5 Mattress Buying Tips - How to Choose a Mattress for You
Mattress buying is more confusing and complicated than it should be. This is partly because there are more mattress companies than ever before — thanks in part to the online-only mattress craze. This is a double-edged sword. Yes, you have more options than before, but with so many options — and so many different mattress terms to learn — buying a new mattress quickly gets overwhelming.
After hours of mattress shopping, you'll find yourself asking questions like:
- How do you compare different comfort levels? One brand may have a medium firm while another has a luxury firm— are those similar? And is it true that a firmer mattress is more supportive? (Spoiler: No, it’s not true.)
- How important is the warranty period?Is the mattress company that offers a 365 sleep trial a better buy than its competitor that offers a 90-day sleep trial? How long does it take to know if you found the right mattress?
- What's better?— latex, memory foam, hybrid, or innerspring mattresses?
We don't believe you should need a degree in mattresses just to get a good night's sleep.
That's why we reinvented mattress shopping, making it easier for you to find your perfect bed.
At Slumberland, we know mattresses inside and out. We help people find the best sleep solution for their needs — whether the answer is a new mattress, a new pillow, an adjustable bed, or all of the above. We offer some of the most popular mattress brands (including Tempur-Pedic). So, we wrote this post to help you on your mattress-buying journey.
But before we get to the tips, we cover how Sleep Solutions by Slumberland is making it easier for you to find your next mattress — headache-free.
If you're ready to get a personalized sleep solution, visit one of our Slumberland showrooms. Showrooms are designed to be customer-friendly, with an easy-to-navigate rating system across all models. You can also shop using the Sleep Solutions rating system online, before you head into the store.
How Slumberland Makes Mattress Buying Easy
At Slumberland, we carry several major mattress brands, including Tempur-Pedic, Sealy Hybrids, Stearns and Foster and more.
We wanted an easy way for our customers to compare different models across multiple brands. So we went to work and came up with custom ratings for key mattress features, including:
- Types of mattresses — Including innerspring, memory foam, and hybrids.
- Back Support — We rate back support across all models on a 1-5 scale (1 being the least amount of back support, 5 being the most).
- Feel — This is about whether you prefer a firmer mattress or a soft one. We rate feel on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the firmest and 5 being the softest.
- Pressure Relief — Some mattresses offer close to none (or absolutely zero) pressure relief. Other mattresses (like the Tempur-Pedic line) excel at providing pressure relief. If you don’t see a pressure relief rating on the mattress, that means it doesn’t have any pressure relieving benefits. We separate those that do offer pressure relief into offering moderate or advanced pressure relief.
- Cooling — Not everyone needs or wants a cooling mattress. For those who do, look for the cooling benefit. Again, we group cooling mattresses into two categories: those that offer moderate cooling and those that offer advanced cooling.
- Motion Transfer — Motion transfer is when motion can easily spread through the mattress. This means you’ll feel your partner move when they’re on their side. You can easily see which mattresses have motion transfer and which eliminate it.
FYI: That isn't all the information we provide. We also include other key information, such as whether or not the mattress was made in the U.S.A or is antimicrobial.
Here's how it works.
At the front of our Sleep Solutions department you can take your Rest Match test. There are three different mattresses, one for each mattress type: memory foam, innerspring, and hybrids.
Once you have an idea of what type of mattress you want, you can better navigate our showroom. Throughout the department, you’ll see color-coded infographics. There are three different colors for each type of mattress.
- Orange= innerspring mattresses
- Teal= memory foam mattresses
- Gold= hybrid mattresses
You will always know which type of mattress you’re trying, which means you can easily skip the types you didn’t particularly like.
Then, you can narrow down your search by looking at ratings located on the mattress. For example, you can shop memory foam mattresses with advanced pressure relief and advanced cooling. Or you can shop for hybrid mattresses with no cooling features and moderate pressure relief.
For a full breakdown of how easy it is to find your new bed in our Sleep Solutions department, read our post on shopping for a new mattress at Slumberland.
5 Mattress Buying Tips to Make Mattress Shopping Easier
1. Know Your Mattress Size
These are the common mattress sizes:
- Twin
- Twin XL
- Full
- Queen
- King
- California King
You can also get a split king, which is two twin extra-long mattresses. It’s more difficult to find a split cal king or a split queen because a cal king is already narrower.
There are also custom mattress sizes available for RVs and campers.
