Mattress shopping used to rely on you lying down in a showroom for 30 seconds and then standing up and saying ‘yes, that one feels about right’.
Nowadays there are loads of mattresses which offer a free trial of 100 nights or even a whole year, so you can really work out if it’s comfortable.
It is important to note that not all trial periods are equally generous. Yes, they range in length but they also range in what you can do if you want to return it. The less generous returns policies charge you to send it back and only let you swap it for another of their own mattresses. More generous trial periods will take the mattress back for free and give you a refund.
For example, the Just Sleep range from Silentnight comes with a whopping great 365 night trial…but the terms and conditions are less generous. If you return it, you’ll have to choose another mattress in the range. If you choose a more expensive alternative then you’ll pay the extra (fair enough) but if you choose a cheaper one, you don’t get the difference back. Read our Just Sleep guide for more details.
Comfort comes first
This may be pointing out the obvious, but comfort is vital if you want to get good quality sleep. A study was carried out in 2002 by Park and Lee called ‘The Relationship between Sleep Quality and Mattress Types’ which took a scientific approach to this and tested out ‘whether sleep quality was different when subjects slept on a mattress suitable for the body shape or not’. They used a technique called polysomnography, which means they recorded sleep and monitored brain waves, eye and chin movements and heart activity.
The conclusion – perhaps unsurprisingly – was that ‘when subjects slept in comfortable beds…sleep efficiency and the percentage of deep sleep were higher’. Also, ‘the percentage of wake after sleep onset was lower when subjects slept in a comfortable bed’. (They also found that a comfortable bed also lead to higher ‘mean skin temperature’ although I’m still figuring out the significance of that).
Based on the impact on waking up and the amount of deep sleep, I would say that ‘making do’ with an uncomfortable bed isn’t ideal and that a home trial period may be a good solution.
We’ve picked out five award winning mattresses which offer a free trial. Prices are for double mattresses and are correct at the time of writing.
1. Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress (medium/firm) – £600 – 365 night trial
Nectar Sleep offers the joint longest home trial of any mattress in the UK market (along with the more expensive DreamCloud mattress featured below).
You get a whole year to try it out and then it comes with a ‘forever’ warranty rather than the usual 5 or 10 years that come with most mattresses. That’s right, a whole chuffing year!
But is it any good, I hear you ask in a polite tone?
Well, as I write this the Nectar Sleep brand is scoring 4.2/5 from from more than 12,000 customers on TrustPilot, which is good. It’s also won several awards from experts including Ideal Home and Good Housekeeping.
The mattress is entirely foam, so it’s another one of those which are called a ‘bed in a box’. It arrives squashed up and then expands once you’ve carried it upstairs. It uses memory foam but has a ‘cooling cover’ on top, which is an effort to get away from the issue that some people have of finding memory foam too hot.
Of course, if that turns out to be a problem you can return it.
Is it good for the planet?
The green elephant in the room with buying a mattress is the environmental impact, as it’s one of the bulkiest things that we all buy every few years. According to a study published in 2013, ‘A Life Cycle Assessment shows that the polyurethane foam mattress has a higher environmental impact than the pocket sprung mattress’.
The study goes on to claim that ‘for both products the main cause of environmental impact is the manufacturing process’ (The academic paper was called ‘Improving the environmental performance of bedding products by using life cycle assessment at the design stage’ by Lanoë, Simões et al)
In the case of the Nectar Sleep mattress, the company says that they ‘calculate the carbon footprint from our manufacturing process, find strategies to reduce this, and offset the remainder’. They work with an organisation called Climate Partner and are ‘certifiably climate neutral’.
That’s certainly not the case with every foam mattress on the market in the UK.
Does Nectar Sleep have other mattresses with a long trial period?
Now that, my friend, is an excellent question.
When this website started, Nectar Sleep just had one mattress. Queen Victoria was on the throne and I didn’t have any wrinkles on my forehead.
As things stand, Nectar Sleep has five mattresses – and they all come with the same generous 365 night trial and forever warranty. Three of them are ‘upgrades’ to the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam mattress, in that they cost more money.
However, one of them is actually cheaper than the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam mattress – so it’s a good one for anyone looking for a mattress which offers both a) a trial period and b) a low price.
It’s called the Nectar Essential Hybrid Mattress and it has a thinner layer of memory foam, combined with a layer of large springs. The spring count is not particularly high but the layers of foam will offer good support for the price.
