How to Pick the Perfect Mattress for Your Sleep Style
Do you find yourself frequently waking up with sore muscles, aching joints, and feeling as though you haven’t slept a wink? There are many things that can negatively impact the quality of sleep, but a bad mattress is one common culprit. Choosing the best mattress to suit your sleeping position — whether you’re a side sleeper, back sleeper, or tummy sleeper — is integral to a good night’s sleep.
A mattress that supports your weight evenly and minimizes disruption caused by movement will allow your body to remain in a restful state for longer, making you feel refreshed and ready to face the day as soon as you wake up. You spend about a third of your life asleep, so it’s important to invest in a mattress that will meet all your needs.
From a broad range of price points to different makes and materials, it’s important to consider what the biggest factors are when you’re buying a mattress. Here, we breakdown all the information you need to help you pick the right mattress.
The three most common types of mattresses you’ll find are the foam mattress, the innerspring mattress, and the pocket spring mattress.
How to Select Mattress Firmness
One of the most important factors in choosing the perfect mattress is how firm or soft a mattress is.
While some people are devout believers in the health benefits of a firm mattress, others lean towards a soft mattress, and the rest prefer a balance between the two, the reality is that the “perfect” firmness of a mattress depends entirely on the individual sleeping on it.
It’s important that you test the mattresses available thoroughly with whatever sleeping position you are accustomed to in order to ensure that you are getting the comfort and support you need. Make sure that you keep in mind what kind of bed base you have at home, as these may also affect the resulting firmness of your mattress.
Mattress Materials: Foam
Memory foam has been all the rage when it comes to mattress design, and for good reason. Taking the opposite approach to the innerspring mattress, instead of bouncing back, memory foam contours to your body while you’re asleep, ensuring that you’ll be able to snuggle in with perfect comfort.
Foam mattresses are perfect for light sleepers, side sleepers, and those who tend to overheat during the night!
Inner Spring Mattress
Innerspring mattresses are the most common type of mattress you’ll see on the market. They use a steel coil support system, with springs essentially spread through the mattress.
The coils can vary in size, thickness, shape, and quantity depending on the overall mattress design, but the hallmark of innerspring mattresses is that the coils are linked together in a layer.
As a result of this, when you lay upon the mattress the springs all move together as one. This means they’re not ideal for light sleepers who are easily disturbed by their partner’s movements.
Those at a cheaper price point can be prone to sagging, too. Wade Ganzer, the national marketing manager at Sealy says, “Finding the perfect mattress starts with choosing a quality support system. An . . . innerspring mattress is designed to assist in delivering the correct back support and give the rest the body needs.” Inner spring mattresses are perfect for tummy and back sleepers!
Pocket Spring Mattress
In a pocket spring mattress, each coil is individually encased in its own fabric pocket, allowing it to move independently of those around it as it gently conforms to your body’s contours.
Pocket coils reduce the transfer of motion from one area to another, meaning your sleep is less likely to be disturbed when your partner moves during the night.
Although pocket spring mattresses are great at evenly distributing weight and minimizing partner disturbance, they can be extremely heavy to lift — which is something you may need to think about if you’re frequently moving houses.
Solid or Slated Base?
While your mattress is undoubtedly the hero when it comes to sleeping well, it’s important not to forget the important role of sidekick that your bed base will play.
Bed frames with slats are one of the most common types available, but be wary of how you space your slats as they tend to move over time.
Solid bed bases will naturally be a firm base for your mattress resulting in the mattress feeling more firm than otherwise.
This article originally appeared on our sister site, Homes to Love.
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