The Best Foam Mattress

If you’re looking for the best foam mattress, I can help — though “best” is subjective when it comes to mattresses.

Toward the end of this post, I’m going to give you a round-up of features to look for in the best foam mattress — features that are common to all people.

But first, there’s one thing you should know.

Any mattress you try in a store will feel good.

Just about any mattress you try is going to feel better than what you have at home. Your mattress at home is probably worn out. The mattresses at the store are new. Just because it feels good in the store does NOT mean it’ll feel good to you after a few sleeps, or a few months.

Any style of foam mattress you test in a store will probably feel pretty good. But comfort changes over time with all mattresses. You might feel the change in the span of a few minutes, when you start feeling pressure points on your shoulder or hip. You might feel the change the next morning, in the form of a dull ache in your back. Or after a bit of time, you might develop a full body ache from a mattress that sags where you’ve slept (AKA body impressions).

However, the “best” mattress for you will stay comfortable all night long for many, many years to come.

Find a mattress that starts out & stays comfortable

Botanical latex is different from other latex foams, which almost always contain polyurethane, chemicals, & fillers. Botanical latex foam rubber offers durable, consistent comfort the way nature designed it.

SHOP OUR BOTANICAL LATEX FOAM MATTRESSES HERE

Several elements play a role in getting that coveted, perfect night’s sleep. Let’s go through them now.

I’ll start with the surface of the mattress and work down to the core:

So there you are, on top of the mattress, and regardless of gender, you perspire at night. The average person loses over a pint of moisture while they sleep. (That’s one of the reasons you weigh less in the morning.) How that moisture gets dissipated in the sleep environment affects how much you toss and turn. If you often wake up at night finding yourself shifting around, trying to find a cool spot away from the sweaty fabric, you experience lower quality sleep.

You’ll find that non-breathable mattress materials near the surface of beds exacerbate this problem. It’s kind of like sleeping on a leather couch. Among foam mattresses, plastic foams like memory foam and gel foam are major causes of sleeping hot and sweaty. I hear you thinking, But I thought gel foams slept cooler. Here’s the thing: they feel cooler for the first 40 minutes or so, but then they heat up, and your perspiration (a natural process that occurs through the night) doesn’t stop. Tossing and turning will ensue.

The “best” foam mattress will have better breathability on the surface.

Editorial Opinion: I think wool fibers near the surface of a mattress are “best.” Wool can hold over 30% of its own weight in water without feeling wet. It wicks away perspiration from your body, reducing temperature swings that you experience through the course of the night. There was a sleep study done showing that people sleeping with wool mattress pads and comforters toss and turn 75% less than people sleeping with synthetics.

So that’s the scoop on the mattress surface. What lies beneath?

You have a number of choices when it comes to the actual foam in the mattress.

You could try gel foam (basically memory foam with gel infused or layered on top). Conversely, you might try the standard memory foam (practically everyone sells these).

Maybe you’re interested in latex foam? What type of latex foam? There are tons of sub-categories of latex. It’s important to know what you’re really spending your money on.

All the foams I’m going to discuss below have pros and cons. Furthermore, different manufacturers produce varying qualities of beds within the same category — so please forgive my broad generalities.

MEMORY FOAM

Memory Foam Mattress Pros: can be very soft and forgiving or very firm, great for motion reduction and pressure points

Cons: strong chemical smell (off-gassing, even the oxymoronic “organic memory foam” ones), bad breathability, delayed response (makes for difficulty moving at night, causing sleep disruption), poor durability, can’t be flipped

GEL FOAM

Gel Foam Mattress Pros: can be very soft and forgiving or very firm, great for motion reduction and pressure points.

Cons: strong chemical smell (off-gassing), bad breathability (worse than standard memory foam), delayed response (makes for difficulty moving at night, causing sleep disruption), poor durability, can’t be flipped.

LATEX FOAM

Latex Foam Mattress Pros: can be very soft and forgiving or very firm, good for motion reduction; if botanical rubber (like our Botanicore™), it will not have a chemical smell and will be totally renewable, best durability in mattress foams

Latex Foam Mattress Cons: it can be confusing to learn what you’re actually getting (latex can be layered with plastic foams that will sag, or be blended/synthetic latex)

The “best” mattress will be comfortable for years or even decades.

Since there are no magic mattress materials that won’t change over time, the “best” mattress allows you to vary the wear of the foam through flipping and rotating. If you can’t flip a mattress over (you can only rotate it from head to foot), your hips will land in the same place every night. Therefore, you can’t mitigate the softening or sagging that occurs, even over a short period of time. Get ready for some serious body impressions, which can be quite uncomfortable to sleep in after a short time. You just end up having to replace your mattress sooner.

Even latex foam rubber, which is the most durable mattress foam, will soften with use. If you slept in the same spot for 8 to 10 years and never rotated or flipped the bed, your spot will be softer (even though you might not see a sag).

Talalay-processed latex foam softens faster than other latex because of thinner cell walls (a result of using less raw material) and shortens the lifespan. This means you’ll have to replace your Talalay foam mattress earlier than expected — meaning Talalay can’t be the “best” mattress.

With memory foam or gel foam mattresses, the sagging and softening becomes a major issue even faster. Also, there are logistical problems in creating a two-sided memory foam mattress. So a memory foam mattress cannot be the “best” foam mattress, because they just aren’t durable.

We’re partial to Botanicore™ and we’ll hope you’ll try it out and see for yourself.

Editorial comment: The “best” foam mattress material is Botanicore™, which is all botanical latex, straight from the tree. It is the highest quality foam rubber produced. When used in a two-sided mattress, Botanicore™ gives you the best durability. Because it’s available in a variety of densities, you can achieve any comfort level your body needs. And since this particular latex keeps its shape and feel so long, you have the greatest continuity of comfort from one year to the next.

Lasting comfort, quality sleep, and good value are the holy trinity of great mattresses. I believe that Bedrooms & More has the BEST foam mattress for you.

Try out the best latex foam rubber mattress money can buy

If you’re in Seattle, come on in & try out Botanicore™. It’s simply the best latex on earth for mattresses. We’ll show you why & you can try it for yourself.

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