Our sleep consultants have been rolling round and sleeping on completely different beds for years. Having examined roughly 350 mattresses from dozens of manufacturers, our group has grasp on mattress firmness ranges. Even with our strategic testing processes and intensive expertise, our assessments have been solely subjective — till not too long ago.
Delivered to life by CNET Labs’ tech consultants Bryan Adams, Jared Hannah and Steve Conaway, our proprietary Mattress Smasher 9000 machine presents an goal technique to decide mattresses’ firmness ranges.
This neat system has already smashed over 100 beds and counting. This quantity rises weekly as our consultants proceed to check the beds presently saved in our expansive mattress warehouse and the brand new mattresses we often obtain to overview.
Learn extra: We Use Tech to Check Beds: Say Whats up to the Mattress Smasher 9000
Watch senior video producer Owen Poole clarify how the Mattress Smasher works and why it modified the best way we take a look at beds.
The mattress-smashing course of
Smashing every mattress takes about thirty minutes. Transferring the beds to and from our designated Mattress Smasher room and situating every on the platform takes a while. As soon as the mattress is appropriately positioned and the machine is prepared, we make sure the linked program numbers are right, hit “begin” and wait a couple of minutes for the smasher to work its magic and supply us with the target firmness degree.
This “magic” occurs because the highly effective actuator arm pushes its pressure-sensitive plate down into the mattress till it reaches a pre-determined quantity of drive, simulating physique weight. The machine calculates the firmness primarily based on the space the arm and plate traveled into the mattress till they reached that drive quantity, touring additional (or deeper) into softer beds and never as far into firmer beds.
With our customized programming software program, we will change the quantity of drive utilized to the mattress to simulate completely different physique weights, permitting us to see how the firmness would really feel for lighter and heavier physique sorts.
We are able to regulate the actuator arm of the Mattress Smasher 9000 to check a number of areas of every mattress.
We are able to additionally regulate the placement of the actuator arm. Transferring the actuator’s positioning over the mattress permits us to check numerous areas of the mattress, which helps us decide whether or not the zoned assist sections are literally softer or firmer, because the manufacturers may declare.
Learn extra: Utilizing Tech to Check Beds: Say Whats up to the Mattress Smasher 9000
Mattress Smasher outcomes, ranked by firmness
Firmness is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the softest and 10 the firmest.We use trade phrases similar to “medium-soft” or “true agency” to explain it. The firmness rankings supplied by the Mattress Smasher are supplied from the attitude of a median individual weighing between 150 and 230 kilos, however we additionally take a look at and focus on what the firmness may really feel like for somebody weighing above or beneath that vary.
We smash every mattress at the least 3 times however typically 4 or 5 (typically as much as six or seven), taking the typical of these scores to find out the ultimate goal firmness degree. Of the practically 100 beds we have smashed up to now, the typical firmness degree is 5.7, or only a hair above medium.
The graph beneath reveals the firmness ranges of the beds we’ve smashed with the Mattress Smasher 9000, organized from softest to firmest.
The Helix Sundown Luxe and Nectar Luxe Hybrid mattresses had been the softest, with firmness ranges of two.1 and a pair of.2, respectively, in line with the smasher. Smooth scores like this are finest suited to strict facet sleepers who want probably the most stress reduction for the shoulders and hips doable.
The Mattress Smasher 9000 pushes the actuator arm into the mattress.
To nobody on our group’s shock, the Airweave Nagomi mattress ranked the firmest of all of them. It truly obtained a firmness degree over 10 from the Mattress Smasher. This distinctive, ultrafirm mattress is constructed with ethereal Airfiber blocks, making it appropriate just for again sleepers looking for probably the most assist doable.
Additionally unsurprising, the following firmest mattress was the extra-firm facet of Plank Agency, touchdown at 9.8 out of 10, with Plank Agency Luxe shut behind.
As we proceed to check and smash beds, we anticipate that the typical firmness degree will keep between 5 and 6. Many mattress firms provide middle-of-the-road beds that may accommodate all sleeping positions and physique sorts and provide a mixture of stress reduction and assist.
Learn extra: Greatest Agency Mattresses of 2025
What we have discovered about mattress firmness
To not toot our personal horns, however we are going to… This new addition to our testing course of has confirmed that our group of sleep consultants is extraordinarily correct when evaluating and rating a mattress’s firmness degree. Manufacturers are additionally usually correct in how they rank the firmness of their mattresses.
For the Bear Unique mattress, the Mattress Smasher supplied 7.6, 7.6 and seven.8 scores for a complete common firmness rating of seven.65 out of 10, whereas Bear clocks it at 7.1. Whereas not precisely the identical, it is shut, contemplating we have now completely different strategies and technique of assessing and figuring out firmness — and each rankings imply the mattress lands round medium-firm.
We at all times take a look at mattress firmness subjectively first, adopted by its goal rating.
It is essential to keep in mind that even when expertise is used to search out the target firmness degree, firmness continues to be subjective on the finish of the day. How one individual perceives the firmness and really feel of a mattress could differ from one other, relying on physique kind and weight. Our sleep group consists of members of various physique sorts, weights and genders, permitting us to check every mattress from numerous views and supply an all-encompassing overview of the mattress.
