When buying a new mattress the first and most obvious factor to consider is comfort: how does this bed feel to sleep on? As a mattress tester, comfort is a key metric when finding the best mattresses for all sleep needs.
But choosing the right mattress goes beyond 'how it feels' and in this guide I'm exploring how a bed can take your sleep up a level: falling asleep faster, sleeping deeper and waking up fresher.
These are the features you might not have considered in your mattress but are an absolute must if you want to supercharge your sleep.
And with the Labor Day mattress sales offering money off beds that exemplify these factors, now's the time to invest in your rest.
5 tips for buying a bed that supercharges your sleep
1. Share a bed? Look for motion isolation
Bed sharers need to know about motion isolation; how well a mattress stops movement from one side of the bed traveling to the other.
If your partner jumps into bed — well, no mattress can stop that from being annoying. But a design with good motion isolation will absorb the movement of tossing and turning, so a restless night doesn't disturb your bed mate.
This is something the best memory foam mattresses are known for, as thick foams trap motion. The Nectar Premier Memory Foam Mattress is an excellent example and a good choice for couples.
2. Support is an all-round must
Support is an essential part of comfort but edge support is often peripheral. Quite literally, as it refers to how sturdy a mattress is at the perimieter.
A mattress with good edge support is as supportive at the sides as it is at the center. The Saatva Classic is a stand-out in this area — we described it as the "pinnacle of edge support" in our Saatva Classic Mattress review.
Strong edges allow you to use the entire surface of a mattress (plenty of room for starfishing.) It also makes it easier to push out of bed in the morning; my mom has bad knees and edge support is the first thing she tests in a bed.
3. Don't overlook temperature
Heat plays a key role in how well we sleep, as a cool room alerts your body that it's time to rest. But you don't have to rely on your AC (or thermostat) to stay the right temperature at night.
A mattress with good temperature regulation retains a neutral feel all night long, dissipating trapped warmth so you don't wake up sweating. With coils for airflow, the best hybrid mattresses tend to excel at this.
However, the best cooling mattresses take it up a level with heat wicking materials. The Bear Elite Hybrid mattress's Celliant cover is a good example.
If heat is a consistent sleep saboteur, take total control over your temperature with a smart bed like the Eight Sleep mattress cover, which uses a water-based active cooling system to turn the heat up or down.
4. Sleep tech can transform comfort (literally)
Most beds come in a single mattress firmness. And although the best medium-firm mattresses are crowd pleasers, no feel suits all sleep styles.
But for those with changing sleep needs, or bed sharers who have different preferences to their partners, adjustable firmness mattresses offer an adaptable alternative.
Mattress firmness is measures on a scale of 1-10, with 1 indicating marshmallow soft and 10 hard as a rock. Beds with adjustable firmness can hit every point on that scale.
These beds typically feature air chambers that inflate or deflate to make the mattress harder or softer.(often with controls for each side of the bed.) That means the mattress feels exactly as you want, every night of the week.
Adjustable firmness mattresses can be pricey but for comfort control, there's nothing quite like them. The Saatva Solaire and Sleep Number i8 mattress are good examples.
5. Smart beds = smarter sleep
Smart mattresses are at the cutting edge of sleep tech. Fitted with a series of sensors, these mattresses monitor your rest during the night and deliver a breakdown of your sleep in the morning.
And to take your sleep up another level, they often work alongside high tech features to keep you comfortable throughout the night. For example. by adjusting the firmness when you move position, or lowering the temperature when the night warms up.
One more thing...
I always recommend looking for this one feature buying a bed and while it won't impact your mattress, it can change your sleep: a mattress trial.
These at-home testing periods are an opportunity to experience the bed over multiple nights, so you can see how your carefully selected features perform in real-life conditions.
If your mattress isn't up to standard, as long as you're within the trial period, you can return it (often for free.)
