Best mattresses in the UK reviewed!

The Best Mattresses in the UK

Is there anything better than curling up in bed at the end of a long, hard day? Our bed is a refuge, our final place of comfort, so it only makes sense to ensure you have the very best mattress ready and waiting for you when you sink down into bed at the end of the day. The quality and technology of mattresses have never been higher. Gone are the days of simply worrying whether you wanted a queen or a king. The science behind what makes the best mattress, and indeed the best night’s sleep, has meant that we are no longer constrained by the traditional mattresses of the past. As the speed and complexity of our lives continue to build, it’s important to make sure that when you go to bed, you are using something tailored to your desires and tastes. Whether you like a solid, firm mattress or you prefer that sinking, dream-like feeling. We, as humans are leading a more sedentary lifestyle than ever before. All of those hours sitting at a desk in front of a computer is playing havoc with our bodies. Back pain and muscle ailments are increasingly becoming common and what we sleep on has the ability to soothe or aggravate further.

How the best mattress can help your sleep

While the news that sleep is vital to our health may not be new to anybody, statistics show an alarming number of us are either not sleeping enough, or sleeping properly. Our sleeping habits have been ruptured in the last few decades. We are sleeping less and sleeping worse. But why exactly is this? It’s difficult to point to a single issue, but suffice to say that our modern lives are hampering our sleep. The time spent staring at screens both big and small is of course not helping, while our constant connectivity means that you can still be in bed sending work emails just before you go to sleep. Our lives are simply busier – or appear so at least. Our brains are whirling, and it can sometimes seem impossible to switch off. Despite it being common knowledge that sleep deprivation and sleep deficiency cause significant problems to our physical and mental well-being, too many of us either choose to ignore this fact or lead lives which means it’s impossible to obtain. We spend millions on gym memberships and healthy, nutritional food, but all of that comes to very little if the human body is failing to get its required sleep on a regular basis. This is why it is so important to find the best mattress for you.

How to ensure you get a good night sleep

Apart from getting the best mattress for your needs, there are many ways to help you get a good night’s sleep.

1. Routine – Perhaps the most critical factor is your sleep routine. By simply going to sleep and waking up at roughly the same time, you are helping your body to regulate its sleeping pattern. This goes for the weekend also. If you get up at 6 am from Monday to Friday, it can be tempting to try and ‘catch up’ with your sleep at the weekend. However, studies show it’s much better to try and wake up roughly the same time across the whole week. Perhaps it needn’t be quite so early on a Saturday morning, but by getting up as close to your working week time, your Monday morning feeling is likely to be much better in the long run.
2. Eating and Drinking – There is something wonderfully naughty about snacking in bed as an adult. But the short term fun might not be worth the long issues. Think of the body as a processing plant. Whatever goes in needs to be broken down and processed through the body. While you may think you can sleep soundly during this period, your sleep can easily be disturbed with digestion issues. If possible, try not to eat within 3 hours of going to bed.
3. Sleep and sex only – Two of the best things in the world, what more could you want. It’s important for the human brain to get into the habit that only two things happen in this room. It’s not a place to socialize, and it’s not a place to spend hours watching TV. This will help the brain to move more readily into a sleep pattern when you are in the room.
4. Alcohol and nicotine – Those two evil temptresses. Both may be enjoyable at the time, but consuming them too close to your bedtime is likely to affect your body’s ability to sleep well. We’ve all woken in the middle of the night after drinking too much, unable to sleep, the heart racing. Putting aside the long term damage that these two do to the human body, both can cause havoc while you are sleeping.
5. Screen time – Another big one. It is now recommended to not look at any kind of screen for an hour before going to sleep. As I write this, I can already hear people scoffing – one hour! But when you think of the effects these screens have on our physiological habits, it begins to make a lot of sense. Simply by scrolling through Facebook, your eyes and brain are working overtime to cram as much information in as possible. Like any muscles, they need time to slow down. 

Springs vs Foam Mattress

Perhaps the most significant difference is what is contained inside. Springs are the traditional mattress style, while the foam is a much newer advance. Memory foam mattresses are top-rated right now, allowing the mattress to form around you while you sleep, providing better comfort and distributing your weight more evenly. They are also temperature sensitive, meaning it reacts to your body temperature. Though it must be said this isn’t always a good thing. Low-quality foam can take time to adjust to your body temperature. One common complaint among users is that you can sometimes wake in the night hot sweaty because you have sunk into the foam, but the temperature has not yet altered.We are undoubtedly moving slowly away from spring mattresses, but their time is not quite done yet. Their low cost means that they have remained popular despite their drawbacks against the foam. They also provide a very different feel to them and usually have more of a bounce to them than foam mattresses.

