CNET video producer Jon Gomez films mattress expert Dillon Payne testing a mattress’s edge support.
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Firmness: Our team takes turns testing the mattress and laying on top of it to determine if it is soft, firm or somewhere in between. Firmness is an important factor in choosing the best mattress for you.
Feeling: We get hands-on with our mattresses, crushing, squeezing, and lying on them to get a feel for the materials inside. Memory foam makes a mattress slow to respond and pressure-relieving, while coils or latex foam are springy.
Sustainability: We typically analyze construction to get an idea of how durable a mattress is, since most of our beds don’t experience the type of wear and tear in our testing period that occurs over the eight or more years you’ll be sleeping on them. Hybrid mattresses with coils are more durable and last longer than foam beds.
Body type:Heavier individuals may want to opt for a hybrid mattress, as this type of bed offers more support and durability, especially in the long run.
Sleeping position:We get down to some physical work and turn the mattresses over to test every sleeping position: on your side, on your back, on your stomach and a combination of these.
Motion isolation: If you sleep with a partner, you’ll want to consider this feature. We test motion isolation by placing a cup of water at the end of a bed and bouncing it around to test how well it absorbs motion.
Edge support:We analyze the materials of a mattress and physically lie on each edge of the mattress to feel how firm we feel.
