The 10 in. Tuft & Needle Diary

[phoenix]

Hi veien,

Sagging after a few months is what’s been the continuous problem with mattresses for me. I tried innerspring, polyfoam and futon mattresses (granted, they might have been not the best quality, but some were definitely expensive). I’m about 180lb with hips area being heavier than shoulder area, and after a few months all mattresses I’ve tried so far started sagging in the middle (below the hips area), so those mattresses would no longer keep my body horizontally aligned during sleep.

The most common reason for premature foam softening, breakdown, and sagging is the use of lower quality materials in the comfort layers of a mattress and this is particularly common with major brand mattresses. The most reliable way to know whether a mattress has any lower quality materials or weak links in the design (regardless of the price or the brand) that can cause these types of issues is to make sure that you know the type and quality/durability of all the materials inside any mattress you are considering (see here).

The Tuft and Needle uses 2.8 lb high performance polyfoam in the comfort layers and 1.8 lb polyfoam in the support core and as you can see by comparing this to the foam quality guidelines here there are no lower quality materials or weak links in the design.

While there is no way to know for certain how long any mattress will last or maintain it’s comfort and/or support for any particular person or how long it will take before someone crosses the thresholds between sleeping well on a mattress to sleeping “OK” to tolerating a mattress to finally deciding to replace it because there are too many variables involved that are unique to each person … if a mattress is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and isn’t close to the edge of being too soft when it is new and meets the minimum quality specs that are suggested in the guidelines then it would be reasonable to expect a useful lifetime in the range of 7 - 10 years and with higher quality and more durable materials like latex or higher density memory foam or polyfoam (in the comfort layers especially) it would likely be in the higher end of the range or even longer.

It’s always more realistic to think of about 10 years as a maximum reasonable expectation for any mattress no matter what the quality or durability of the materials and then treat any additional time after that as “bonus time” because after about 10 years the limiting factor in the useful life of a mattress will often be the changing needs and preferences of the person sleeping on the mattress and even if a mattress is still in relatively good condition after a decade … a mattress that was suitable for someone 10 years earlier may not be the best “match” any longer.

Phoenix