2. Simba Hybrid Original Mattress (medium/firm) – £819 – 200 night trial
The Simba Sleep Hybrid Original mattress uses springs as well as foam (hence the hybrid name). Recent awards include approval from Good Housekeeping and a 10/10 score from the Daily Mail.
If you aren’t swayed by the Daily Mail’s approval, have a look at the customer reviews. Simba Sleep as a brand averages 4.4/5 on TrustPilot whilst Amazon customers give it 3.9/5 at the time of writing.
The springs in the Simba Hybrid Original are mini ones which are sandwiched between layers of foam. It uses memory foam, but not on the top layer so it doesn’t have the sinking and hugging feeling that you probably associate with a memory foam mattress.
There’s some (fascinating) debate about how firm the Simba Hybrid Original mattress is, with some saying it is medium firmness whilst others saying it is more like medium-firm. We could settle this with an arm wrestle, but the official website say that the Simba Hybrid is medium-firm so let’s stick with that. Of course, if it’s not the right firmness for you, they’ll pick it up and give you a refund.
It also comes with a 10-year guarantee.
Read our full guide to Simba mattresses .
Simba’s other mattresses with a free trial
You will be fascinated to know (or perhaps you won’t) that there are about a dozen Simba mattresses with a free trial.
When we first started this utterly engrossing website, Simba was just starting out and it only had one mattress. For some people, this was part of the appeal. The mattress market was confusing and even once you’d picked a brand, you still had to choose from 37 different white rectangles with baffling jargon at every turn.
Simba, Emma and other similar brands turned up and disrupted the market by saying that they just offered one mattress. Each claimed theirs was the perfect mattress for most people – and if you didn’t like it, you could send it back for a refund.
However, over the last few years, most of those mattress brands have decided to expand their range. This has been the case with Simba, which now has a big choice depending on your budget and priorities.
If you want a hybrid mattress, Simba has five mattresses (at the time of writing). You will probably have guessed that the Simba Hybrid Original is the one that started it all and was previously known as the Simba Hybrid or just the Simba Sleep mattress. It sits as one of the mid-priced models, with cheaper models available that are thinner and more expensive models which add in extra layers of foam and more mini springs.
The really good thing about Simba is that it has maintained its policy of offering trial periods, regardless of whether you go for the cheaper Simbatex Foam mattresses (£500 or less) or more expensive models such as the Simba Hybrid Ultra Mattress (£2000+). Some other brands aren’t so generous and only give trials on the expensive models (which makes you question whether they have confidence in the longevity of the budget models).
You also get trial periods with Simba’s Earth Mattresses, which use large pocket springs and natural materials such as wool and cashmere. These are quite pricey at around £1000-£2000. However, this is exciting to a mattress nerd like me, as mattress companies tend to be less generous with trial periods when it comes to sprung mattresses with natural materials.
3. Inofia Memory Foam and Pocket Spring Mattress (medium) – £200 – 100-night trial
If you can cope with some dodgy grammar and spelling on the website (e.g. ‘Adapts to the each part of body for perfect level’) you might consider Inofia as a budget memory foam and pocket spring mattress with a 100-night trial. Reviews are a very impressive 4.6/5 from 3000+ reviews, putting it on a par with mattresses costing two or three times that.
Unlike some others on this list, the layer of memory foam is on the top with ‘adapt foam’ and springs lower down. Unfortunately, it doesn’t specify how many springs it has. The diagram says that they are individual pocket springs though, which is the superior option to an open coil mattress.
It’s also remarkably deep for the price at 27cm. There’s some disagreement over the firmness, but the official guidance puts it halfway between firm and ‘plush’ which I assume is a synonym for ‘soft’. Of course, the advantage of a mattress with a free trial is that you can give it a go yourself and get your money back if you don’t like it.
4. DreamCloud Hybrid Mattress (medium/firm) – £1649 – 365-night trial
The DreamCloud mattress is what’s known as a hybrid mattress as it uses pocket springs and memory foam. It’s owned by the same company as Nectar Sleep, and it comes with the same 365-night trial as well as a ‘forever’ warranty (you should check the Ts and Cs of these things, of course).
The gist of the DreamCloud Trial period is that have to use for at least 30 days. They call this the ‘Adjustment Period’ because they want you to give it a proper go. After that time, if it’s not right for you, you can return it for free and get a refund.
The Dreamcloud mattress is made in the UK and is at the more luxurious end of the mattress market (that’s marketing speak for ‘expensive’). It is much deeper than most mattresses at 29cm and it gets very good customer reviews. On TrustPilot, DreamCloud scores 4.4/5 from customers.
