Should I buy an adjustable bed?
Adjustable beds are popular with people with bad backs or mobility problems as they allow you to find a comfortable lying position. There are two types:
- Most adjustable beds sold by major bed retailers are called ‘lifestyle’ adjustable beds. They’ll lift your head up so you can watch Match of the Day in bed, or you can try out a few positions to stop you snoring or feel more comfortable. They usually look like a normal divan bed.
- More specialist adjustable beds are called ‘profiling’ beds. They aren’t generally sold by major bed retailers but are sold at places like Complete Care Shop and Bakare. They are more akin to the kind of thing you’d have in a hospital or residential home. This NHS guide is a useful starting point.
This guide focuses on ‘lifestyle’ beds rather than beds for people with more specific mobility problems. Prices and review scores are correct at the of writing.
Here are six of the best adjustable beds to consider:
1. Dreams Lucia Sleepmotion Adjustable Upholstered Bed Frame – from £948 (single, small double, double, king or superking). Excludes mattress.
This Lucia Sleepmotion adjustable bed from Dreams gets very good reviews of 4.8/5 from 3000 customers. It’s available in a number of sizes including single, small double, double, king and super king and is available in seven different colours and materials including a leather and velvet option.
I’m a big fan of upholstered bed frames. Partly because they look classy but mostly because you can walk into them on the way to the toilet at 3am without screaming in pain. Wooden frames are less good for that.
Lucia upgrade options
There are a few different versions of this Dreams Lucia adjustable bed.
The 200i version comes with most of the basic features that you’ll need, including being able to adjust your back and feet.
However, the 400i adjustable bed is certainly a step up with better lumbar support and a massage feature. It adds on an extra £300 to the double sized model with the standard woven fabric finish.
There’s also an 800i version, which is a similar price to the 400i. The 800i gives you more adjustment over the position of your head and it comes with USB charging ports. However, it’s a different design altogether and doesn’t have the nice built in headboard so it’s a bit of a trade off.
If you want something with fancier features, you can similar adjustable beds with a built in TVB. The Seoul Sleepmotion 200i TV bed will cost you from £2098.
Mattress options
The Lucia adjustable bed doesn’t come with a mattress, but Dreams do offer suggested mattresses that can be used with it you want to buy it as a bundle. They suggest brands such as Hyde and Sleep, Tempur and Relyon (click on the add mattress option on this page).
The mattresses recommended by Dreams are memory foam mattresses, which tend to work well with adjustable mattresses. Some people find memory foam makes them feel a bit warm. However, they do provide consistent all-over support.
The bundled mattresses are quite expensive, but there are plenty of cheaper ones with great reviews, free returns and long warranties that are compatible with adjustable bed frames. Some examples include the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress (£600 and it comes with a 365 night trial period and a ‘forever’ warranty) and the Simba Hybrid (£819 and you get a 200 night trial period and 10 year warranty).
If you are looking for a very cheap mattress, check out our guide to £200 mattresses.
You may prefer pocket spring mattresses, which is what most of us have been sleeping on all our lives. Highly-rated brand Sleepeezee has a range of mattresses for adjustable beds.
Memory foam and allergies
As an aside, there’s contradictory research and advice on whether memory foam is good for people who suffer from allergies to dust mites. Mattress Online say that a foam mattress has a ‘solid core’ which makes them ‘impenetrable to dust mites’. They say that means memory foam is ‘particularly beneficial in lowering the risk of dust mites and allergens in your bedroom’.
On the other hand, academics in Norway found that ‘the risk of finding mite feces was four times higher in foam compared to spring mattresses…and eight times higher for the foam mattresses without a cover’. They worked this out by taking samples from both types of mattress and published their findings in 2002. See ‘House-dust mites and mattresses’ by Schei, Hessen and Lund.
The charity Allergy UK features both pocket sprung and foam mattresses in its guide to approved mattresses.
Pros: good choice of sizes available, option to upgrade to an adjustable TV bed, trusted retailer, good value for the cheapest model
Cons: basic one year warranty, mattress not included, bundled mattresses are expensive
Our Value Rating: ****
2. Sleepeezee Whitbury/Charlbury/Kingham Adjustable Divan – from £1199 (small single, single, double, small double, king and super king). Includes mattress.
