Mattresses – one of those adult purchases that are totally necessary, can be overly complicated, mildly overwhelming and most importantly, a serious investment. So basically something you’re super excited about doing. Can you sense the sarcasm?

Both Drew and I have been complaining about our old mattress for almost a year but the expense and stress of trying to find something that fit both of our needs had us hitting the major shopping snooze button. If you’ve even met my husband once, he’s probably told you about his back issues. It’s a major point of conversation and rarely does a day go by where he’s not mentioning some sort of back-related ache or pain. So finding a mattress that makes waking up less painful for him was essential but I didn’t want to be sleeping on a slab of wood or anything, so the debate continued.

That is, until we were approached about trying out a Tuft & Needle mattress. It came at the perfect time since we’d reached the point where we were both complaining every morning about waking up sore. I blame it on the giant, body-sized divots sunken in the bed. It was like we each had our own life-size bucket seats. Plus it was hot. And I hate being hot at night. No matter how many times we flipped it, the days of waking up well-rested were gone and we were ready for a change.

What sold us on the Tuft & Needle mattress were the reviews about their Adaptive Foam which provides which promised support (good for Drew) without being super firm (good for me) and helps you sleep cool (a must). And if we didn’t love it after 100 nights, we could return it, no questions asked. It was a no-brainer.

This was our first time with a box mattress so we were both pretty amazed that a king size mattress was rolled up inside the box. After hauling off our old mattress (which weighed a million and one pounds), we opened up the box and watched in amazement as it grew and expanded to a comfy, king size mattress.

Tuft & Needle King Size Mattress c/o 
West Elm Malone Bedside Tables | Minted Palm Tree Art Print
Target Bedside Lamps | West Elm Stria Bedframe

Three Quick Unboxing Tips:

1. Make sure you open up the box in the room where the mattress will be going. Seems like a no-brainer but in our initial excitement, we opened the box in the living room. Thankfully, we waited to cut it out of the plastic until we got it back to our bedroom.

2. Don’t get freaked out about the profile of the mattress when you first place it on the bed. I was worried that it would be too thin but after a couple hours, it had expanded to its full size.

3. One thing I did initially notice was the smell of the mattress, I am kind of weird about smells so it was something I was sensitive to at first. My recommendation would be to unbox the mattress earlier in the day and just turn on your ceiling fan or open a window for a couple hours. We put our sheets on a little too soon so it stuck around initially but after taking them off the next day and letting it air out, it was fine. 

One Month Later: 

I noticed a difference the first night. It could have just been the lack of bucket seat spots but I woke up without any of the back soreness that had been so common on our old mattress. The true test came when Drew gave it the initial thumbs up. We loved it but still wanted to see how we felt after a few weeks.

One month later I can say that I’m sleeping better than I have in months. You know the kind of sleep where you wake up and it feels like you JUST went to bed? Like you just closed your eyes a second ago? I’ve had a few of those nights and I mean that in the best, well-rested, way. And the sleep cool pitch was no gimmick, I haven’t woken up hot in the middle of the night once. I’ve also felt like I’ve gotten into a deeper sleep since I’ve been having more dreams lately. I love it.

The best part, by far though, is Drew is not complaining about his back the minute he wakes up. This used to be a part of our morning routine and is now, thankfully, a thing of the past. He has noticed a huge difference and agrees that he’s slept better since we made the switch. Even better, we both wake up a lot less cranky. And anything that makes the mornings better is amazing in my book.

All in all, we give it two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Now that we’re obsessed with our mattress, I’m thinking about getting a twin one for D3 since I’ve noticed how hard his bed is now when we read books at bedtime.

If you’ve been considering a new mattress, I would definitely recommend making the investment – you do use it every day! Plus, the great thing about Tuft & Needle is you can always return it if you’re not in love with it (you have up to 100 nights to give it a go). If you don’t love it, they’ll come get it and donate it to a local charity in your area. And if you’re debating it, you don’t have to wait for a sale to come around – it’s always the same price which makes the whole shopping process a lot less stressful.

Thanks so much to Tuft & Needle for partnering on this post. Photos by Tabitha Booth.