Selecting Mattress Size: Picking the Right Bed for You

Some of the most important purchases we make in life are made particularly difficult due to the infrequency with which we have to make them. Compare the purchase of a home to picking up groceries. Obviously, eating is important enough that we die if we don’t do it, but at the same time, we buy food almost daily. Through experience, we learn what we need to get to create our favorite dishes and what our favorite foods are. And when we try out a new food and don’t like it, we don’t buy it again. But when it comes to buying a home, most people only do it once or twice in their lives. Since we have so few chances to gain experience in home buying, it makes the research and preparation we do ahead of time much more important. After all, realizing what you don’t like in a home isn’t something you want to learn from experience.

Latex Topper on a Conventional Base

While extreme, this example shows the importance of making well-informed decisions on major purchases. But despite directly impacting our energy, health, and happiness, mattresses are consistently overlooked as one of life’s most important purchases. The correct bed can give you restful and rejuvenating sleep for almost a decade, while the wrong bed can leave you tired, achey, and even have a negative impact on your work and relationships. This being the case, people still often purchase beds on impulse or with minimal research, buying what they think they want, without taking the time to examine what their actual needs are and if a bed can meet them.

Before making the decisions of conventional or memory foam, thread count, or even how firm you want your new bed, you need to identify the mattress size that fits your life. There are numerous factors that go into selecting the correct bed size, but before considering personal taste, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help narrow the field and make your decision easier.

The first thing to consider when selecting your mattress size is how much space you can allow it to take up in your bedroom. You may love the idea of sleeping on a king-size mattress, but spatially, it may not be practical. In a smallish apartment bedroom that measures 10 feet by 12 feet, a king-size mattress would suck up more than a third of the floor space. This also doesn’t take into account the additional room that head and footboards, frames, and night stands eat up, or even the distance the bed is set away from the wall. With these factored in, king bed sizes may reduce your floor space by 40 percent or even more in a smaller room.

On the flip-side, if your bedroom borders on the cavernous, you may want the immensity of a king-size bed just to help eat up space. It’s also necessary to consider the hallways and doors that lead to the bedroom. These may make it difficult to maneuver a traditionally-made large mattress into the bedroom, even if the room itself has ample space. If you have the bedroom space for a larger-size mattress, but angular or difficult hallways leading to it, foam mattresses offer flexibility, and many companies make them easier to handle by shipping them in a condensed, vacuum-packed size, The Foam Factory included.

The second thing to keep in mind is a long-term view of the purchase. A sound mattress generally has a life span of approximately seven years, give or take a few based on its upkeep and use. Because of this, buying a new bed that caters to what’s perfect for you at this moment may not make sense for the life you will lead in the near-future. One of the best examples of this situation is when a couple transitions from separate residences to living together.

King, Queen, and Standard-Size Pillows

For individuals looking to purchase a new bed to share with their partner, the jump in size from a twin bed to a full can seem like the difference between a backyard creek and the Mississippi River. Additionally, those who already have full mattresses but sleep alone often feel like they have plenty of space to accommodate a second person. However, full mattresses are only 54 inches wide, which equates to 27 inches of personal space when shared by two people. For perspective, a twin mattress, the bed some people find too small for a single person, is 39 inches wide. For people planning to share a bed, a mattress any smaller than a queen is not usually suggested. Also, if you and your partner currently enjoy the space of your queen but are planning on having kids or adopting pets, don’t think they won’t be trying to crawl in with you every opportunity they get! King-size family bedding often becomes a necessity for families with younger children or pets.

The final thing you should consider when thinking about how to pick a bed is your sleeping style. If you toss and turn while you sleep or spread out, larger bed sizes like a queen or king may be better for you, even if you don’t need to share it. If you sleep like a rock each night and would like the extra savings of a smaller bed, full or even twin sizes may be adequate.

For many things in life, the work you put in before reflects the enjoyment after, and your mattress is no different. Once you finally say “I need a new bed,” taking the time to identify what size is right for you is a smart step toward years of great sleep.

Tags: Custom Mattress, Foam Mattress, Mattress, Mattress Toppers, Memory Foam

Posted in Mattresses