The average person sleeps roughly eight hours a night, and for a third of their lives so it’s important that the place you rest your head not only be comfortable, but will not only support your body for the night but over the course of time.
I’ve had the opportunity of checking out the Purple Mattress in its King size after seeing random ads on Facebook for months, and here’s how I felt about the product.
It seemed like every time I checked out Facebook there was a creative ad about the mattress brand, so obviously,the company is fairly serious about getting their name out and marketing. From their pretty hilarious ads to their even more creative way of packaging their product when you receive it, which certainly surprised me when it arrived at my doorstep. There was some good and bad about that though which I’ll start with. It’s HEAVY, folks. And unlike most shipped mattresses on the market that typically come boxed up, Purple does something really unique by shipping the mattress itself fully extended in length, in what looks to be a purple duffle-like bag which honestly looks pretty nice.
Actually unboxing the Purple mattress is where I had a bit of trouble. Since the packaging is in a bag form with a zippered end, you essentially have to pull from one in and hope the bag slides out of the other. Let’s just say this is a 2-3 person job, as Jess and I both had quite a bit of trouble attempting to get it out. At one point we decided, screw it, we’re going to actually go ahead and cut the actual Purple duffle bag and pull it out that way.
It took us a total of 12 minutes to figure out this was the best method since the bag is plastic, and the wrapping around the actual mattress itself was covered in plastic, trying to simply slide it out of the bag would not work. Purple does include a nice little envelope/box opener that is safe to use but just keep away from children. (It now serves as our envelope opener for mail, so thanks for that Purple).
Although you are supposed to do as instructed: unwrap, unroll, unwind, my mattress did come wrapped in plastic which meant that I had to use the box cutter again to get to the mattress.
They also included some pretty cute sleep masks, if you are into that kind of thing.
After getting the Purple Mattress out of its shell it was time to get to unwrapping the vacuum sealed mattress and this is always fun for me as I’ve learned to do this with the previous Leesa mattress that I reviewed). It took about 2-3 minutes to expand to a size that would make it easier to carry into the bedroom, so if I could suggest, attempt to open the mattress in an open space versus on the bedframe itself. Once It expanded to a certain point she and I then began moving the mattress to our King bed.
It’s worth mentioning that although the mattress is labeled Purple mattress, it is actually not “Purple”. Jess made a pretty hilarious joke saying that she didn’t know how we would find actual sheets to match a Purple mattress (as if the color of the actual mattress mattered when it was covered, but I assured her that the name of the mattress meant so much more).
Made up of three components, the Purple mattress had 2-inches of hyperelastic polymer, 3.5-inches of polyurethane foam and finally 4-inches of polyurethane foam. The term “Purple Mattress” is derived from the top hyper-elastic polymer which not only makes the mattress more comfortable to sleep in all positions but makes the entirely of the mattress more breathable. Its honeycomb-like shape is actually pretty gel-like to the touch after playing around with the sample (and keeping away from our dog who thought that it was a chew toy). Purple supplied a sample of the material to actually show that what’s underneath the white cover that hides all three layers with the polymer being the most important of the three being at the top. The cover of the Purple feels great to the touch, almost quilt-like. Seeing as though we plan on sleeping on the mattress for the next few years, we decided to put not only sheets on it but also a waterproof mattress topper to account for any spills that might happen while occasionally having a drink in bed. That and we watched a pretty hilarious video of a woman doing what Purples considers “The Egg Test” on her bed, using the supplied Purple towel to test the overall durability and flexibility of the mattress.
The Egg Test isn’t something new in terms of mattresses, but it’s one that will tell you (or give you a fair estimate) of how your sleep might go immediately on a particular mattress. Not all companies advise this because they don’t want their mattresses to seem incapable, but Purple stands by the test enough to make a video of the test. Here’s Goldilocks the Bed Expert to tell you exactly how the test works.
Now I know what you’re thinking, yeah sure, the egg could be a fake, it could be just marketing, so one bold (and rather hilarious) woman by the name of Jasmine Lovett actually did a real life egg challenge if you’d like to check it out:
Now, that test actually went pretty good and made me a believer in the mattress, so when I received mine and finally got to lay on it, I fell in love instantly. It doesn’t have any odd “mattress smells” like others on the market during the first few days which was actually pretty surprising to me. I like to have a bed that’s not too firm, but not soft to the point I feel like I’m sinking into it, and Purple makes sure that you get that. Compared to the Leesa it’s not AS firm, but it’s pretty close.
After having the Leesa on my bed previously before moving it into the guest bedroom, you can tell a slight difference between the two. Where you could get in the middle of the Leesa and it would have virtually no give in terms of depth, the Purple mattress actually gave some space that would be perfect for your pressure points when you sleep. I typically sleep flat on my stomach although alternating between sleeping on my left side, while Jess sleeps on her right.
Jess and I both don’t weigh much, and we aren’t the tallest individuals, so being in the happy medium in terms of weight means our bodies won’t immediately sink into the polymer layer. It would be pretty corny to say we feel like we are laying on a cloud at night, but it does feel like we are supported to the point where we wake up in the morning and there isn’t the immediately feeling of shoulder pain, back pain or needing to stretch before getting up out of the Purple mattress like we’ve had on previous mattresses we’ve purchased in stores. The funky purple polymer makes up for the way we transition throughout the night so even if you lay in an awkward position, the mattress won’t feel like it’s conforming to your body, but rather reacting naturally thanks to the support layers.
We had an issue for about a week where our building was going through a heating/cooling transition for the winter, and for us to sleep year round in the AC (we like it cool, people), there were roughly six consecutive days where we went without proper air conditioning in our unit. With any other mattress, I probably would’ve woken up and needed to changed shirts because I was sweating in my sleep. But nobody wants that right? That’s why I’m glad we have the Purple. Since the little pockets of the Purple polymer level allow proper airflow you wouldn’t typically get from a mattress with springs that don’t react well to pressure points and can just be otherwise very uncomfortable. Obviously just like when it comes to sinkage, this will differentiate depending on weight.
Thirty nights later, we can safely say we made a great choice in making the Purple the mattress we decided to go with. Being able to know for a fact I will not sweat in my sleep is great, and after thirty days, not only will the mattress defeat an egg (although it won’t scramble it for you), the Purple mattress is firm enough for those who don’t want to feel like they have to sink into bed and can’t get out, but they also won’t feel like they are laying on a board. Obviously this has only been a month, and I plan on updating this post again, but as of right now, if you see that ad on Facebook about the Purple mattress and have wondered about how the mattress would fair in your bedroom, let me just say, we are believers.
Source: Manufacturer supplied review unit
What I Like: No-Sweat very cool mattress, not too firm, not too soft; minimal sinkage
What Needs Improvement: Sturdier handles for transportation
