3 Things To Look For When Buying A Mattress Online

April 19, 2017 November 16, 2020 / By Rachel Ritlop

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This post is in partnership with Nest Bedding. As always, all opinions & experiences are my own. Some links in this post may be affiliate links.

As many of you know, over the last 5 years, E and I have resided in 100% furnished apartments. While living amongst someone else's things never truly make it feel like your own, we did manage to find a few ways to make our apartment it feel like a home. However, we always seemed to end up with a 10+ year old mattress. Finally one of our landlords let us replace their 13+ year old mattress with a Tuft & Needle. This was quite a few years ago, when there were only a few “bed in the boxes” on the market. Today there are upwards of 20!

While our T&N was definitely an upgrade, after a few weeks, we knew it was not the mattress for us. For starters, it was wayyy to soft. Don't get me wrong, I love a soft mattress, but it was so soft that it didn't support us. The sinkage was so deep that we both woke up with pain every morning. I

n my case, I have larger hips which would sink in pretty deep and lead to my back over extending. I pretty much always needed to sleep with a pillow under my knees. Over the years, the technology in the mattress has probably changed, so please keep in mind, this is my experience from around 2014 or 2015. I know T&N are always looking for ways to improve and really are a good company and have friends who love them; but simply put, we knew there was a better mattress our there for us.

I remain a huge fan of beds in a box, despite my last experience. No pushy sales men? I can shop in my pj's? SIGN ME UP!

But, let's be honest, buying a mattress on-line, without ever even sitting on it, can be pretty scary. I spent hourrrrssss scouring review sites trying to figure out the best mattress for me. I even put together this spread sheet based on four review sites number score and gave it a final letter grade based on the subjective parts of the review combined with their number scores:

* BEWARE: Did you know some mattress review sites are for profit, meaning their opinions can be bought. Which is why I recommend checking out a handful when making a decision!

When I came across Nest bedding I immediately fell in love! A family run company, the CEO, Joe Alexander, believes that there is no “one mattress fits everyone”. Which I totally love that mentality! Nest Bedding offers a variety of mattress and a quiz to help you discover your best fit. Aside from offering several different mattress options, you can select your firmness level too! Each mattress is hand made in the USA and Nest prides themselves on using organic, natural, and certified materials to ensure that we are sleeping on the cleanest products around! While that might not sound like a big deal, if you ever do research on the amount of chemicals in bedding/mattress you would be surprised!

If you've never had a bed in a box before, you may not know about “off-gassing”. It's pretty common in latex or memory foam mattress. Basically the mattress is vacuumed sucked into this fun burrito shape:

I think the vacuum sealing process causes the chemicals from production can get locked in. Bed in the box mattresses are notorious for harsh off gassing and funky smells the first few days. I read reviews saying that Nest's beds barely had any off-gassing and they were true! A testament to their pure materials! With T&N, we had to open all the doors and windows for a few days to get the smell to fade from our apartment. Even so, a few weeks later we could still smell it when we laid on it. With Nest, I didn't even need to crack a window!

Overall off-gassing isn't harmful, it just smells, but in a small percentage of people it's been reported to cause difficulty breathing, headaches, nausea, eye and throat irritation, and asthma.

Off-gassing aside, there are several other important factors to think about before pulling the trigger when buying a mattress online.

3 Things To Look For When Buying A Mattress Online:

Firmness.

I loveee a good plush pillowy top, but my body NEEDS support! My hips sink in and back over extends when a mattress in too soft. Not gunna lie, the first week I slept on this bed, I wondered if it was a little too firm… but that's why I also waited almost a month to do this review. Truly this mattress is SO different compared to the terrible mattress we had been sleeping on. Now that my body is used to feeling supported again, I can whole heartedly say that Nest's Alexander Signature nailed it with it's soft top, moderate sinkage, and the medium firmness! I've never felt so in love!

Shop: Nest Bedding Alexander Signature Series

Motion transfer:

Especially if you sleep every night with a partner, nothing will drive you crazier than motion transfer! I am what you call an “aggressive turner”. I literally lift my entire body and plop it down when I turn. Even in a king size bed, I would wake E up on our old mattress. The Alexander Signature has little to no motion transfer and allows us both to sleep comfortably. E has repeatedly said to me, “I can't believe I didn't wake you up with how many times I got up and out of bed”.

Cooling:

With foam mattresses, they have a tendency to absorb and retain heat more than your traditional spring mattress. This was something I paid particular attention too during my mattress research. The Alexander Signature sleeps a little warmer than a spring mattress. Nothing dropping the air 1 degree cooler each night couldn't fix! *I also sleep with a down blanket which really traps the heat, the hubs sleeps with a sheet and doesn't think it sleeps warm at all.

Purchasing a mattress on-line doesn't have to be scary! Many “bed in the box” mattress companies offer extremely generous return periods. However, I strongly recommend you do a ton of research in advance to find the perfect mattress for you. I'll be expanding more on that in the next few weeks on the blog + sharing more on my pillow reviews since the feedback was so great on my Insta-story!

Have you ever purchased a mattress online? What were your thoughts?

P.S. Check out how our master bedroom came out here!