A Quick Guide to Choosing and Buying the Right Bed

When we were setting up thesleeproom.com we spent almost two years listening to bed retailers and salesmen talking their talk. Almost every single person we spoke to had something conflicting to say about the same products and subjects. In fact we heard so much mumbo jumbo that we decided that we would just try hundreds of beds and mattresses for ourselves and form our own opinions based on common sense. We weren't going to be swayed by the fact that memory foam mattresses were supposedly invented by NASA, for example: we would buy one and sleep on it to see what we thought. So here's just a few of the things we found out...

1. Memory foam mattresses are fairly popular -but not for the reasons you might expect. Although they do offer your body support and can be pretty comfy (especially when they have a layer of pocket springs on the inside), they're actually extremely hot things to sleep on: they're made of man made materials which made us sweat like beasts. We think the real reason for their popularity is that they're heavily promoted by manufacturers and retailers as they can get away with charging more for them. They are made very cheaply in countries like Malaysia (we visited two factories there...

...that was one of them) and then sold for a shedload in the UK as unsuspecting customers fall prey to retailers' use of names and descriptions like "coolflow system". We think this is a mug's game and that handmade English pocket sprung mattresses are the only way to go. Like food, natural is best.

2. Traditionally mattresses have always been constructed so that you need to turn them every few months to stop them sagging in the middle. But this is only because until recently no one had ever thought of designing one which didn't need turning. After all, if 16 million of us in the UK officially suffer from a bad back, why the Dickens would anyone want a heavy mattress that you have to pick up and turn? The sleepy UK bed industry has only recently developed and promoted "no turn" mattresses. Their extra facility doesn't add anything to the cost of their manufacture, but retailers still try to charge more for them. Cheeky monkeys, we say.

3. Here's a line we kept hearing: "You can tell a mattress has good individual pocket springs as when you place a glass of red wine on the bed and then lie down it won't spill." Is the marketing person who came up with this idea insane? Of course it spills. We had all sorts of wet fun with glasses of water on dozens of beds. What actually makes an individual pocket spring good or bad is entirely dependent on the quality of the materials used. Unfortunately, unless you see the mattress being made for yourself or are able to compare the internal components of various mattresses with your own hands, you can't really be sure of the quality until you've worn the bed in. Which is why it's important to trust the person selling you the bed and to ensure that they actually sleep on the same one every night themselves.

4. Almost all bed retailers we met do not sleep at home on the products they sell.

5. Labelling a mattress as "orthopaedic" is a bit like Gillette bringing out a new shaving cream "for sensitive skin." Apart from kids, who amongst us hasn't ever had a bad back or wouldn't describe their skin as sensitive? The only thing such a bed label does is confirm that the mattress will be firm rather than soft, and also give the retailer an excuse to charge you more. Which we think is a bit off.

We'll soon post more on this blog about what we found. But rest assured we've learnt quite a bit which is why we have the confidence to sell just one type of mattress and a small selection of beds. We don't ever want to have the largest range, just the very best.

When we were setting up thesleeproom.com we spent almost two years listening to bed retailers and salesmen talking their talk. Almost every single person we spoke to had something conflicting to say about the same products and subjects. In fact we heard so much mumbo jumbo that we decided that we would just try hundreds of beds and mattresses for ourselves and form our own opinions based on common sense. We weren't going to be swayed by the fact that memory foam mattresses were supposedly invented by NASA, for example: we would buy one and sleep on it to see what we thought. So here's just a few of the things we found out...

1. Memory foam mattresses are fairly popular -but not for the reasons you might expect. Although they do offer your body support and can be pretty comfy (especially when they have a layer of pocket springs on the inside), they're actually extremely hot things to sleep on: they're made of man made materials which made us sweat like beasts. We think the real reason for their popularity is that they're heavily promoted by manufacturers and retailers as they can get away with charging more for them. They are made very cheaply in countries like Malaysia (we visited two factories there...

...that was one of them) and then sold for a shedload in the UK as unsuspecting customers fall prey to retailers' use of names and descriptions like "coolflow system". We think this is a mug's game and that handmade English pocket sprung mattresses are the only way to go. Like food, natural is best.

2. Traditionally mattresses have always been constructed so that you need to turn them every few months to stop them sagging in the middle. But this is only because until recently no one had ever thought of designing one which didn't need turning. After all, if 16 million of us in the UK officially suffer from a bad back, why the Dickens would anyone want a heavy mattress that you have to pick up and turn? The sleepy UK bed industry has only recently developed and promoted "no turn" mattresses. Their extra facility doesn't add anything to the cost of their manufacture, but retailers still try to charge more for them. Cheeky monkeys, we say.

3. Here's a line we kept hearing: "You can tell a mattress has good individual pocket springs as when you place a glass of red wine on the bed and then lie down it won't spill." Is the marketing person who came up with this idea insane? Of course it spills. We had all sorts of wet fun with glasses of water on dozens of beds. What actually makes an individual pocket spring good or bad is entirely dependent on the quality of the materials used. Unfortunately, unless you see the mattress being made for yourself or are able to compare the internal components of various mattresses with your own hands, you can't really be sure of the quality until you've worn the bed in. Which is why it's important to trust the person selling you the bed and to ensure that they actually sleep on the same one every night themselves.

4. Almost all bed retailers we met do not sleep at home on the products they sell.

5. Labelling a mattress as "orthopaedic" is a bit like Gillette bringing out a new shaving cream "for sensitive skin." Apart from kids, who amongst us hasn't ever had a bad back or wouldn't describe their skin as sensitive? The only thing such a bed label does is confirm that the mattress will be firm rather than soft, and also give the retailer an excuse to charge you more. Which we think is a bit off.

We'll soon post more on this blog about what we found. But rest assured we've learnt quite a bit which is why we have the confidence to sell just one type of mattress and a small selection of beds. We don't ever want to have the largest range, just the very best.