How to Buy a Bed

!±8± How to Buy a Bed

Beds - The How To Buyer's guide

Sleep is essential for well-being - and a comfortable bed is vital for a good night's sleep.

However, we don't always realise when our bed needs replacing. Specialists advise that a good-quality mattress should last for 8 to 10 years, but there are a few obvious signs of wear and tear such as protruding springs and, for couples, the tendency for the mattress to sag in the middle.

If you find you sleep better in a bed other than your own, it might be time to buy a new one.

Before you buy a new bed
One major consideration is size - of both your bedroom and yourself. To judge a bed's optimum width, both partners should be able to lie side by side, with their hands behind their heads and elbows sticking out without touching. A bed should also be at least 10cm longer than the taller partner.

When shopping for a bed, couples should try a range of mattresses, with divans and bedsteads, to find the combination that best suits them.

Some research has shown that people who have back pain actually have a worse night's sleep on mattresses that are marketed as 'orthopaedic'. But irrespective of back problems, a heavy person will always need a firmer bed.

Always visit a reputable bed shop and, when testing the mattresses, remember that comfort is all-important. Lie in your favoured sleeping position for long enough to make a considered judgment. Jessica Alexander of The Sleep Council cautions wisely, "Never go shopping for a bed when you're tired, as any mattress is likely to make a favourable impression."

The Bed Base
What the mattress rests on will affect your bed's comfort, so it is best to choose a mattress and base that are designed to go together. Both components should be of equal quality, too, or comfort will be compromised.

A divan base is a box frame on castors or legs. More responsive than a solid top is a firm-edge divan with heavy springs set inside a wooden framework. For the best level of support, look at sprung-edge divans, which have one or more complete spring units on top of the wooden frame. A divan with a deep base can also include storage drawers, while ottoman-style divans open on hydraulic springs to reveal a storage compartment inside.

The other main base option is a bedstead, which supports the mattress on flat slats or on more responsive sprung slats. Solid bases or slats are a good choice for memory foam or mixed foam/spring mattresses. If a bedstead comes with the option of an upholstered base unit, this will be far preferable under a pocket-sprung mattress and will offer similar comfort and support to a sprung-edge divan.

Choosing a bed stead
Choosing a bedstead or four-poster bed over a divan is a matter of style, as both allow the same mattress choice and can provide equivalent support.

And So To Bed offers wooden, metal, painted, upholstered, leather and caned bedsteads; Simon Horn is known for traditional French styles; Feather & Black has a wide range of traditional and modern beds; and Beaudesert makes elegant four-posters. Bed Bazaar sells restored antique and period- style metal bedsteads, and its sister company, Sleeping Partners, makes mattresses to fit.

Specially designed beds
Some beds are designed for partners with widely differing body weights or comfort needs.

Zip-and-link beds comprise two mattresses of different firmness and can be separated into two single beds, if required.

Zoned mattresses also provide various firmness levels, either on each side, or along the length corresponding to pressure points. The Sleep to Live range by Bensons for Beds offers in-store computer body profiling to indicate which bed is most suitable; for partners with different profiles, the mattress is made with a dual sleep zone.

Offering greater flexibility, the Comfort Control pocket-sprung adjustable mattress from Feather & Black uses a remote-controlled air-pump system to make one side firmer or softer, as required.

Adjustable Beds
Electrically operated adjustable beds, such as the Restmaster from Rest-Assured and the Superb Adjustable from Sleepeezee, allow the occupant to adjust the mattress for maximum comfort. Models, such as the Restamatic from Vogue Beds, have massage units. Auping's Royal base with AVS Maestro mattress has five motors on each side, can heat the whole body or just the feet; it also airs and dries itself in the day and kills dust mites. The 160x200cm size costs around £14,000.

Adjustable double beds are linked so that each side can be operated independently; this type of bed may require investing in single sheets.