Soft vs Medium vs Firm

The eternal question, which mainly comes down to personal preference. There are a few things to bear in mind when thinking about the firmness of a mattress. While it may feel wonderful to sink deeply into a soft mattress for a few minutes, think about how will it feel about spending the whole night on it. 

Type and number of springs

The two major types of spring mattresses are pocket sprung and coil. The biggest difference between the two is that the springs in a pocket sprung can move independently of one another, while coil mattresses hold multiple springs but all connected and often moving as one. Broadly speaking, the more springs can support more weight, and it is also likely to add a higher degree of comfort by distributing the pressure in a better way. Of course, a high spring count does typically come with a higher price, and just because a mattress boasts 2000 springs, doesn’t necessarily make it the best mattress, there are other factors to consider. Normally it’s best to get a pocket sprung mattress with over 1000 springs, mattresses with less than that will probably fall into the lower quality category.

Weight

While you may not give much consideration of the weight of a mattress while you are lying on it, you will certainly feel it when it comes to trying to flip a mattress over. It’s recommended to turn a spring mattress over every month in order to retain its shape and reduce general wear and tear.

What is the best type of mattress? Pocket Sprung vs Memory Foam

While it can be easy to assume the best mattress out there would be a memory foam mattress, it may not quite be right for you. We’ve compared a top end pocket sprung mattress with high-level memory foam to find which is the best type of mattress.

1. Cost – In the past, the best memory foam mattress was significantly more expensive than a spring mattress. That’s not quite so clear anymore, mainly down to the giant strides that spring mattresses have taken.
2. Comfort – A tricky one here, as comfort is subjective to each person. The most significant difference comes when you first lay down. A pocket sprung mattress gives typically you more a bouncy, springy free (surprising isn’t it with all those springs) while a memory foam mattress gives you more of a firm feel on the surface, with a slow sinking as the foam adjusts around your body.
3. Weight distribution and body issues – Old fashioned varieties were notorious for poor weight distribution. Still, the best pocket spring mattresses today are excellent when it comes to distribution, and provides adequate relief for muscles and joints. However, they cannot compete with foam mattresses when it comes to providing substantial support for particular ailments, in particular, chronic backache.
4. Motion Separation – If you have spent a night next to a light sleep on a poor quality mattress, you will know that it can feel like you are being bounced around throughout the night. This isn’t just your sleeping partner’s fault, but also what is below you. Motion separation comes when the springs below you are moving almost as one, which can cause you to sink into one another, or even bounce up slightly if somebody moves around quickly. The best memory foam mattresses and pocket spring mattresses are significantly better than what was available just ten years ago.
5. Life Span – The best mattresses are not cheap these days, which begs the very obvious question, just how long will they last. A traditional spring mattress has a supposed life expectancy of 8 – 10 years, but in reality that is often quite optimistic. After extensive use, the individual coils begin to sag, which creates a hard surface on top. By flipping your mattress once a month, you can extend its life expectancy as a few years in some cases. However, it cannot compete with memory foam. A memory foam mattress has a life expectancy of up to 12 years at which point it can start to be excessively soft. It’s recommended to turn the head and food end around every month to help it relax and retain its shape.
6. Temperature – You might be surprised that the mattress you are sleeping on can play a large role in helping to regulate your body temperature. The best pocket spring mattresses are fairly breathable and allow a good flow of air around the body, while with memory foam mattresses it is a little more complicated. The most common concern regarding memory foam is usually about temperature. As the foam creates contours around your body, it is actually trapping the heat rather than allowing it to circulate. The best memory foam mattresses now use cooling cells to create a cooler foam, but this is a technology that is generally reflected in the price.

A quick personal guide to buying the best mattress in the UK

Here’s our pick of the best mattresses UK

Best memory foam mattresses in UK in 2020

1- Emma Original Mattress review – medium/medium firm – £329

100-night trial

10-year warranty

When it comes to best the foam mattress these days, it’s hard to look past the Emma Original. It is wonderfully comfortable but manages to combine it with a firmness that feels much more than with comparable mattresses. Consisting of several foam layers including a visco-elastic memory foam layer, a layer of cold foam and a ‘climate fibre’ top cover which remains surprisingly cool to the touch. All combined to ensure a pleasantly cold night’s sleep. It also manages to provide incredible motion separation because of the top layer with its innovative Airgocell foam, which effectively limits movement to other parts of the mattress when one part is compressed. If you happen to sleep next to a really restless sleeper, this mattress is probably one of the best options out there. If you are not already convinced its results with posture and spinal alignment are some of the best we’ve seen.

Pros

1. Significantly cooler than most foam mattresses.
2. The Airgocells on top are excellent at limiting movement to other parts of the bed.