If you want a reasonably priced adjustable bed from a recognised brand then I’d take a look at these three from Sleepeezee. You get a 10 year guarantee and a compatible mattress included.
It’s available in multiple sizes and the larger sizes have the extra advantage of being split in two so you can choose your own setup. There’s also a choice of 40 colours, which is exceptionally good.
The design of the base is at the fancier end of the market. It moves in five places and it comes with a massage feature. The base is made from sprung slats, which is better than fixed slats in my opinion (although fairly standard, to be honest).
As an overall brand, Sleepeezee gets very good reviews on TrustPilot of 4.3/5 and they even have a Royal Warrant.
The base is the same whichever you choose, but it comes with a choice of mattresses.
What’s the mattress like on this adjustable bed?
The mattresses with this adjustable base have 1000 pocket springs. Pocket spring mattresses are the UK’s best sellers. They offer much better support than a grotty old open coil mattress which your grandma had in her spare bedroom. 1000 is an adequate number for most people but is a little low if you are an 18 stone bodybuilder.
On top of the pocket springs is a layer for extra comfort. You can choose either memory foam, eco fibres (i.e. a synthetic material which is quite similar to the filling in a synthetic duvet) or natural fillings.
Memory foam offers a good level of consistent support but can make you feel a little warmer in bed. Natural fillings are the posh option, but I would avoid them if you suffer from allergies.
The downside (in my opinion) of these mattresses is that you can’t turn them over, you just rotate it to avoid sagging. Of course, if you have a bad back then you might not want to attempt to turn over a mattress anyway. This is described as being ‘easy care’ but I personally prefer a turnable mattress.
It’s a medium firmness mattress which generally means that it is most suited for people of an average weight, as you will sink in enough to end up with a nice straight spine. The slight problem is that bed manufacturers have never actually agreed what soft, medium and firm means so it’s always a bit of a guess.
Pros: good quality pocket sprung mattress included, 40 colours to choose from, 10 year warranty, massage feature
Cons: relatively low spring count
Our Value Rating: *****
3. Dreams Sleepmotion 200i adjustable bed frame – from £649 (single, small double, double, king or superking). Excludes mattress.
This adjustable bed frame is a cheaper option in the same range as the Dreams Lucia Sleepmotion bed frame mentioned above. It gets similarly positive reviews of 4.8/5.
It’s got a simple design which lifts up your legs and head, either via a remote or an app on your mobile (oooh, fancy!). If you want extra features like massages and more adjustments you’ll need to upgrade to something like the Tempur Arc (£3000+, see number four).
It’s got a weight limit of 355kg, but that includes the weight of a mattress. By my calculations, that means that it can cope with two people who each weigh about 23 stone.
As with the Lucia Sleepmotion adjustable bed featured earlier, it doesn’t come with a mattress. However, there’s a recommended list of ‘compatible mattresses’ on the Dreams website. Alternatively, Royal-approved brand Sleepeezee has pocket sprung mattresses designed for adjustable beds. Most foam mattresses are compatible with adjustable beds. If you are buying a pocket sprung mattress, check the small print in case it says it’s not compatible.
What if you and your sleeping partner want different positions? (Ooer missus)
Dreams also sell a version of this mattress called the 200u&i (as in, “you and I”). The idea with this adjustable bed is that each side of the bedframes moves independently. You can have you legs in the air whilst your husband has his head lifted up…or whatever configuration you want.
Pros: affordable price, very positive reviews
Cons: basic design won’t suit everyone, only a one year warranty, mattress not included
Our Value Rating: ****
4. Tempur Arc adjustable divan bed with Ergo Smart Base – £3499 (king size and super king size). Mattress not included.
This Tempur adjustable bed frame is the luxury-Rolls-Royce-premium option for those with deep pockets. You may like to lie on this bed whilst eating Ferrero Rocher.
Tempur are best known for pioneering the memory foam mattress, after developing NASA’s technology. They are one of the biggest names in the sleep market and have been going for more than 30 years.
So, what exactly is the difference between an £800 adjustable bed and one that costs £3500 (or more!)?
Lots of customisations, sleep tracking and an anti-snore design
The first upgrade is the big range of options you have when choosing your Tempur adjustable bed.
