Human tests reveal that our mattresses are "ridiculously" comfortable

Here is why we are India's "ridiculously" comfortable mattress.

We were shocked that none of the best rated mattress in the market are tested with real humans before releasing into the market. Given the importance of a sleep and the role a mattress plays, it was shocking. We wanted to change that. We wanted to make sure that the mattress is not only comfortable, but also suitable for Indian climatic conditions.

I have been sleeping on a different prototype mattress every 2 weeks for the last 6 months. Personally, I feel that my back has gone for a toss and feel that it may take some time before it recovers. After internal tests and experiments, we zeroed in on a total of four models (lets call them models A,B, C and D) that we wanted to test with real humans.

• Model A: Memory foam and Pocket spring
• Model B: Memory foam, Rubberised Coir and PU Foam
• Model C: Latex foam and PU Foam
• Model D: Latex foam

During summer, we coaxed our friends, family and a few friendly customers from Hyderabad and Bangalore to test the 4 different models. We had a total of 27 volunteers. Our younger ones (not counted in the 27) were a 6 month old baby and a 7 year old girl. Our oldest tester was a 65-70 year old lady with acute arthritis and age related back issues. Bulk of our customers were young couples, in the age group of 30-45 of all different shapes and sizes. Some of them had an active life style of working out, going out for a job etc., but most of them had a sedentary life style.

We made sure that all the four models look as identical as possible and the customers were never told what they were sleeping on. 

So, we had four models to test and 27 testers and we had a goal to find that one good mattress that suits most people.

We started testing in the first week of March. By the end of March, we pretty much ruled out the two models (models A and B). Most customers felt that memory foam mattress hardened in air conditioned environments (colder climates) or was getting too hot during summers. The model with springs was either too soft or too hard. None of our customers felt really comfortable on a spring mattress. So, we decided to rule out those two models. It was a huge marketing risk as spring mattresses and memory foam mattresses are the two most heavily promoted mattresses in the market. However, we decided to trust real customer feedback than what the fancy marketing brochures tell us.

The feed back on the latex models (models C and D) started to look good. From a price point of view, model C and D were very different. So, we went for another round of testing by exchanging C and D. In total, all the volunteers tried models C (combination of Latex and PU Foam) and D (Full Latex Model) for at least a 2 week period. Here are the key highlights - 

• People on the heavier side preferred the full latex model (model D), especially so with the women
• There was mild co-relation between mode of sleeping (side, back or tummy sleepers) and the mattress. Side sleepers were mildly uncomfortable with model C, which also happens to be a firmer variation.
• There was a mild co-relation between gender and the model. Females preferred model D (full latex mattress) and Males were in-different
• There was a strong co-relation between age and choice of the model. Younger people/couples prefered the full latex model (model D), where as older people tended to prefer the latex and PU foam combination (model C)
• Model C was also preferred by people used to sleeping on the floor.

The results were tending towards being conclusive, although we wish we could test with more customers. There is no one perfect and best quality mattress that suits everyone. Over all, we had 20 extremely satisfied customers out of 27 testers. They felt that the mattresses were significantly better than what was available and one of them went to the extent of saying that our mattresses are "ridiculously" comfortable!

So, that's the story behind why we have two mattresses on offer and why they are "ridiculously" comfortable.

Disclaimer: A few humans including myself were subjected to mild to moderate pain during this testing.