Mattress Buying Guide 2024: Pros & Cons of each

Common questions we get from our customers are:
What kind of mattress should I buy, or which mattress is best for a great night’s sleep?
Is a spring, foam or a gel mattress better?
This is never an easy question to answer because we are all so different from our body types to our sleeping habits. Sometimes it easier to break down the pros and cons of each type of bed so you can see what will suit your needs and preferences.

A spring in your sleep

In all honesty spring mattresses may give you the illusion of comfort at first but they don’t give you sufficient pressure point relief to have a great night’s sleep. If you are someone who sleeps on your side you may feel the build-up of pain in the shoulder and hip area when you wake up or feel that tingly “dead arms” feeling from a lack of blood circulation.

What most people don’t realize is that the spring mattress pushes back against your body, with the same force that your body weight is applying to the mattress. Basically this means that proper support is unachievable because your body does not push down evenly everywhere, meaning that the areas that carry more weight will push down more into the mattress than others.

At The Bed Centre we believe that sleep should be as peaceful and refreshing as possible, rather than leaving you tossing and turning trying to find a better way to fall back to sleep.

Spring Mattress Sleeping Facts:

1. Spring mattresses will lose at least 16% of their support in the 1st year alone
2. A spring mattress offers you between 7 and 10 years of sleep before it needs to be replaced
3. If you have back problems innerspring won’t offer you the necessary back support you need, because they don’t address the importance of spinal alignment.
4. The spring mattresses are generally found in three traditional forms, namely: the bonnell coil, continuous coil and pocket springs
5. Spring mattresses are not hypoallergenic, since the fluffy polyester top and the empty space in-between the springs unfortunately create a perfect breeding ground for dust mites

Form Fitting Foam Mattresses

It’s sometimes hard to believe that sleep got an upgrade courtesy of NASA when they invented the memory foam mattress. Foam mattresses have the ability to conform to your body’s shape while giving you a feeling of nestled comfort while you sleep. If you happen to be a restless sleeper there is the added bonus of not letting your tossing and turning affect your partners sleep because you chose a foam mattress.

We know that a good quality memory foam mattress will distribute your body weight evenly, so that the pressure points are significantly reduced, by up to whopping 80%, which we have found only memory foam can provide.

Memory Foam Mattress Sleeping Facts:

1. Memory foam mattresses are relatively low cost at the bottom end, but can become very expensive depending on the materials used
2. The mattress is designed in layers to create a firmer mattress that gives with the contours of the body to create the ultimate sleeping support
3. Bed manufacturers generally offer a 20-year warranty on their memory foam mattresses, which clearly illustrates the longer lifespan than it’s spring mattress counterparts
4. Your mattress only needs to be rotated every six months (i.e. easier sleep maintenance)
5. Memory foam mattresses are hypoallergenic, which means that the solid block of foam limits dust mites to only live on the surface of the mattress and not inside
6. A cheaper memory foam mattress may leave you temperature sensitive. Most memory foams rely on your body temperature to be able to contour to you, but the problem arises when there is a lack of air flow moving through the traditional memory foam mattresses. In cases like these you may wake up as a sweaty mess
7. Cheap memory foam mattresses also tends to retain smells so it is best to spend a little bit more to ensure the right balance for a good night’s sleep

When you “gel” with your mattress

Sometimes we need a lot of extra help sleeping especially if one is temperature sensitive or ones partner struggles with fluctuating body heat. Gel mattresses are made from viscoelastic, a material that reacts to weight and body temperature. The Gel when added to foam allows heat to better escape but that feeling may only last a few minutes depending on your choice of Gel mattress since the gel takes on the temperature of the environment it is in. By making adaptations to traditional memory foam manufacturers created gel memory foam and air cool memory foam.

Some bed companies infuse the gel into the mattress to create a blend while others use a bead method that inserts tiny particles of gel into foam forms. The blend method is known to be more comfortable than the beaded method. With many of the major bed companies using patented formulas and methods to either infuse or insert gel beads to produce the most comfortable and cool mattresses possible.

Gel Foam Mattress Sleeping Facts:

1. Gel memory foam mattresses have an open cell structure making it more breathable and airy than traditional foam mattresses
2. You can expect more support than a traditional memory foam mattress, as it prevents the sleeper from sinking too far into the mattress and by doing so it helps maintain proper back alignment
3. Traditional memory foam can leave the sleeper feeling immobile due to its slow reaction time, while its gel infused foam allows you to move freely, making it better suited to a variety of sleep positions which add to your overall comfort
4. Gel-infused mattresses can be more expensive
5. For some Gel may not be an ideal choice for people with lighter body weight or people who tend to be side sleepers

Finding the right mattress is never easy but here at The Bed Centre we are always ready to help you make the right purchasing decision to suit your sleeping plans!

Visit The Bed Centre for best prices on mattresses and the best service in town!