Leesa mattress review: Firm but fair

Leesa has ceased trading in the UK and Europe according to a notice on the company’s website. For more info, please click here.

Cards on the table: I sleep on a Leesa mattress every night and it’s the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever slept on. It’s a top firm mattress with just the right amount of give, and certainly more comfortable than the ultra-firm mattress I was sleeping on previously. It has its weaknesses: it’s a little warmer to sleep on in hot weather than a traditional pocket-sprung mattress, and you can’t sit right on the edge or you’ll end up sliding right off

These are purely personal impressions, of course, but they’re important nonetheless. They give you something to go on when making a decision about which mattress to buy – some extra data in your mission to find the perfect night’s sleep – and also some peace of mind. I’ve absolutely no compunction about recommending the Leesa. It is a great mattress.

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Leesa mattress review: What you need to know

Of course, part of the attraction of the new breed of mattress the Leesa belongs to is that there’s no risk in buying one. Just like other “bed-in-a-box” mattresses – Eve, Casper, Otty and Simba to name but a few – you can order one of Leesa’s mattresses online and have it delivered to your home for a 100-night sleep trial. At the end of this period, you can choose to keep the mattress or send it back for a full refund, then go try another mattress from another company.

Buy now from Leesa

As with many of its emergent rivals, the Leesa arrives rolled up tightly in a polythene bag surrounded by a large, rectangular box. When it arrives and you’ve dragged it bodily up the stairs to your bedroom (it’s jolly heavy, with even the smallest single weighing 20kg and the super-king tipping the scales at 40kg), all you need to do is unwrap it, unroll it and it will quickly assume a regular mattress shape. It smells a little synthetic and plasticky at first but that quickly dissipates within a day or two.

Unlike its rivals, Leesa also offers a little ethical seasoning to help persuade you to buy, donating one mattress for every ten it sells to “organisations that serve homeless and at-risk men, women and children at every stage of their transition to better lives”.

In terms of the way the mattress is made up, the Leesa is similar to many other mattresses of its type and is constructed from multiple layers of different types of foam. In this case, a 150mm high-density foam layer forms the base of the mattress, which is topped with 50mm of memory foam and overlaid with another 50mm layer of perforated “Avena” foam. The latter is designed to promote cooling airflow so you don’t wake up all sweaty and clammy on a hot night.

In total, the mattress is 250mm deep – the same thickness as the Simba hybrid and other standard mattresses, so your fitted sheets should, erm, fit – and it’s all wrapped in a minimalist fabric covering that looks nice, but doesn’t provide much in the way of practicality. Given that the mattress can weigh 40kg (for the super-king), it would be nice to have handles to help with rotating it and moving it around. As it is, it’s hellishly difficult to get a hold of, especially in the larger sizes.

For all that, though, Leesa’s approach works like a dream. My mattress is currently resting on a sprung slatted base, and I’ve found it firm and supportive without being too hard. Miraculously, my wife, who weighs considerably less than me (I weigh 73kg), reports a similar experience, so the Leesa clearly works similarly for a variety of different body types.

The so-called cooling layer works well to prevent sweatiness, too, but don’t expect miracles. Undeniably, the Leesa does sleep a little warmer than a traditional mattress and I’ve woken up with a damp back a fair few time, especially during a recent heat wave. However, it’s perfectly supportive, and with two sleeping on the mattress there’s absolutely no roll together or disturbance to the other side if you or your partner get up in the night.

Leesa mattress review: Price and competition

Prices for the Leesa start at £450 for a single mattress (90 x 190 x 25cm) and rise to £850 for the super-king model (180 x 200 x 25cm), which is at the higher end of prices for bed-in-a-box mattresses. The Simba, which has a more involved design, combining micro-springs with foam layers, has a near-identical pricing structure, while the Otty Hybrid is particularly attractive in terms of value for money, costing from £349 for a single and £700 for the super king.

Eve’s hybrid spring and foam mattress is similarly priced starting at £350 for a single and rising to £600 for a king (Eve doesn’t make this model is a super-king). The Casper, meanwhile, sits in the middle ground, costing £400 for a single and £800 for a super king.

Don’t discount non-bed-in-a-box competitors, either. Although there appears to be a widespread belief that buying mail-order offers universally better value for money than in a shop, there are still plenty of good-value models on the showroom floor. John Lewis’ Natural Collection 4000 Hemp, for instance, is a solid pocket-sprung alternative and costs £750 in king size. You don’t get the opportunity to try it out for 100 nights, though.

Buy now from Leesa

Leesa mattress review: Verdict

If you’re looking for the cheapest possible memory-foam, bed-in-a-box mattress, then the Leesa won’t be for you. Rivals are cheaper and you might want to try those out first to see if their mattresses suit before moving on to try the Leesa or perhaps the similarly priced Simba.

The Leesa is, however, a high-quality product, delivering a decent balance between support and comfort. And although it is a little warmer than traditional mattresses, that’s something you can get used to over time.

Combine that with the 100-day money-back guarantee and the firm’s ethical stance and you have a winning combination. The Leesa is a very fine mattress indeed.