well known for its cooling properties, whereas memory foam is a favorite because of its tendency to “cradle” the body. Memory foam conforms to every inch of a sleeper’s body and provides the proper amount of support to avoid pressure points.
The term “air mattress” often conjures up the blow-up camping-type mattress, but there are air mattress models designed for the bedroom as well. These mattresses allow you to adjust the support level of your mattress by adding or releasing air. These are popular because the larger mattresses (queen and king) typically allow you to adjust each side separately, meaning you can have one support setting and your partner can have another.
Consider Your Sleep Position
Back sleepers need a lot of support, whereas side sleepers typically need a little bit of a softer mattress to avoid pain in their hips and shoulders. The softer option allows for an equal distribution of pressure for all contact points with the mattress, including knees, hips, and shoulders. Stomach sleepers need a firm mattress that offers equal distribution of weight from top to bottom so that their spine doesn’t curve, which can lead to pain.
Essentially, back sleepers need the most support, followed by stomach sleepers, and trailed by side sleepers. If you sleep in a combination of positions, you’ll want to take time to test out each mattress you’re thinking about buying to find the one that provides the appropriate amount of support in every position. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all option for multi-position sleepers.
Consider Your Budget
Certainly, high-end mattresses are going to be more expensive than standard mattresses, but if you’re looking for a mattress that offers the right amount of support and other features, such as temperature regulation and antibacterial properties, you’re going to need a larger budget. Cheap mattresses equal poor sleep and there’s just no getting around it. For a queen-size mattress, you can expect to spend around $2,100 on a high-end mattress. A king-size mattress will run a few hundred dollars more and a full or twin will be $500 or $600 less.
While you have to take into account how much you can afford to spend on a high-end mattress, you also need to consider the benefits of spending more on a mattress and knowing it is going to improve your sleep quality. In other words, can you really afford that cheap mattress that is going to cause your back to hurt or your sleep to suffer? In most cases, the answer is no. Spending more on the right high-quality mattress up front will mean that you won’t have to buy a mattress again for years (over a decade for a high-end foam mattress) and you’ll experience better sleep as well.
Conclusion
These tips can certainly help you choose a high-end mattress, but the best tip of all is to do your research and test-sleep any mattress you’re considering to make sure it’s the right one for you. And don’t just give it one or two nights. Make sure you can test a mattress for at least a couple of weeks (and preferably a few months) to determine if it’s truly improving your sleep or if you need to try a different model.