Mattresses
The most familiar of these are spring interior mattresses. Springs in heavier gauge wire give a firmer mattress; lighter gauge will give a softer mattress. The quality of the mattress is often determined by the number of its springs. Open coil and continuous spring versions are the least expensive and a budget mattress, unless made of foam, will be open coil.

Open coil mattresses contain rows of individual coiled springs joined with a helical wire. Continuous springs are made from one piece of wire and give a bit more independent support. For good, mid-priced continuous spring mattresses, try Miracoil by Silentnight.

Pocket springs are small individual springs sewn into calico sleeves. The pockets, rather than the springs, are joined, making the mattress more responsive to the sleeper. Also, when the bed is shared, the movement of one partner is less likely to disturb the other. The number of pocket springs in a mattress is one indicator of quality: a standard double mattress may have 600 to 800 springs or 3,000 or more. A larger number of smaller pocket springs or a double layer often features in mattresses from Savoir Beds and Vi-Spring.

Interior spring mattresses, whether open coil, pocket or continuous, are assembled similarly to a sandwich with the supporting springs between layers of cushioning on each side. The cushioning provides a barrier between the springs and the occupant. Fillings can range from inexpensive polyester to combinations of cotton, wool, horsehair, silk, mohair and cashmere, as well as better quality foams, including latex or visco-elastic foam.

Deeper mattresses will have more fillings, offer greater comfort and be more expensive. Hand-stitched sides, found mainly on handmade beds, extend the sleeping area to the edge. Not all mattresses need to be turned over, but all should be rotated regularly so that the head end becomes the foot end.

The finest handmade mattresses, such as those by Hästens Savoir Beds and Vi-Spring are constructed only from natural materials. They combine wool, cashmere, mohair and horsehair as fillings because these particular fibres are resilient and wick moisture away for speedy evaporation.

Norris Bedding, which also crafts mattresses by hand in natural materials, offers a pocket spring mattress, at 150cm wide, for £1,320. Welsh company Vi-Spring creates handmade pocket spring, natural latex and combination latex/pocket spring mattresses using certified organic materials.

Polyurethane foam mattresses range from the inexpensive, which can be found at Ikea, through to high-specification options, such as Reflex foam as used by Cumberland Bedding Co. Beds 4 Zzzz is just one company that makes mattresses in natural latex derived from the rubber tree.

Latex has a long-standing reputation as an excellent material for mattresses because it is resilient and recovers its shape quickly. Dunlopillo has always been the leading supplier of latex mattresses and these now blend natural with synthetic latex. A latex mattress doesn't need turning and is naturally anti-allergenic.

Visco-elastic foam, also known as memory foam, is currently enjoying popularity. This synthetic material quickly conforms to the sleeper's shape so that hips and shoulders sink in, but support is maintained under the spine, keeping it correctly aligned. Dispersing the body weight away from the pressure points is its particular benefit. One of the side effects of visco-elastic foam is that it holds body heat, making the bed very warm. Sleepers usually find they need a lower tog duvet or less bedding, but body temperature can be regulated by choosing a mattress from a company such as Breasley, that has a cover which employs Coolmax technology.

Memory foam is expensive to produce and the price of a mattress will reflect the thickness and density of the foam - it should range from 50 to 70mm in thickness - and its combination with either another type of foam or a sprung unit; if the mattress was made entirely from memory foam, the sleeper would keep sinking. Most companies include memory foam mattresses in their collections; Healthbeds' Memory-Flex 20 (£699 for a 150cm-wide mattress) and Memory-Med 1400 (£749 for a 150cm-wide mattress) both have 70mm-thick foam over Reflex foam and have performed well in trials. Find alternatives at Tempur, the Pocket Spring Bed Company, Beevers Beds and Relyon.

Water-filled mattresses give pressure-free support, too, and are a further alternative for allergy sufferers. Guidance on the benefits and unusual qualities of these mattresses can be found at the British Waterbed Association.