You can choose from 10 different colours and then choose from a range a different headboard designs depending on whether you want something simple or fancy. You can even customise the height of the legs.
The other major difference between this adjustable bed and other adjustable beds is the base design. It uses an Ergo Smart Base, which is a rather clever design that records your sleep based on movement and can give you a report on your mobile the next day. It can even pick up whether you are snoring and lifts your head slightly during the night so that you’ll stop! Of course, you can turn all these features off but they have the potential to help you sleep better.
There are other bells and whistles, including USB ports, underbed lighting and two different ‘massage zones’.
Adding a mattress
If you want a Tempur mattress to go with it, you’ll need to spend another couple of thousand pounds.
You may want to read our guide to Tempur mattresses. The choice seems quite confusing at first, but there are really two main Tempur mattresses to choose from – a cheaper one and a more expensive one. Once you’ve picked from those two it is a question of choosing the depth and firmness you want.
Tempur are best known for pioneering the memory foam mattress, after developing NASA’s technology. Tempur say their mattresses are ‘not just memory foam’ and the company certainly deserves some credit for leading the way.
More on memory foam for adjustable beds
Memory foam provides consistent support all over, and it is good for people with allergies. Some people also claim that memory foam mattresses are long lasting and shouldn’t lose their shape quickly, whereas pocket sprung mattresses can start to sag with age (don’t we all, eh?). In their guide to sleeping, the charity Versus Arthritis says that ‘many people find memory foam mattresses or toppers helpful’. Obviously that advice just relates to arthritis.
The downside with memory foam is that some people don’t like the sinking feeling and find it makes them feel hot. Having said that, many manufacturers have made efforts to overcome the heat issue with ‘cooling layers’.
Pros: respected and long-established mattress brand, built in massager, several size options, longer warranty than most, clever base that tracks your sleep and can adjust automatically when you snore
Cons: very expensive
Our Value Rating: ***
5. Sleepkings Adjustable Bed With Memory Foam Mattress – £649 (single including mattress and headboard)
This budget adjustable bed and mattress from Sleepkings gets decent customer reviews and costs less than many standard single divan beds. It includes a headboard which should save you a few extra pounds.
It’ll lift up your feet or head and it comes with a mattress with a reasonable specification, even if it’s not a household name.
The mattress is memory foam, which many people think offers more consistent support than pocket springs. It’s also good for allergies, although some people don’t like the slight ‘sinking’ feeling which comes with memory foam.
It scores 4.2/5 from more than 100 reviews.
Pros: low price, mattress included, headboard included, good reviews
Cons: some people find memory foam a bit warm, lesser known brand, only one size option
Our Value Rating: *****
6. Vispring Sapphire II Adjustable Bed With Elegance Mattress – £4415 – (long single or super king including mattress and headboard)
Take a deep breath before you look at the price of Vispring adjustable beds. The £4000+ model is the cheapest we could find and it includes a ‘long single’ sized mattress. As you might have guessed a ‘long single’ is the same width as a standard single mattress but a bit longer (shocking, eh?). The idea is that you can put two together to make a super king size mattress for twice the price.
You could upgrade to an even more luxurious mattress (some models cost £13,000). However, the Vispring Elegance is very high quality so I personally would go for that one. The exception is if you’re heavier than average and then you might want one that’s a bit deeper.
What’s the appeal of Vispring adjustable beds?
So why do Vispring adjustable beds cost so much? Well, Vispring invented the pocket spring mattress more than a century ago and it’s still what most of us are sleeping on. They’ve got an unrivalled history and they use expensive natural materials rather than cheaper materials like foam in their mattresses.
By my calculations, the Elegance mattress has a pocket spring count of 1200. If you’re really interested, it is listed as having 722 springs but that is the number for a long single mattress. The industry standard is to give a pocket spring count based on the number on a king size mattress, so I got my calculator out.
That figure will provide plenty of support for the majority of people although if you’re very heavy you might want a higher spring count Vispring adjustable bed.
Other signs of quality with Vispring are things like the ‘hand side stitching’ which means it won’t collapse when you’re sat on the edge of the mattress whilst putting your socks on. It also has a ‘hand tufted finish’ which means it is held together strongly by button-type things on the top of the mattress.