When our customers have a question about mattress sizes, it’s usually one of these three:
- Should I get a full or a queen size? If your room is big enough, there are benefits to going from a full-size mattress to a queen-size one. You get more room width-wise and length-wise. Plus, there’s a good chance the sheets you bought for a full mattress will work for your new queen. Finally, there’s not a huge price jump when you go from a full to a queen.
- Should I get a queen or a king-size? Going from a queen to a king-size is a bigger change than going from a full to a queen. You’ll need new sheets, a new mattress protector, a new bed frame, and may even want to get king-size pillows. But you also get a lot more room. While a king and queen are the same length (80 inches), you’re getting 16 more inches in width.
- Should I get a king or a cal king? There’s a common misconception that a Cal King is the biggest mattress. In reality, a California King has the same square footage of a king mattress, but where you’re getting space is different. A cal king is longer than a king mattress, but 4 inches narrower. We recommend Cal Kings for very tall sleepers who need more length than 80 inches.
2. Try the Mattress in Person
Over the past few years, buying a mattress online has become increasingly popular. And while it’s convenient to shop online for a mattress, it’s also really difficult to know if you’re getting the right one.
That’s why we recommend that you try the mattress in person whenever possible. The longer you can spend on the mattress, the more likely you are to know if it’ll work for you or not.
Plus, when you try a mattress at Slumberland, you can ask one of our sleep experts any questions you may have about comfort levels, support levels, or mattress types.
3. Know the Different Mattress Types
There are three main types of mattresses we carry at Slumberland.
- Innerspring mattresses — Innerspring mattresses have a coil support system and use different types of foams and fillers as a comfort layer. They are popular and familiar, but may not be the best at stopping motion transfer (if you’re sharing the bed with a partner).
- Memory foam mattresses — Memory foam mattresses are all-foam beds that usually use memory foam in the top layers. Memory foam is great at taking pressure off your body. That’s why we often recommend memory foam beds if you have back, neck, or shoulder pain.
- Hybrid mattresses — A hybrid mattress uses a (usually) even mix of both coils and foam layers. The idea is you get the benefits of memory foam (such as pressure relief) while still having the familiar bounce of a coil mattress.
For a full breakdown of each mattress type, read our Mattress Buying Guide.
4. Understand the Return Policy and Mattress Warranty
Buying a mattress isn’t like buying a TV or fridge. Buying a mattress is more like buying a pair of shoes. A pair of shoes is going to feel different on day one than they do on day 30. That’s why mattress brands should always offer a sleep trial — that is, a period of time where you can try your mattress, get used to it, and decide whether or not it’s right for you.
Obviously, the goal isn’t to buy a mattress that you’ll have to return. That’s a big time-waster for you and it’s not great for the environment. That’s why we recommend visits to a physical showroom where you can try the mattress and talk to our staff of sleep experts.
Still, even when you do everything right, there’s a chance you picked a bed that’s just too firm or too soft for your needs.
So it's good to have a sleep trial in those situations.
At Slumberland, our goal is to help you get a good night’s rest, which is why we have a 365-Night Comfort guarantee. When you buy a mattress and mattress protector from Slumberland, you have 365 nights to try out your new bed. We ask that you give your body at least 30 days to try your new mattress before making any exchanges. If after those 30 days — and up to day 365 — you realize that you need a different comfort level or just a completely new mattress, then come back into Slumberland and we will help you find the right one and credit your original purchase (minus a $99 processing fee) towards your perfect bed.
5. Keep an eye out for Mattress Sales
The major mattress sales holidays are Labor Day, New Year's Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, and the 4th of July.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a good deal on mattresses during the rest of the year. Online-only mattress companies often run weekly promo codes. You can reach out to their Customer Service team and see how often they run promotions and what the lowest price they sell their mattresses at is.
In Slumberland’s showrooms, our team will always be transparent on any upcoming mattress sales. We’re often running in-store promotions, such as free pillows with a mattress purchase or 0% on your purchase when you use Slumberland financing.
You can check out the weekly ad or visit a Slumberland showroom to learn about our current and upcoming promotions.
Next Steps: Visiting Sleep Solutions by Slumberland
Mattress buying doesn’t have to be so annoying. That’s the approach we took when we reinvented how people shop for mattresses.
Before, it was nearly impossible to compare different models and mattress types across brands.
But now — with our universal rating system — it’s easy to compare brands, models, and types to find the mattress that will work best for you.