Hi droidx.
While I can certainly help with “how” to choose … It’s not possible to make specific suggestions or recommendations for either a mattress, manufacturers/retailers, or combinations of materials or components because the first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), sleeping positions, health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more reliable than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
“Specs” about each person’s body type and sleeping position are an important part of how each person interacts with a mattress but there are many other variables as well. There are many different types of layering combinations that can perform equally well for people of a certain height and weight and sleeping style so the most “accurate” way to “fit” a mattress to each person is to work with a knowledgeable local person who has the experience and knowledge to help you make the most suitable choices in “real time” and in person. There are some general weight and height guidelines here and some general guidelines about sleeping positions here and some information about how different types of layering can change and affect these guidelines in this section of the site but these are general guidelines and starting points only and will do more to help you know who has the knowledge to help you make the best choices more than they can be used to design or recommend a specific mattress based on what I call “theory at a distance”.
Generally outside of PPP the most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is durability which is all about how long you will sleep well on a mattress. This is the part of your research that you can’t “feel” and assessing the durability and useful life of a mattress depends on knowing the type and quality of all the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label so I would always make sure that you are able to find out the information listed here so you can compare the materials and components in a mattress to the quality/durability guidelines here so you can confirm that there are no lower quality materials or obvious weak links in a mattress that would compromise the durability and useful life of a mattress before making any purchase.
Like many of the other “simplified choice” mattresses … there is a great deal of “marketing speak” on their website (some of which makes very little sense and is misleading) and they don’t provide all the information you would need to make an informed choice or make meaningful quality/value comparisons with other mattresses.
Thanks for posting your findings about the specifics of this mattress. You are correct that the major brands (such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta and the major retailers that focus on them)) are generally among the least transparent in the industry and they all tend to use lower quality materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (see the guidelines I linked above along with post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here ).
I would make sure you read a bit more about Sealy Cocoon in this topic (which confirms your findings with the Cocoon specs as well) The density of the memory foam in both models (3 lb and 2.2 lb) is lower than what I would normally recommend and I would advise caution for anyone considering these two particular mattresses, because the risk of premature foam softening and breakdown and the loss of comfort and support would mean that there would be a much higher risk that you would need to buy a new mattress much sooner than you hoped for and foam softening and the loss of comfort and support isn’t covered by mattress warranties (see post #174 here ).
If for some reason this mattress is still in your finalists then in terms of temperature regulation the chill version has a stretch-knit cover polyester-cotton infused with phase-change material (PCM) which would make help keeping you a little cooler than the Cocoon Classic but I’d keep in mind that the MF layer under is the least breathable of all foams.
GhostBed Luxe is made by Nature’s Sleep previously it had their mattresses in their factory in China and importing them into the US for many years (although it appears that their new Ghost Mattress may be made in the US but I am not sure if any of their foams are imported from China).
FIY and for others that may consider this bed the specs of this mattress
1.5" Cover (1"of 4lb quilted Gel memory foam + ½ inch of Japanese cooling fiber just under the fabric cover)
2" of 4lb Gel Memory Foam: with a “Ice” phase change surface
2" Ghost Bounce Layer: (“responsive like Latex, contouring like Memory Foam, yet resilient. equivalent to high quality talalay latex” From their site description I think it is a All of these are what I call “high performance polyfoams” and are more costly than conventional polyfoam so they would certainly justify the higher cost of Luxe as opposed to the Classic but they are also not as costly as many more premium foam materials such as higher quality memory foam or latex.
7.5" of 2lb Support Core Polyfoam
There are some past comments about Nature’s Sleep (.com not .ca which is a different company) in this topic and forum searches on naturessleep.com and exact phrase site searches on nature’s sleep and on natures sleep(you can just click the links) will bring up more comments and feedback about them as well (although you will need to be careful that the results the last two searches bring up are discussing the .com site and not the .ca site … which again is a completely different company).
As far of the other mattresses you are looking at you have to decide for yourself if they meet with your personal value equation that are most important to yo and if you find any of hte detailed specs of your finalists then feel free to post them here and I’d certainly be happy to let you know if I can see any obvious weak links in the mattress that would be a reason for concern in terms of the quality/durability and useful life of the mattress.
Phoenix