How to choose

What mattress is best for me? (or how to buy a mattress over the Internet)

To make choosing a mattress or mattress and base (ensemble) over the Internet a simple process isleep has arrived at the following 3 important points to help you reach an informed decision.

Firmness Ratings	1- 5 Star rating
Conformity guidelines	Low, Medium and Deep
Partner Disturbance Findings	Average, Good and Superior

 

Firmness

The first and most obvious rating deals with the question of "How firm is this mattress?" In order to qualify this question we have divided our entire range of mattresses into the following distinct 5 firmness levels.

1 - Softest

2 - Medium Soft

3 - Medium

4 - Medium Firm

5 - Firm

Whilst different people have different perceptions of what is soft and firm, we can set some parameters by describing a level 1 mattress as a cloudlike, marshmallow feel with level 5 at the other end of the spectrum having a hard earth camping style feel. From our years of experience and sales we have determined that approximately 80% of the Australian population fall somewhere between the middle levels of 2, 3 and 4 whilst the remaining 20% distributed evenly between 1 and 5.

If you see yourself as somewhat over average weight, choose level 4 or if somewhat under average weight, choose level 2.

 

Conformity

In brief conformity is the ability of the mattress to wrap around or envelope the sleeper’s body. Mattresses with high top padding or pillow tops usually have a higher conformity rating. But, while saying this, a soft mattress could still have a low conformity by the fact that it has less top padding.

Some different sleep systems like the chiropractic range can offer Medium soft Firmness with virtually no conformity. Use the following guidelines to picture how deep an average weighted person (60 – 90 kg) would "sink" into the mattress in question.

LOW – Sleeper lies on top of the mattress

MED – Sleeper lies lower into the mattress

DEEP - Sleeper lies well into the mattress

 

Partner Disturbance

The final point to consider is that of partner disturbance and how well one's mattress deals with movement transfer. Whilst not effecting everybody (ie singles and those who actually like to know someone is there in the bed with them), this can be a serious problem to some sleepers when sharing a bed with a person who tosses and turns at night. Different mattress systems will deal with this kinetic energy transfer differently and we have classified how well each mattress reduces movement transfer by the following gauge -

Average:	Partner movement whilst somewhat reduced can still be felt.
Good:	Partner movement is reduced to a level acceptable to the majority of sleepers.
Superior:	Mattress is designed to provide minimal partner disturbance.

Whilst no mattress will completely eliminate partner disturbance (except perhaps a mattress made of concrete) we believe isleep offers some of the best mattresses to deal with this problem.

We at isleep have decades of mattress matching experience and hope this ratings system helps makes your mattress purchase just that bit easier. We are always here to offer extra assistance should you require. Please feel free to contact us for further information.