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1. Hardness: We lie on every mattress and use our experience from testing over 100 different beds to determine firmness. Compared to other mattresses, we analyze how soft or hard the bed is. It is important to wait until the mattress has fully expanded after opening to get a real perspective of firmness.
2. Feel: Here we deal with beds. We touch and feel the mattresses and observe how the material behaves. Is it light and springy like latex foam, or slow and dense like memory foam?
3. Durability: We haven’t slept on a mattress every day for years, so it’s hard to say exactly how long each bed will last. However, we can hypothesize about the hardness of the bed by looking at its construction. Steel coil beds are typically more durable and stronger than all-foam mattresses.
4. The best body type: Based on the design and feel, we determine how comfortable the bed will be for a heavy person. Hybrid mattresses with steel coils tend to be more supportive and longer lasting; a plus for heavier people looking for a high-quality bed.
5. The best sleeping position: We start physical exercises and turn the mattresses over, testing each sleeping position: side, back, stomach and combination.
6. Motion isolation: With one or preferably two people on the mattress, we jump and bounce to see how much movement we can detect throughout the bed. We also use a method where we place a cup of water on the edge of the bed and bounce around to see how much it moves.
7. Edge support: We analyze the materials from which the mattress is made and physically place it on each edge to see how well it will provide us with stability.
8. Temperature: We use hot sleepers to test and determine how nice the bed sleeps. We also look at its materials and construction – did the brand add something that made sleeping better?
9. Smell: Yes, when you take the bed out of the package, it does not give off a new car smell. To test this feature, we use our proven muzzles.
Read more at how we test mattresses.
