Mattress Firmness Guide South Africa- Which Firmness Is the Right For My body and mind?
Mattress firmness guide. Mattress firmness levels are quite difficult to get right. Why? Well, we all perceive the comfort levels of mattresses on a personal level. As with any sensory factor, it’s it is a matter of what you experience, and your individual preferences can vary considerably depending on your size, shape, and body weight. Luckily, there are some standards that you can use to find the best option for you and your sleep requirements.
To help you understand more about firmness or comfort levels and find out what degree of firmness or softness you need, we’ve put together a complete mattress firmness guide. In it, we go over what firmness is, how it is determined by the mattress makers and how to select the firmness level that’s right for your body and mind. We’ll also show you the difference between firmness and support, two features of a bed that are easily confused.
So let’s get started and find out, what exactly firmness or comfort levels are!
What is Mattress comfort?
The firmness of a mattress is the first feeling you experience when lying on the sleep surface. Is the mattress allowing you to sink, or lying flat on top of it? Does it feel like it gives pushback, or does it feel as if it is contouring to the curves of your body? These are a few of the points you can cover to check whether or not a mattress is soft, medium, or firm.
To help customers relate to firmness, mattress manufacturers will often score their beds on a “firmness scale” or ‘comfort level” with a range from 1 to 10. A mattress that has a rating of 1 out of 10 would be considered a plush mattress (picture sleeping on a super soft surface), and one that scores a 10 out of 10 would be the hardest (picture sleeping on a carpeted floor). As a reference, a score of 5-7 out of 10 is commonly thought of as the industry standard for medium firmness. I’ll describe the firmness scale in more detail below.
The Mattress Firmness Scale Explained
Now that we know there are three firmness levels, let’s look at the whole scale. This will provide you with the knowledge of what a 3 out of 10 or a 7.5 out of 10 feels like. This will be valuable information when buying a mattress.
As mentioned in our mattress firmness guide, these levels and their interpretations are a matter of personal preferences, but they offer some good info into how these numbers translate into a real feel of the bed surface.
1 out of 10, or extremely plush: it is not very common to get a mattress that’s a true 1 out of 10 because it would be, too soft and would offer almost zero support and you would not be able to get a supportive surface.
2 -5 out of 10, soft to medium mattress to a soft mattress: A much more supportive mattress. Slightly more realistic than a 1 out of 10 mattress, a bed that scores a 2 on the firmness scale still would probably not give enough support for most sleepers. As we progress through the scale the mattresses get firmer to the feel an these are the ratings that you should be looking for a soft to medium soft feel.
5-7 out of 10, or medium, going toward the medium firmer mattress, 5 out of 10 on the firmness scale is a little firmer, but it’s still providing a good amount of comfort layer. While there’s still a reasonable of cushioning here, mattresses at this level start to provide more support. If a mattress scores a 7 out of 10, it’s usually built using Bonnell spring, a sturdy system known for superior support. This level is best for back or belly sleepers. these are perfect for spinal alignment.
8-10 out of 10, or medium firm mattress to hard. A mattress that scores in this range, usually means that it’s firm to the feel, but has a more supportive feel. Here, the foam comfort layers get a little thinner and you will feel a little less of that sinking feeling that comes with softer mattresses. This firmness level is also best for strict side sleepers as well as back and belly. be sure though to pay attention to your pillow loft. Beds for heavy people tend to be in this zone.
Types of mattresses and their firmness levels.
Each type of mattress will inherently have a unique set of features and benefits as well as a firmness level that can be associated with it. For example, an innerspring mattress will have a higher firmness rating as the core of innerspring mattresses has that particular feature.
A hybrid mattress will be more of a medium mattress on the scale and lean towards medium-firm beds.
Foam mattresses have quite a wide range of options and can have softer models as well as medium-soft mattresses. The firmness range can also include extra-firm beds because the hardness changes with thinner comfort layers that vary in levels of firmness.
Pocket coil support core beds tend to be lower on the scale in their level of firmness and often have plusher comfort layers. This is a benefit that provides pressure relief that will improve your sleep quality.
Sleep positions
A combination sleeper ( a sleeper that has no preferred position) will be able to sleep on most of the firmness levels
Back sleepers and stomach sleepers. Many of our customers who are back or belly sleepers are more than comfortable on a medium to firm surface. A hybrid bed, Bonnell spring system or a high-density foam unit will do
Sleepers who prefer the side sleeping positions will benefit from medium or soft feel types. This is because the cushioning of the mattress will eliminate the pressure points that are often common in firmer bed types. Thenk you for checking out our mattress firmness gude