How we test mattresses in the Reviewed labs

With the explosion in popularity of online mattress brands, it’s never been easier to find the sleeping surface of your dreams. However, the sheer variety of foam, hybrid, and innerspring mattresses on offer makes picking the right one an absolute nightmare. That’s where all of us at Reviewed come in.

We’re experts in consumer tech, appliances, and everything in between, and we’ve spent years perfecting a series of rigorous tests designed to find the best mattresses available. Considering that we spend a third of our lives (ideally) sleeping, picking the right mattress is one of the most critical decisions you can make, and we’re here to help. Reviewed’s mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own, including mattresses.

So, what kind of testing goes into our mattress reviews? Here are all the steps and processes our chief scientist and lab team take to test every foam, hybrid, and innerspring mattress that enters the Reviewed labs.

Our testing facility: The Reviewed Lab

Want to know what sets Reviewed apart from other product review sites like Wirecutter, Cnet, The Spruce, and Better Homes & Gardens? We go beyond user experience and travel farther than a home improvement store floor. We bring large appliances, TVs, mattresses, and more into our Cambridge, Mass., testing facility, and we run them through a rigorous testing process based on science and in compliance with industry standards.

Our chief scientist and lab technicians gather data, form assessments, and draw up extensive comparisons, which result in our findings. This process puts us in the ranks of product testing legends Consumer Reports and Good Housekeeping.

Regarding mattresses specifically, we run each bed through a series of subjective and objective tests to measure cooling performance, motion transfer, ease of unboxing, pressure point relief, and more.

We dig into the user experience

Gone are the days when brick-and-mortar mattress stores were the only option for sleep-starved shoppers looking for a new bed. Since Casper launched its first mattress in 2014, the rise of online mattress-in-a-box brands has been unstoppable. Now, buying a mattress is as simple as visiting a website and clicking “add to cart.” Or, at least, that's the theory; in fact, shopping for mattresses online is full of warranty pitfalls, complicated deliveries, and dubious trial periods.

As part of our testing process, we examine warranties, trial periods, customer service experience, and return processes of each brand that sends a mattress into our labs.

We put the mattresses through a series of hands-on tests

Sleeping is a subjective experience, and we all have our preferences. While we mitigate this reality by putting each mattress through a series of repeatable, data-driven tests, we also recognize that it’s impossible to get a good sense of a mattress's pros and cons without a bit of hands-on time.

When each mattress arrives in our labs, we note the ease of unboxing, paying particular attention to the product's weight and how easy (or difficult) it is to unpack and set up.

In addition, we note the intensity of the mattress's off-gassing smell and record how long it takes for the unpleasant odor to dissipate.

Finally, we spend time lying on the mattress in various positions, noting how it conforms to our body.

We assess the mattresses edge support

Edge support isn't the first thing most people think of when they’re mattress shopping, but it’s a vitally important factor for some. Firm edges help users get out of bed as they provide resistance to push against when standing. This is particularly relevant for users with strength or mobility issues. A firm mattress edge is also essential for people who sleep close to the edge of the mattress. It’s worth noting, however, that softer edges aren’t necessarily bad. Not all users want or need a mattress with a firm edge.

We measure edge support using a heavy boxing bag. The bag has the same mass and pressure distribution on the mattress as a typical human. The bag is lowered onto the mattress and rolled slowly towards the edge. We measure the amount of bag overhang before the bag rolls off the mattress. Firmer edges allow for more bag overhang.

We measure motion transfer

Motion transfer from one side of the bed to the other is a significant issue for those who share a mattress. Easy motion transfer can cause disturbed sleep, particularly for light sleepers.

To assess motion transfer, we drop the heavy boxing bag onto one side of the mattress while monitoring forces/acceleration on the other side with the sensors in a smartphone. Mattresses that effectively isolate movement should generate low forces/accelerations on the other side of the bed when the bag is dropped.

We monitor pressure point relief

Depending on sleep position, different parts of the body can create low- and high-pressure points on the mattress. For side sleepers, high pressures often occur under the hip bones and shoulder blades. For a back sleeper, the lower back is a low-pressure area. Ideally, a mattress should smooth out pressure variation by at least partially conforming to the body's shape.

Pressure relief is an important comfort factor for all sleepers, but side sleepers benefit most from a mattress with a smooth variation of pressure points.

We use a padded barbell to create simulated low- and high-pressure areas. The bar weights create a high-pressure region, and the bar handle linking them creates a low-pressure region. We use a pressure sensor to read the pressures under the weights and handle. A mattress that conforms well to the body's shape and provides good support should even out the pressures under the different parts of the barbell. Excessively firm mattresses that don’t conform to the body will show more pressure variation.

We test cooling capabilities

Mattresses that keep the user cool should be good at quickly transferring heat away from the body. This is an important comfort factor for all sleeping positions but probably most relevant to back and front sleepers as they make contact with a larger surface area of the mattress.

We use heated gel pads to simulate a warm body in contact with the mattress to test cooling. These are covered in an insulating blanket, and temperature-logging sensors under the gel pads record how quickly they cool down. The insulating blanket means that heat loss mainly happens through the mattress. Mattresses that effectively keep the user cool should have a high rate of heat loss from the warm gel pads.

We rank the bounciness

Finally, we put each mattress through our spin on the legendary Tempur bowling ball and wine glass test. Whether a mattress is sufficiently bouncy is subjective, so this isn’t part of our overall scoring model. However, those who shift positions often throughout the night may prefer a bouncy mattress, so we take note of it.

Bounciness is measured by how high a bowling ball dropped onto the mattress can rebound. The higher the bounce, the greater the bounce.