In Search of the Perfect Mattress
Goldilocks had it easy. When she tried out beds at the Three Bears Mattress Warehouse, she had only a trio of models to choose from: Too Hard, Too Soft and Just Right. Things are a lot more complicated now. Shop for a mattress in 2002 and you’ll encounter “densified torso support zones,” air beds, water beds, latex beds, “memory foam” beds, innerspring beds with a jillion different coil configurations, and a $5,000 Stearns & Foster mattress with a cover that resembles a stained-glass window from a European cathedral.
Which raises a crucial question: Do people really sleep better on mattresses inspired by stained glass? The answer, according to the latest scientific research, is: Yes. No, wait. That research comes from Stearns & Foster. Real scientists have a somewhat different opinion. They also offer surprising views on what constitutes the ideal sleeping surface for the human body.
In North Hills, at the Center for Sleep Research, Jerry Siegel, professor of psychiatry at UCLA, studies the slumber of whales, platypuses, Doberman pinschers and people, among others. He’s kept tabs on creatures snoozing in trees, water, on the ground, even while flying. He’s heard of humans sleeping on or in everything from water-filled goatskins to World War II foxholes. So when it comes to mattresses, he’s wary of the claims made by manufacturers.
“I’ve seen a lot of pseudo-research,” says Siegel, who is chief of neurobiology at the Sepulveda VA Hospital, home to the Center for Sleep Research. “But the truth is, most sleep problems are not substantially helped by mattresses, unless you’ve been sleeping on a bed of nails.”
Merrill M. Mitler, who runs the Scripps Research Institute’s Laboratory for Sleep, Fatigue and Safety, is equally skeptical. Although few studies have been done, he says, the best research shows that “after a night or two of adaptation, most people can sleep as well on a thin pad over a concrete floor as they can on the most elaborate mattress.” The exception is someone who has a physical ailment requiring a particularly soft or firm sleeping surface, he explains in “101 Questions About Sleep and Dreams,” a booklet he wrote with his wife, Elizabeth, another veteran sleep researcher.
That’s not to say all mattresses are created equal. It simply means you can tune out most of the sales pitches and focus on which model feels the most comfortable. That’s rule No. 1 in the search for a perfect mattress.
Unfortunately, with 800 U.S. mattress makers peddling thousands of models (some with identical innards but different covers and names from store to store), finding the right bed at the right price can be a nightmare. In searching for the ultimate sleeping surface, I turned to a resort in Ojai, a Swedish mattress boutique in Brea, the NASA space center in Houston, a consumer watchdog in New York and a Santa Ana department store that offered twin-size mattresses for $38. It was a bewildering journey--the mattress industry profits from customer confusion--but there are ways to avoid some of the obfuscation.
One striking feature of modern mattresses is their height. While computer chips and cell phones have been shrinking, mattresses have been puffing up. Some “pillow-top” models now have more tiers and loft than a wedding cake. But this “Princess and the Pea” approach doesn’t guarantee more comfort.
“Our tests show that mattresses with more padding have a better chance of sagging,” says Jennifer Shecter of Consumer Reports magazine. Paradoxically, firm mattresses can also sink, she warns. If the store has a cutaway display of the mattress, look for convoluted foam. It has an egg-carton appearance and feels soft, resilient and almost moist to the touch. It offers more support.
As for coil counts and spring design, they’re important for comparison shopping--but not much else. In 1997, Consumer Reports rolled a 300-pound ribbed drum back and forth 84,000 times over each of the mattress sets it tested. That’s equal to four years of normal use. The upshot: Except in the cheapest models, coil count and design had no effect on quality or durability.
Which brings us back to comfort.
“You should try the mattresses at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa,” one colleague assured me. “They’re so comfortable I almost skipped my massage appointment to stay in bed.” As it turns out, the secret to Ojai’s “Nest Un-feather Bed,” which can be bought at the resort gift shop, isn’t the mattress. It’s the super-fluffy pad under the sheet. Alas, I didn’t like it. The pad looks like a swimming pool air mattress and the ridges and valleys felt awkward against my back.
Next up was the Duxiana mattress from Sweden. At $3,200 for the cheapest queen-size, it’s the Rolls-Royce of sleep systems. But when I test-drove some Duxes in Brea, I was unimpressed. Maybe I was like a Burger King aficionado trying to appreciate foie gras, but I found the “cheapest” Dux too bouncy and the $6,000 top of the line less cozy than my current, peon-brand mattress.
Another Swedish mattress with a cult following is the Tempur-Pedic, made from “memory foam” developed by NASA. I have Tempur-Pedic pillows from Brookstone, which I like, but when I tried an entire mattress at a store, it felt weird, like lying on clay. Maybe space foam is an acquired taste.
Much of a mattress is marketing, from the materials inside (silver-plated corner guards, “cumulus” foam) to the model names on the outside (Merlot, Pendulum, Jewel of the Universe). One of the newest gimmicks is the no-flip mattress. Popularized by Simmons in 2000, the idea was quickly imitated by others. But there’s debate over whether it’s a true convenience or just a ploy to sell half a mattress for the price of one. In an attempt to play both sides of the issue, Sealy now markets an “optional flip” mattress: “You don’t have to turn it over unless you want to.”
Some mattress makers claim their products improve sleep by reducing the number of pressure points on the bed surface. Pressure points restrict blood circulation, forcing the body to toss and turn at night. By that standard, the best mattress in the world should be in outer space. While sleeping in zero gravity, astronauts move around very little, says a NASA spokeswoman. They climb into a bag and hang from a wall. However, they don’t sleep very well, says researcher Siegel, although it’s hard to pinpoint why.
In the end, comfort is purely subjective. Rip Van Winkle enjoyed years of undisturbed shut-eye slumped under a tree, while Snow White preferred the firm support of a glass coffin. Andrea Herman of the Better Sleep Council, a group funded by the mattress industry, recommends testing several beds before buying. “Rest on your back, your side and whatever position you usually sleep in, and see how it feels.” Move on if there’s too much pressure on your shoulders or you can easily slide your hand under the small of your back. “The mattress is supposed to do the work, not your body,” she says. “What you’re looking for is the ‘ah factor,’ which is when you crawl into bed at night and go, ‘Ahhhh.’ ”
Once you’ve found it, a new round of headaches begins. “What most people don’t know is that the price of a mattress is as negotiable as the price of a used car,” says Consumer Reports’ Shecter. The catch is trying to comparison shop, because identical mattresses have aliases and different fabric covers at competing stores.
The only way around it, which isn’t foolproof, is to write down your favorite mattress’ brand, coil count, coil gauge, type of padding and box spring construction, then march to the next merchant and ask for their comparable model--at a lower price. It’s a hassle, but playing merchants against each other can save hundreds of dollars.
But the final price might still keep you awake at night. For a decent quality mattress and box spring set (experts advise buying both together), expect to pay $450 for a twin set, $600 per full, $800 for a queen and $1,000 per king.
Remarkably, even after you’ve negotiated a deal, you can still get ripped off. Consumer Reports recommends insisting on a “no-substitutions” clause in the sales contract.
Otherwise, the store can deliver an “equivalent” model if the one you ordered is out of stock. Also pay attention to the fine print on return policies. Many retailers allow you to try out a mattress for several weeks, but if you decide to exchange it, you can get stuck paying delivery costs or be forced to fork over full price for whatever model you choose next.
If you manage to get past all that, you can finally relax. But only for about eight to 10 years, the average life span of a mattress. Pleasant dreams.
