The Ultimate Guide to Purchasing a Mattress

Your mattress is one of the primary factors in the quality of your sleep every night. Having a comfortable mattress ensures your physical comfort, which in turn ensures your mental comfort. You might think your restless sleep is caused by stress on the job or your significant other, but think again. Your mattress may simply be at fault. The body is actually good at forgiving itself as long as it has room to do so. If you think that your mattress may be at fault, let’s find out what are the most important factors in selecting a new mattress.

When to Replace Your Mattress?

Assuming this isn’t your first bed ever, you will be switching from a previous mattress. Believe it or not, there are some hard and fast rules that you should pay attention to when deciding to make the switch! The rules come from industry watchdog The Better Sleep Council:

• Any mattress that you have had for more than seven years probably needs to be replaced.
• If you consistently wake up with aches and pains in your body, it’s time to move on.
• If you sleep on a hotel mattress and discover that you sleep better there, you need to upgrade.
• Any mattress that shows visible signs of wear and tear should be thrown out. This mattress may have bed bugs or mites in it as well.
• If you are always tired, even after a full night of sleep, then you might need a new mattress.

The Characteristics of a Great Mattress

Physical refreshment

No mattress should leave you with any kind of physical pain after sleeping on it. No matter how you sleep (on your back, stomach or on your side) your mattress should keep your neck, spine, and head in neutral alignment to ensure full support. When you don’t get this kind of support, you wake up with aches and pains. One of the most important characteristics of your new mattress should be that you wake up feeling physically refreshed.

Durability

Consider the durability of your mattress. Good mattresses are expensive for a reason, which is usually that they last for a long time. You should keep in mind how long you want to stay in your bed and purchase a mattress with the same kind of longevity. You may be able to buy a slightly cheaper mattress if you are looking to move within a couple of months, but you should never reduce the quality of the materials in the mattress for the sake of price.

Since we’re on the topic of bedding, do you know how to choose the right pillow for you? No worries, we have the answers for you here.

Motion isolation

If you have a partner sleeping in the bed with you every night, you need a mattress that isolates your motion. Motion isolation ensures that you don’t feel the movements of your partner during the night. These movements may dislodge you from sleep and create misalignments in your body. Certain mattresses have more stiffness than others, and as you go through the characteristics of your short list, you should keep this in mind.

Support from the edge

If your mattress has more edge support, you will be able to utilize more of the surface area of the mattress. Less support on the edge will give you the sensation of falling off the bed as you approach the edge. In general, better edge support is indicative of a better overall mattress.

Made of safe, non-toxic materials

The materials included in your mattress should be safe to sleep on night after night. In some cases, mattress manufacturers will use toxic materials as a fire retardant. Make sure you avoid these materials at all costs.

Visit the websites of any mattresses you’re considering and check to see how transparent they are about the materials that they use. You should also be sure that any mattress you purchase comes with its tags. This is one of the most important safety mechanisms, and it is protected by law.

Budget-friendly Price is always a concern when it comes to big purchases, but it shouldn’t be your main concern when it comes to your mattress purchase. Keep in mind that your mattress is a long-term investment. The kind of mattress that you use will affect your overall lifestyle. Consider all this before you give up important features only to save a little bit of money up front. If you can find a mattress that meets an adequate standard in all of the conditions above, then you have a potential winner. The way that you sleep affects the life that you live. Take your time when going through different mattress options to find the one that gives you the most support, durability, and comfort. Your perfect sleep experience is just around the corner if you put in the work to find it! If you want to discover more about the most important factors when choosing the right mattress for your specific needs, read this review from Mattress-Guides.

You might also want to check our sleep mask!