Cons

1. Could be a little hard for some side sleepers Foam isn’t for all tastes

2- Casper hybrid mattress review – medium/medium firm – £350

100-night trial

10-year warranty

Casper’s reputation has been growing steadily in recent years, in part thanks to the huge success of its memory foam edition. But their newest addition to the UK market is causing quite a stir and may surpass its predecessor. Casper’s traditional foam gives you that excellent moulding around your body while a base layer of springs gives that extra bounce and the much-needed air circulation.The memory foam itself is 10 cm thick which provides a wonderful level of support above the springs. It’s excellent for back and joint aches and gives just enough bounce to prevent that sinking feeling you sometimes get in memory foam mattresses. With this in mind, there is slightly more motion transfer than other mattresses here, but nothing to write home about. It probably isn’t the best mattress for those who sleep on their front but works incredibly well for side sleepers and those with back pain in general.

 Pros 

1. As with other high-end hybrids, it proves you don’t need to choose.
2. Great for almost all sleeping positions.
3. Circulates heat well, meaning a cool nights sleep.

Cons

1. Because it’s a hybrid, it comes with slightly more motion transfer than other mattresses.
2. A minor quibble – The memory foam smell seems to linger for a couple of weeks.

3. Simba Hybrid Essential Mattress – Medium-firm – £565

200-night trial

10-year guarantee

Simba has been causing quite a stir with its hybrid mattresses for a number of years now and their Essential addition is simply a phenomenal place to lay your weary head down at the end of a long, hard day. Combining both springs and foam it provides a surprisingly cool night’s sleep with a truly excellent standard of comfort and support. The mattress is classified as medium-firm, which sounds about right but does lean slightly more towards medium than to firm.

The Simba Hybrid comes with four different layers; a breathable sleep surface on top, followed by an open-cell foam layer beneath. Then comes the springs – 1,500 Simba Aerocoil springs made of titanium to be exact – which not only gives support but also acts as multiple mini bellows gently pushing war air away. At only 25 mm the springs are much smaller than traditional pocket springs so you don’t really get much bounce, but that’s probably not what you’re looking for if you get this mattress anyway. At the bottom comes the solid feeling zoned support base which adds structure and a degree firmness to the whole mattress.

Pros

1. Great for side and back sleepers

2. Excellent combination of comfort and temperature throughout the night.

Cons

1. Many front sleepers report not sleeping particularly well on it.

Silentnight 1000 Pocket Gel Pillowtop Mattress – Medium – £444

Handcrafted in the UK, the silentnight pocket gel pillowtop mattress is certainly a beautiful looking mattress, but does it really have the comfort to match? Absolutely. The 1000 edition is one of four different versions available through Silentnight – ranging between medium soft and firm. They come with a wonderfully comfortable 4cm of Silentnight’s revolutionary Geltex gel foam mattress filling which includes gel molecules, foam crystals and air-filled cells to help lower temperature and increase and provide excellent support. Below this comes the Zoned Mirapocket Spring System complete with 1000 individual pocket springs which do a great job of spreading weight evenly. They are also designed to be ‘no roll together’, according to SilentNight, so partners won’t feel like they are caving in on each other during the night and helps to reduce motion transfer to almost zero.

While most of the variants are better for those who sleep on their side or back, the SilentNight 1400 is recommended for those who sleep on their front and is considerably firmer than the 1000. So it all depends on your preference, but SilentNight has something for everyone. A truly comfortable mattress that is difficult to match.

Pros

1. The Geltex we’ve been hearing so much about really is worth the hype.
2. There is something for all tastes with SilentNight Mattresses.

Cons

1. More expensive than others on our list, but Amazon currently have some great deals for it.

Vesgantti Hybrid Mattress – Medium Firm – From £129.99

100-night sleep trial

10-year guarantee

For the price, you’re going to struggle finding anything of similar style and comfort. The Vesgantti Hybrid Mattress is currently our favourite in the lower budget echelon – but don’t think that because it’s cheaper than rest it doesn’t provide excellent quality. This is a 10-inch breathable mattress that does a great job of combing layers of memory foam with the good old-fashioned springs below. The top layers include a Comfort-Stretch and breathable Cover, a Breathable foam layer, an Egg crate foam and a Vesgantt comfort foam layer – which combine wonderfully together to keep you cool throughout the night. Below this, we come to the Vesgantti Relief Foam which adapts to your body to reduce all your pressure points, then comes the Vesgantti coil layer with individual pocket springs, which do a great job at reducing motion transfer. Finally, we have an enhanced edge support providing the entire mattress with a strong, sturdy base.

As we said at the start, you will struggle to find something similar at the same, or lower price, with most of the variations landing between the £100 and £200 range, this an absolute steal

Pros

1. Low cost but with excellent quality.
2. A true all-rounder that provides a good night’s sleep no matter how you sleep.

Cons

1. Very little to complain about with this mattress