In our more than seven years of testing mattresses, our team perfected a rigorous testing process focused on key features including firmness and feel, architecture, design and performance. Performance includes quality such as edge support, motion isolation and temperature regulation.
Our team of mattress testers and certified sleep coaches include individuals of all genders, heights, body types, sleep locations and preferences. We keep in mind the various sleeper people thoroughly analyzing each bed and use our extensive experience to compare and compare all mattresses entering our test facility doors.
Firmness and feeling
Apart from the general appearance of the bed, firmness and feel are the first elements we evaluate. These elements will help narrow down which beds are best for you.
In short, hardness is the hard or softness of the mattress. The industry standard for rating mattresses is one to ten, one is the softest and ten are the strongest. Our team measures this in a subjective and objective way. We found the objective firmness of each bed using a super cool mattress 9000 machine designed by CNET Labs engineers. We pass each bed through the device several times, score the average as the final target and compare it with our subjective analysis.
The mattress crusher is ready to smash the bed and gives us an objective firm score.
Here is the objective firmness level of the best mixing beds on this list, from the softest to the strongest.
It feels like we are with the mattress. How do you feel when lying in bed? Will it bounce quickly when we move around? Does it have a traditional dense feeling, the feeling of sinking memory foam, or does it react quickly like latex foam? We thoroughly check and view the firmness and feel of each bed in the comments so that you can accurately portray the feeling of lying on it because we know you can't test the mattress on the online bed before purchasing one.
Build and design
We can estimate the durability and performance of the mattress based on the mattress it is made. Individually wrapped coils help mixing mattresses last longer than full foam mattresses because they have a solider structure that does not degrade or break down. Over time, all foam mattresses are often more susceptible to sagging, but now many high-end bed brands use high-density foams that last 7 to 10 years if taken care of correctly.
We checked the structure of each bed by removing the mattress cover.
According to the design of the mattress, we unbutton the cover to analyze and evaluate the layers inside. This helps us to better understand the performance of the bed and its expected lifespan.
Edge support
When we say Edge supports, we are talking about how strong the perimeter of the mattress is. Mixed mattresses tend to perform well in this category. During the test, we lay on each edge of the bed to determine its robustness. If the strong rolling feeling makes us feel like we are going to stay in the bed, there is no good edge support. Many mattresses have coils around to provide additional reinforcement, perfect for those who share a bed with a partner, kid or pet.
Sports isolation
Solid exercise isolation For those with restless partners, people walking around at night. You don't want you to wake you up. We jumped and bounced in the bed to test the movement's movement's journey across the surface. We also put a glass of water on the mattress, rolling towards the mattress and away from the mattress to see that it is tilted or pointed due to the transfer of movement. Beds with density memory foam layers perform best in this category, while reactive and bouncing mattresses are increasingly less moving.
CNET mattress expert Dillon Lopez tested sports isolation on Beautyrest Black Hybrid.
temperature
Sleeping is one of the most common troubles people face at night. We evaluate the material and construction of the mattress to determine the warmth or cooling of the bed. Certain materials such as gel memory foam and disguised covers can help you prevent excessive heating at night.
Read more about how CNET tests mattresses.