Getting the right firmness level on adjustable beds
You can choose various lovely colours for the base and pick from soft, medium or firm tension for the mattress. One guide I dug out said that Vispring recommend soft mattresses for people under 11 stone, medium tension mattresses for people who are 11-16 stone and firm mattresses for people who weight 16-20 stone. I would also take your sleeping position into account as side sleepers need slightly softer mattresses than people who sleep on their front and back.
Pros: prestigious brand, pocket springs, mattress and headboard included, long warranty
Cons: exceedingly expensive, limited size options
Our Value Rating: ***
About ‘Our Value Rating’
We like to give a star rating for each product based on value for money. We look at what is being offered by the competition, alongside construction materials, warranty length and so on. It is just our opinion but we give five stars to those adjustable beds that we think are ‘exceptionally good value’ and four stars to ‘very good value’ beds. Three stars represents ‘good value’ adjustable beds. We wouldn’t normally feature two star and one star beds, but the numbers represent ‘reasonably good value’ and ‘poor value’ beds.
However, before you spend a small fortune…
…let’s go over some of the questions you might have about buying an adjustable bed.
Can I use any mattress with an adjustable bed?
The ideal scenario is to buy an adjustable base that comes with a mattress or buy a mattress which calls itself an ‘adjustable bed mattress’. However, there are lots of ‘normal’ mattresses on the market that say they are perfectly fine for an adjustable mattress. The gist is that adjustable beds need mattresses with a lot more bendability (I may have made that word up). So, you will find some pocket spring mattresses, memory foam mattresses and latex mattresses which work with adjustable beds, but that doesn’t mean any old mattress will do the job.
We’ve dug through the FAQ sections for a few big-name mattresses:
- Nectar Sleep Mattresses are suitable with ‘Most foundations, bases, including slatted or divans work as well as an adjustable frame.’
- Simba Sleep mattresses have been ‘fully tested and work perfectly with all types of adjustable and electric beds’ (this is from the Canadian website rather than UK website, but I can’t find anything contradictory on the UK site)
- Ergoflex mattresses ‘work with most types of bed base including adjustable’
- OTTY mattresses ‘can be used with a slatted, platform, divan, ottoman or adjustable bed frame but can not be used on thin steel bed bases with steel supports’.
As you can see, all of these brands can be used with adjustable bed bases.
If you’re deciding which type of mattress you want, here’s a quick summary:
- Memory foam offers great support, it’s good for people with allergies and it is hard wearing. On the downside, it can make you feel hot and some people don’t like the sinking feeling.
- Latex is a good natural alternative but it is expensive (Dunlopillo is probably the market leader and gets outstanding reviews from customers on TrustPilot).
- Pocket spring mattresses are the best sellers and are what most of us are used to
- Open coil mattresses/’traditional’ mattresses are old-fashioned rubbish (in my opinion) and should only be offered to your dog or a relative you are hoping won’t visit for long. The exception would be if your number one priority with a mattress is that it can be recycled after. Unfortunately, we only manage to recycle about one quarter of mattress materials in the UK (2022 figure from the National Bed Federation). Open coil springs are much easier to recycle than pocket spring mattresses because it is a case of removing one huge connected chain of springs rather than hundreds or thousands of mini springs from fabric cases.
Which are the best adjustable beds?
The most expensive adjustable beds tend to have:
- several possible sleeping positions. Cheaper adjustable beds just lift up your head, whilst more expensive ones have more options. Take a look at what the bed can do rather than wasting your money on features you’ll never use.
- built in massagers (bit of a gimmick but oooooh yeaaahhh).
- two separate halves. Ideally a couple would want two singles stuck together otherwise you’ll have to agree about when to lift and lower. If you don’t share a bed you can get a double which lifts the whole thing
- a fancy mattress to accompany the frame. I wouldn’t spend your money on an amazing adjustable frame and then use a rubbish mattress on top. It’s a bit like buying a really nice pair of shoes and then wearing them with a nasty pair of itchy socks.
- smart bases that can track your sleep and give you a report in the morning. The Tempur Arc mentioned earlier will even adjust your position during the night if it thinks you are snoring.
Prices are correct at the time of writing.