The idea of a hybrid mattress is that you get the familiar springy feeling which most of us are used to with pocket springs, along with the consistent support and comfort which is offered by foam. One of the foam layers is memory foam which has a hugging and sinking feeling to it. Some people find memory foam makes them feel warm, but mattresses like this one use ‘breathable memory foam’ to try to overcome this.
5. Emma NextGen Premium Plus Mattress (medium firmness) – £719 – 200 night trial
Emma’s range of mattresses has evolved over the years. At first, they came along with one mattress that was 100% foam and shook up the market (as did other brands, like Simba, Nectar and Casper).
Now, Emma mattresses use a mix of springs and foam and they have a wider range to choose from.
Whichever you choose, you get a 200 night trial with the option of refund if it’s not right for you. You also get a 10 year guarantee.
The cheaper Emma Mattresses are called ‘Premium’ and Premium Plus (slightly confusingly!) whilst the mid-priced ones are ‘Cooling’ and the most expensive ones are ‘Elite’. Here’s th current range from cheapest to most expensive:
- Emma NextGen Premium – £709 (medium firmness)
- Emma NextGen Premium Plus – £719 (medium) – this is the same as the Emma Next Gen Premium but it has a different outer layer which aims to keep you cooler
- Emma Luxe Cooling – £1049 (firm) – this has a similar spring/foam design but it uses a special foam containing graphite to reduce body temperature
- Emma NextGen Cooling – £1049 (medium) – this one is a bit deeper than the Emma Luxe Cooling mattress and has more ‘zones’ in the springs to give different parts of your body the right level of support
- Emma Elite Mattress – £1489 (medium-soft) – this is the most expensive mattress in the range. It’s a similar depth to the Emma Next Gen cooling mattress but it uses a different type of foam on the top layer which has less of a sinking feeling than you get with most foam mattresses.
These prices are correct at the time of writing, but you will often find special offers that will give you a big discount.
The more expensive mattresses are little deeper and have an extra layer of foam.
We’ve picked out the Emma NextGen Premium Plus as it has won several awards. It’s also very good value if you can get it in the sale. The ‘Plus’ version has a cooler cover. Foam mattresses do have a tendency to make you feel quite warm, so this will help counteract that.
What about pocket sprung mattresses – do they come with trial periods?
You may have noticed that most of the mattresses we’ve featured are the modern sort of mattress that use lots of layers of foam. Some are hybrids (i.e. they use some springs) but they aren’t the long established pocket spring brands you might have heard of, such as Vispring, Sleepeezee or Hypnos.
For a long time, these brands didn’t offer trial periods at all so you needed to find a store and try some out.
However, in the last few years some retailers have started giving trial periods on big name pocket sprung mattresses.
Mattress Online’s Comfort Trial
Mattress Online is one of the biggest mattress retailers and they were named online retailer of the year at the National Bed Federation Awards in 2022.
Every mattress at Mattress Online comes with a ’60 night trial period’. Some come with 100 nights instead, but the majority are 60 night trials.
That includes their choice of about 200 Pocket Sprung mattresses from big brands including Silentnight, Sleepeezee, Hypnos and Relyon.
It’s not quite as simple as some of the trials featured earlier in this guide. You have to use mattress protector and you can only swap it for a different mattress. That’s not a big problem as Mattress Online has a large range. If you choose a mattress that it less than £100 cheaper then they will give you a gift voucher, so you could buy some pillows etc.
You have to use the mattress for at least 30 days before you return it, so you effectively have a 30 day window when it can be returned.
John Lewis’s 60 Night Mattress Trial
The John Lewis mattress trial is pretty similar to the Mattress Online trial. You get 60 days but you have to jump through some hoops.
You have to buy a mattress protector with the mattress and you have to use the mattress for at least 30 nights before you can return it. You’ve then got another 30 days to make the return.
One part of the terms and conditions says that you need to ‘visit your nearest store with your original receipt and delivery confirmation’ so that ‘we can offer the best advice on a different mattress and for you to try an alternative choice most suited for your comfort needs’ . However, a different part of the terms and conditions just says they ‘recommend’ an actual visit and gives a phone number for the Furniture Aftercare team.
You’ll be charged about £30 to return it.
On the plus side, you are given a refund on the difference if you swap for a cheaper mattress.
John Lewis sell about 100 different pocket spring mattresses. That includes big brands like Vispring, Hypnos and Silentnight.