The Complete Guide to Luxury Mattresses
When you think “luxury,” what are the first things that come to mind?
Style, perhaps—something aesthetically pleasing? What about quality—the highest grade of materials? You might think of cars, watches, or jewelry… Whatever it is, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not thinking of mattresses.
Here is why you should be.
Once a relatively underwhelming household amenity, mattresses have now taken center stage, with contemporary sleep brands using the best materials to engineer luxury mattresses that would blow your mall-purchased Serta out of the water. These days, the Ferrari of mattresses exists, and if you can foot the bill, you could be sleeping on it!
So, What Exactly Is A Luxury Mattress?
Well, like any luxury product, it is enhanced in pretty much every way imaginable. It usually features more layers than an ordinary mattress, is made of better quality products, and is generally more comfortable and, well, luxurious. It may even be a plush top mattress like the kind you might find in a 5-star hotel.
The differences between an ordinary mattress and a luxury mattress can be boiled down into 4 categories: quality of materials, design, customer experience, and price tag. Keep reading to learn more about each of these factors and discover whether a luxury mattress is something you might want for your bedroom.
High-Quality Materials
Every standard mattress material has a luxury counterpart, whether it’s memory foam, latex, or a hybrid innerspring.
Memory Foam
An ordinary memory foam mattress features an average-grade viscoelastic foam that gives off excessive VOCs and wears down over time. A luxury memory foam mattress, on the other hand, is non-toxic and more resistant. It offers the feel of a plush mattress while featuring a high-density foam that boosts reactivity. So, rather than leaving a crater, it snaps back into shape quickly and has a longer lifespan. Some luxury memory foam mattresses are also gel-infused to keep sleepers cool.
Latex
Some luxury mattress brands swap out memory foam entirely for all-natural latex, which lends to a healthier sleep environment. Latex is foam-like in feel but softer, more breathable, highly durable, and naturally anti-microbial. However, because latex has to be farmed and processed, latex mattresses tend to be the most expensive of all. The best luxury mattress made with latex comes from Plushbeds, a brand that offers multiple latex mattresses. One model is the Botanical Bliss, which features organic Dunlop latex, organic New Zealand wool, as well as organic cotton.
source: plushbeds.com
Innerspring/Hybrid
What makes an innerspring or hybrid mattress a luxury mattress is both the count and quality of the coils. Luxury mattress brands are more likely to feature a higher count of coils in order to better mitigate motion disturbance. Luxury coils are also tempered, or heated to very high temperatures, in order or make coils stronger and more durable. Saatva tempers their coils three times for ultimate lasting assurance.
source: saatva.com
Top Layers
One of the most immediately identifiable qualities of a luxury mattress is a sumptuous, quilted top layer. To provide soft, cocooning comfort, a plush top mattress may feature a simple quilted design or something more luxurious. The Dreamcloud, for example, features a quilted Euro pillow top that makes you feel like you’re sleeping on a cloud.
source: dreamcloud.com
Construction
When building luxury mattresses, sleep brands aren’t just concerned with using the best materials, they’re concerned with using them intelligently.
High-end mattresses are the most meticulously engineered and tested to provide the best sleep imaginable. That means overcoming anything that may be impeding good sleep, such as overheating and poor support. More often than not, that means integrating multiple layers, each with its own specific function. Whereas an ordinary mattress may only include three layers, a luxury mattress may include six or more.
To tackle heat regulation, some high-end mattresses, like Nectar Lush, are made with gel-infused foams. Otherwise, they may be designed to wick away body heat and push it out through the walls of the mattress. To improve support and ease aches and pains, many brands feature zoned support. That way, the crucial pressure points in your neck, back, and hips get the exact support they need.
source: nectar.com
Customer Experience
Luxury isn’t only about the product, though. A part of what makes a mattress a luxury mattress is the experience and the identity that comes with it.
Sustainability
For instance, in today’s environmental climate, customers want to know that they are making a smart, sustainable purchase. That’s why many brands have oriented themselves as eco-friendly, using organic and non-toxic materials. It’s also why they advertise local manufacturing, to show that the brand cares about the local economy and also lowering its carbon footprint.
Customer experience
Another part of the customer experience that qualifies a product as luxurious is shipping and handling. Luxury mattress brands like Saatva and Saatva Solaire come with free white glove delivery, bringing the product to you with little to no effort required of the customer. Nectar Lush and Dreamcloud also offer free shipping and returns and a generous year-long at-home trial period.
Customization
Beyond luxury comfort is custom comfort. Whether a customer wants a plush mattress or a firm mattress, Saatva allows customers to choose between three levels of firmness. However, the best luxury mattress for customized comfort is Saatva Solaire, which is totally adjustable so that sleepers can switch freely between 50 different firmness levels.
source: saatva.com
Price Tag
Of course, high-end materials, expert engineering, and a catered customer experience come at a cost. Like any luxury product, a luxury mattress is inevitably more expensive than a standard one.
However, when you compare our featured luxury mattress brands to those you might find in-store, prices are not unreasonable. When you shop for mattresses online, you cut out the middle man, eliminating commissions for salespeople, retail markups, and the cost of inventory storage. That’s why, despite the superior quality, these luxury mattresses still end up looking like a bargain next to their retail counterparts.
See how budget-friendly a luxury mattress can be by browsing our reviews!