At Nolah, we believe there are few purchases as consequential as buying a new mattress. This may sound dramatic, but think about it; if your new mattress lasts 20 years, you’ll spend roughly 58,000 hours sleeping on its surface. During those hours, your body will rest and repair while your brain processes and stores the memories that make up your life.

To take care of your physical health and mental wellness, you need plenty of restorative sleep each night. And finding a comfortable, supportive mattress that meets your unique needs is the best way to help yourself fall asleep and stay asleep.

Following these seven simple steps will help you through the mattress shopping process and lead you to your perfect-fit mattress with the right materials, firmness level, and features for quality sleep.

Setting a budget or identifying your ideal price range may not be the most exciting part of the mattress shopping process, but it’s a necessary step for making any major purchase.

Mattresses vary widely in cost and quality, and a range of factors (like size, material type, and support features) determine their price. So before you get too deep into the shopping process, you’ll want to set guidelines for how much you plan to spend on your new bed. Doing so will help you target your search on options within your price range and save time by ruling out ones that don’t line up.

If you don’t know what size mattress you’re after, we recommend making that decision now. Our Mattress Size Guide will walk you through your options and all the aspects you should consider to find the right fit. These deciding factors include your budget, who you’re shopping for, body type, and bedroom size limitations.

Budget and bed size aside, choosing a mattress type is the most important decision you have to make when shopping for a new mattress.

Mattress type—a mattress’s structural construction and primary materials—determines or influences all of the following mattress qualities, making it the biggest differentiating factor for mattress shoppers. Understanding the following terms will help you choose your ideal mattress type and identify which features you care about most.

Hybrids combine the contouring comfort of foam and latex mattresses with the strength and stability of innerspring mattresses. All hybrid mattresses have multi-layer construction, joining a coil support system with foam or latex layers on top. Hybrid mattresses typically have a thick profile and pack in the latest mattress features and technology.

The term “foam mattress” generally refers to mattresses made with polyurethane foam (polyfoam), a material known for its flexibility and cushioning capabilities. Mattress foams contour to your curves while the tiny air pockets within the material support the body and redistribute pressure.

Anyone interested in a foam mattress should know right off the bat that not all mattress foams are created equal. Because mattress makers use different foam formulas, foam mattresses can widely vary in terms of their firmness level, flexibility, responsiveness, heat dissipation, support, and lifespan.

Not all foam mattresses are created equal. Because mattress makers use different foam formulas, foam mattresses can widely vary in terms of their firmness level, flexibility, responsiveness, heat dissipation, support, and lifespan.

While some mattresses companies—including Nolah—use their own proprietary polyfoam blends, most use a derivation of memory foam. Originally developed by NASA in the 1970s, memory foam is a subtype of polyfoam that uses viscoelastic chemicals to achieve flexibility.

At Nolah, we see memory foam (also known as viscoelastic polyurethane foam) as an outdated material. Because of its chemical composition, memory foam traps heat, conforms too easily, and responds slowly to pressure removal. Our proprietary AirFoam™️ blend is 100 percent free from the viscoelastic chemicals that give memory foam these properties.

Made from the sap-like latex harvested from rubber trees, latex foam is an all-natural mattress material popular among eco-conscious shoppers. Tapping latex does not harm the rubber trees, and the processed foam is durable and biodegradable, making it a highly sustainable resource. It also keeps cool and resists bacteria naturally—no chemical additives necessary.

Latex mattresses have a uniquely buoyant and flexible feel. Like polyfoam, latex foam distributes your body weight, relieves pressure, and contours to your curves. However, it responds faster to pressure and pressure removal, giving the material its distinctive bounce.

Innerspring mattresses—also known as coil or spring mattresses—date back to the mid-1800s. While they're still the most common mattress type, they'll likely be eclipsed by hybrids, their more advanced counterpart, in the upcoming years.

Today, most coil mattresses have an internal support system with at least 1,000 springs. These springs are either interconnected or pocketed (individually wrapped in fabric) and provide the necessary tension to hold a sleeper in place and distribute their body weight across the mattress's surface.

Once you know which type of mattress best fits your needs, you can start to compare specific mattress brands and models. The next mattress characteristic you should consider is your ideal firmness level, which depends on your sleep position, body type, and personal comfort preferences.

A mattress’s firmness level refers to how soft or firm it feels. Firmer mattresses provide more pushback than their softer counterparts, meaning the surface of the mattress won’t flex or “give in” as much. Soft mattresses provide less resistance, allowing the body to dip slightly into the mattress.

Mattress brand and product reviewers use the mattress firmness scale to compare the feel of different mattress models. The scale spans from 1 to 10, 10 being the firmest rating.

How a sleeper experiences mattress firmness is also relative to their weight. What feels firm to a lighter individual may feel plush to a heavier individual because their body puts more pressure on the bed, causing the surface to flex further.

The next chart below also shows how to factor in your weight and sleep position to determine your ideal firmness level.

Depending on the position you sleep in, specific areas of the body will bear more weight than others. All sleep positions distribute body weight differently, creating peak pressure points where your mattress has to support a heavier load.

Your goal is to find a mattress that offsets these peak pressure points with weight redistribution and offers extra support where it’s needed to keep your spine aligned. Your sleep position determines where these pressure points fall, making it an essential consideration when choosing a new bed.

We discuss the unique needs associated with each of the four main sleeper profiles—side, back, stomach, and combination sleepers—at length in our Sleep Position Guide. Mattress shoppers can also use the chart below for quick reference.

The above chart can help shoppers identify their ideal mattress firmness range based on their weight and sleep position. However, it’s intended as a general guide, not a formula for finding a perfect fit. Keep in mind that the firmness scale isn’t an exact science nor used uniformly across the mattress industry.

Your new mattress's height may not be your top concern, but it does affect the feel of your bed and how easily you can climb in or out. The number of layers used to construct your mattress (and their individual thickness) will determine the mattress's overall height.

In general, thicker mattresses offer more support and cushioning, though it depends on the construction and material quality. We recommend choosing a mattress at least 8 inches thick. By nature, hybrid mattresses tend to be thicker than all-foam or latex models.

You also want to know how far from the ground you’ll sleep, factoring in the height of the mattress and the bed frame. Especially if you have a hard time getting in and out of bed, you want to make sure you can plant your feet flat on the ground while sitting on the edge of your mattress. Parents should also consider bed height when buying a mattress or bed frame for young children who could fall.

If you’ve followed these seven steps, you’re ready to make a decision and order your new mattress!