Zoned assist
Many mattresses characteristic zoned assist, which means completely different firmness ranges all through the mattress present assist and stress reduction the place your physique wants it most. It is meant to assist maintain the backbone neutrally aligned all through the evening.
That is achieved by altering the mattress’s development, usually by having barely firmer foam or a layer of individually wrapped coils within the heart for enhanced assist to your torso and hips. The outer thirds are sometimes barely softer to supply stress reduction to your head and shoulders. An instance is the Saatva Basic, which options an extra layer of skinny reminiscence foam within the heart third of the mattress.
The Mattress Smasher 9000 has confirmed that the manufacturers’ claims of zoned assist are usually true and correct. Even when we won’t essentially really feel the zoned assist whereas mendacity on sure beds, the Mattress Smasher can verify that completely different firmness ranges are current.
The Saatva Rx is a chief instance of this. Particularly designed for these with persistent again and joint ache, it options patented Lumbar Zone Expertise. This expertise supplies extra assist within the heart third of the mattress, aiming to maintain your backbone neutrally aligned. We moved the actuator to check every third of the mattress and confirmed this to be true — the within ranked round 6.1 out of 10, and the outer thirds had been barely softer, round 5.4 out of 10.
With the Mattress Smasher, we will take a look at the firmness of assorted areas in mattresses with zoned assist, just like the Saatva Rx.
Attention-grabbing discoveries we had throughout testing
Like several expertise, the Mattress Smasher 9000 just isn’t at all times 100% correct. It’d often rank a mattress larger or decrease than we all know it to be, and we at all times use our greatest judgment and discretion to find out why and whether or not the rating is off from what its firmness score actually is. We have encountered just a few fascinating realizations as we proceed to work out any kinks with the Mattress Smasher.
Mattresses with tremendous distinctive development, such because the Layla Hybrid, can typically throw off the firmness rating supplied by the smasher. We at all times examine to find out the trigger, and on this case, because the Layla Hybrid is flippable, the bottom of the mattress is mushy when the agency facet is up, which resulted in just a few funky scores.
We have additionally discovered that beds with mushy prime consolation layers or cushioning pillow tops have a tendency to attain softer than they’re. It’s because the actuator arm of the Mattress Smasher doesn’t press down as far into the mattress layers as in a mattress and not using a pillow prime, inflicting it to supply a rating that is softer than it will really feel for an actual individual mendacity on the entire mattress.
An instance of that is the Titan Plus Luxe. In our testing, we discovered this mattress to be round medium-firm, whereas the Mattress Smasher constantly gave us decrease scores between 3 and 4, which might be medium-soft. We all know that is due to the mushy quilted gel foam prime on the Titan Plus Luxe.
The Titan Plus Luxe has a thick pillow prime that barely affected the Mattress Smasher’s scoring.
Temperature impacts the Mattress Smasher outcomes
When the mattress (significantly one with reminiscence foam) is chilly from being outdoors in cool climate or a room with no warmth, it’ll rating larger (firmer). The mattress can develop into extra inflexible when it reaches a sure threshold, as reminiscence foam is delicate to temperature fluctuations. The froth molecules develop into extra tightly packed when chilly, leading to a more durable really feel. Usually, reminiscence foam beds really feel finest between 68 and 72 levels F.
Learn extra: The Foam in Your Mattress Issues. Right here’s How It is Made
Our sleep group is aware of this effectively. We’re affected person when unboxing reminiscence foam mattresses from the chilly supply truck within the winter, as they are much extra inflexible and agency than they are going to be as soon as they’ve had an opportunity to heat up and correctly inflate. It is the identical when mendacity on a reminiscence foam mattress in a chilly room — it takes further time to your physique warmth to heat earlier than the froth begins to reply appropriately, sinking and contouring round you.
The constructing the place our mattress warehouse is located not too long ago encountered heating points, which meant there was no warmth within the rooms the place we retailer, movie and smash beds. The ensuing cooler room temperatures affected the Mattress Smasher scores for reminiscence foam mattresses, inflicting them to rank larger than they need to.
Watch us unbox the extraordinarily chilly Casper Snow Max.
Why we use expertise to check beds
Our sleep consultants at all times present in-depth descriptions of a mattress’s firmness and really feel in our evaluations that will help you resolve if it is the proper mattress for you. These qualities are largely subjective. How a mattress feels from individual to individual will differ. We take turns mendacity on and dissecting the mattress’s development, amassing opinions on the firmness degree from a number of CNET sleep consultants with various physique sorts and most well-liked sleeping positions as a result of it is vital to check and overview this attribute from a variety of views.
Till CNET Labs created the Mattress Smasher 9000, this was the one approach we might take a look at a mattress’s firmness. Now, having an goal technique to take a look at and decide firmness dietary supplements our skilled assessments and makes our evaluations much more exact by offering totally unbiased knowledge. As a devoted member of CNET’s sleep group, the Mattress Smasher 9000 will proceed to check and analyze beds alongside the remainder of us for the foreseeable future.
Learn extra: How CNET’s Sleep Consultants Check Mattresses
