Blog, Buying Guides
How To Choose The Right Mattress: A Simple Guide
Buying a mattress should be simple, you’ll spend a third of your life on it. But walk into any showroom (including ours) and you’re hit with pocket springs, tensions, hybrids, gel foams and a price range that runs from a few hundred euro to a few thousand. This guide cuts through it. By the end you’ll know exactly what to look for – and what you can safely ignore.
Start with how you sleep, not what’s on offer
The single biggest factor in choosing a mattress isn’t the brand or the price – it’s your sleeping position.
Side sleepers need a softer surface. Your shoulders and hips have to sink in slightly so your spine stays straight. Too firm and you’ll wake up with a dead arm or an aching hip.
Back Sleepers sit in the middle. You want support under the lower back with a little give at the shoulders – medium to medium-firm suits most.
Front Sleepers need firmer support. A soft mattress lets your hips sink and arches your lower back all night – a recipe for morning stiffness.
Combination sleepers (most of us, honestly) should choose for the position you spend most of the night in. Pocket springs are the safe bet here, each spring works independently, so you can change position without disturbing your partner. And because pocket springs can be paired with different comfort layers on top (natural fillings or memory foam), you can fine-tune the feel to suit you both.
Firmness and tension: what the labels actually mean
Here’s the bit that nobody explains: firmness isn’t a standard measurement. One brand’s “medium” can feel like another’s “firm”. What matters more is tension – how the mattress responds to your body weight.
A rough rule of thumb:
- Under ~11 stone (70kg): softer tensions will feel supportive, firm ones will feel like a board
- 11-16 stone (70-100kg): medium tensions suit most people in this range
- Over ~16 stone (100kg): firmer tensions give the support that softer builds can’t sustain
The goal of all mattresses, regardless of tension, is to keep your spine as close to neutral as possible while you sleep.
Too soft and your heavier areas, hips, shoulders, sink too deeply, causing the spine to sag.
Too firm and the mattress resists rather than accommodates your body, creating pressure points at those same areas and forcing the spine to arch.
The right tension is the one that sits between these two extremes for your specific body weight, sleep position, and build.
Sharing the bed with someone a different weight? Look at pocket-sprung mattresses — each spring works independently, so you each get your own support and you won’t roll into the middle. (If you and your partner are very different weights, Harrison Spinks offer a dual-tension option in one mattress – two different feels, side by side, so neither of you has to compromise.)
When you’re in store, our staff will give you and your partner all the time you need to test the beds. Get into your normal sleeping position and turn over a couple of times, that’s the real test of whether it feels right. More on this below.
Springs, natural fillings, foam, or hybrid?
The short version (we’ll do a full deep dive in a future guide)
Pocket Springs – individual springs sewn into fabric pockets. Responsive, breathable, great for couples. The more springs, the more precise the support – but past a point, spring count is a marketing number, not a comfort upgrade.
A Pocket Sprung Mattress for Those Who Prefer A Firmer Feel
1200 Pocket Springs
Memory foam – moulds to your body shape and relieves pressure points, and it’s what most people think of when they picture a foam mattress. It works well for joint pain and side sleepers. Traditional memory foam could sleep warm and feel hard to turn over – that “stuck” feeling – though newer open-celled foams have a more breathable structure, letting air flow through the mattress and moving heat away through the night.
We stock Kaymed’s Regulatex range – a more advanced natural latex layer infused with highly conductive graphite particles that act as a thermal pathway to distribute excess heat away from the sleeping surface. The combination of Latex and pocket springs responds instantly to every micro movement as you sleep, producing the optimum in both pressure relief and comfort, making it worth trying a Regulatex mattress.
Natural Mattresses – made with fillings like wool, cotton, hemp and mohair that naturally regulate your temperature, wick away moisture and are completely chemical-free. Harrison Spinks are the standout name here. A fifth-generation Yorkshire family business who do something no other mattress maker in the world does: they grow their own ingredients. Their 56-acre farm in Yorkshire produces the hemp, wool and other natural materials that go directly into their mattresses. They then spin their own springs, weave their own fabric in-house using their exclusive FabriSafe™ cloth, and hand-finish every mattress in their Leeds factory.
From the field to the fabric to the finished bed, they control every step. If you sleep warm, have sensitivities to chemicals, or simply want to know exactly what’s in your mattress and where it came from, then this is the range for you.
Hybrids – pocket springs below, comfort foams above. The most popular choice for good reason: bounce and breathability from the springs, pressure relief from the foam.
Commonly found in many of the 4 star hotels in Ireland
1500 Pocket Springs with a comfort layer on top
There’s no “best” – there’s the best for how you sleep and what your body needs.
The five-minute showroom test
You can’t judge a mattress by pressing it with your hand. When you visit:
- Lie down properly – in your normal sleeping position, for at least five minutes per mattress. Ten is better.
- Check the gap – lying on your back, slide a hand underneath your lower back. A big gap means too firm; no room at all means too soft.
- Turn over – if changing position takes real effort, that effort will wake you at 3am too.
- Bring your partner – you’re testing how it behaves with both of you on it, not one.
- Ignore the label, trust your back – “orthopaedic”, “luxury” and “deluxe” aren’t regulated terms. How it feels after lying on it is the only test that counts.
Our senior sales team – Patricia, Lorraine, Mariam, Marcus, Leo, Geraldine & Yvonne have been matching people to mattresses for years – will leave you to it or talk you through options, whichever you prefer.
When should you replace a mattress?
The honest answer: every 7 to 10 years, sooner if any of these sound familiar:
- You sleep better in hotels or spare beds than your own
- Visible sagging, lumps, or a “trench” where you sleep
- You wake with aches that ease during the day
- You can feel springs, or the mattress creaks when you move
- It’s simply older than you can remember buying
A worn mattress doesn’t just sleep badly – it stops supporting your spine properly, and your body compensates all night.
The King Koil Xtra life collection offers 15-year warranty when purchased as a set, with reinforced comfort layer fillings, springs & base offering exceptional value over the lifespan of these sets.
What should you spend?
Spend what you can on the mattress and save on the frame if you have to – not the other way around. The mattress does the work. As a rough guide, a quality double mattress from a proper manufacturer starts around €499 for a spare room mattress, and €999 for a main bedroom. For most people buying a King-size, the sweet spot sits between €999 and €1,999 – with the bulk of what we sell landing closer to the €999 mark. Divide that by 10 years of nightly use and it’s one of the cheapest health investments you’ll make.
And right now, our Summer Sale has savings across King Koil, Harrison Spinks, Respa, Odearest, Kaymed, until Sunday 30th August.
Give it time to break in (and you to adjust)
One thing worth knowing before your new mattress arrives: the first few nights can feel different. That’s completely normal. Your body has adapted to whatever you were sleeping on – possibly for years – and it takes time to adjust to proper support. Most people find it clicks within three to five weeks. If the first morning feels unfamiliar, don’t panic – it’s not the mattress, it’s the adjustment. Stick with it.
Try before you buy – Castlebar & Ennis
Reading guides is a start; lying on the mattress is the answer. Visit us in Castlebar or Ennis, take your time, and one of our team will help you narrow it down without any pressure. Bring your pillow if you want – seriously, people do, and it works.
McDermott’s Furniture & Interiors · Family Run Since 1964
See Our Full Mattress Range
Browse mattresses from King Koil, Harrison Spinks, Respa, Kaymed and Odearest — with nationwide delivery available.
Castlebar: 094 90 22500 ·
Ennis: 065 68 66233 ·
sales@mcdermotts.ie
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