Up until this fall, I lived in the same home for over 10 years. That also meant sleeping in the same bed, and on the same mattress, for the same amount of time. For years I shamefully neglected my sleep, both the quality and duration of it. I could be heard callously saying “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”. In truth, I didn’t know what I was missing. So when I moved into my new home just a couple of months ago, I decided it was time for a new bed as well. And, as it turns out, all I needed was a new mattress, to change my enjoyment and appreciation of great sleep.
When I moved into my downtown Toronto apartment more than a decade ago, pillow top, pocket coil mattresses were all the rage, so that’s what I bought. I found a great deal online and slept on it for a decade. But mattresses have evolved since then, so I thought it was time to embrace one of the biggest trends in sleep innovation, the mattress in a box.
Mattress in a box?
The internet has made so many things more accessible, and why should mattresses be any different? These days, it’s just so much easier to just go online, do some research and order a new bed right to your door from a large variety of companies. By compressing and rolling mattresses, they can be packed in boxes that are a fraction of their original size, and therefore much more cost effective to ship, lowering the overall cost of a new mattress. And for apartment dwellers like myself, it’s great not to have to book your elevator for half a day just to move your new mattress into your home. Once I knew I wanted a mattress in a box, it was just a matter of finding the right one for me.
Finding my mattress
There are many companies out there making mattresses these days, but I wanted to find one that was designed, and ideally manufactured, right here in Canada. That lead me to GoodMorning.com. Founded in 2009 in Edmonton, Alberta, as one of the world’s first online bed-in-a-box brands, GoodMorning.com is now the biggest online mattress companys in Canada. They offer eight mattress brands all catering to different sleep styles and needs. I knew I wanted a bed that best suited my sleeping style, what was supportive as well as luxuriously soft. With that in mind, I connected with the experts at GoodMorning.com, who matched me with the Novosbed.
Why Novosbed?
The Novosbed is the Goodmorning.com flagship mattress, literally the one that started it all. It’s a four-layer luxury mattress with adjustable firmness for customized comfort. You can choose between three initial firmness options to best suit how you sleep, each made with temperature-neutral high-density memory foam. Novosbed revolutionized the mattress-in-a-box industry when it came out back in 2009 with its ability to make even the most commitment-phobic comfortable enough to lay down and just relax: the world’s first risk-free sleep trial, for 120 nights. Novosbed is made just north of my new home in Woodbridge, Ontario (talk about supporting local!), making me feel pretty great about the carbon footprint of this larger than average purchase. It also helps that Novosbed uses quality textiles and high-density foams in their mattresses, helping them last longer and stay out of landfills for years to come. GoodMorning.com is also committed to ensure returned mattresses are kept out of the landfill as well, by donating unwanted items to charities where they are given to those in need.
And keeping in mind the original mission of luxurious yet supportive sleep, I was thrilled that I could select my Novosbed firmness level for the best possible sleep. Soft and Medium Novosbed models are best for side sleepers, while back sleepers should choose the firm option. I just had to complete their handy quiz online here, (turns out I’m a Medium) and I was ready to place my mattress order.
Meeting my new mattress
From ordering to arriving, the process was super quick, and soon I was bringing my Novosbed up the stairs to my bedroom (with the help of a kind and generous friend since, while compact, the mattress is still heavy!) From there, I carefully worked to free the Novosbed from its plastic encasement, truthfully wondering how intense the unravelling would be. It was after all a huge mattress in much smaller packaging. But the process was much less daunting than anticipated, and with a little help from my kind pal, I was able to get the mattress situated on my wood slatted bed frame, unfurled and ready to decompress. I mention the slats because it’s important to provide the right foundation for your mattress, and Novosbeds do best on solid, or wood slatted frames to maintain their shape and form for years to come.
Once opened, the mattress took a couple of days to achieve its true form, but thankfully I could sleep on my new Novosbed within 30 minutes of unboxing. There’s also a break in period, so I made sure to wait at least 30 days to start this review, to not only get to know my mattress but to give it time to achieve its full potential.
The Pillows
To round out my Novosbed sleep experience, I also received 2 pillows from the kind folks at Goodmorning.com, the GoodMorning.com Adjustable Memory Foam pillow and the new Good Morning Microfibre pillow. Each pillow is optimized to certain sleep styles. Made of shredded memory foam, the Adjustable Memory Foam pillow holds its shape for long periods of time. With a much slower response to movement than the microfibre pillow, it’s ideal for those who maintain the same sleeping position throughout the night. I, on the other hand, am someone who moves around a fair amount throughout the night, so I fell in love with the microfibre pillow. The microfibre fill material bounces back faster than the Memory Foam Pillow, so no matter how often I moved around, my pillow would bounce back, always ready to cradle my tired head.
The Verdict
As someone who’s exclusively slept on traditional coil spring mattresses, the foam mattress was definitely an adjustment. But it’s been a great one! My Novosbed achieves just the right balance of structure and support, while giving me that luxurious, melt into my bed feeling that I look forward to every single night. And with the pillows, it’s the supportive yet luxurious sleep experience I didn’t know I was missing. Now, after more than 30 days of sleeping on my Novosbed, I can confidently say that I would proudly and happily recommend the mattress and pillows to anyone looking to upgrade their sleep situation.
As an adult, sleep is one of my greatest joys in life and if there’s anything I can do to amplify that experience, I’m going to do it. I LOVE my new Novosbed, and consider it a quality of life upgrade, one that I can truly feel good about. Between its Canadian origins, its local manufacturing and its sustainable values, Novosbed has been as comfortable for my mind as it has been for my body. So if you’re looking for a beautiful sleep experience that you can feel great about, look no further than Novosbed from Goodmorning.com. The Novosbed is available for purchase in Canada and the U.S. Learn more about Novosbed here, and check out the whole GoodMorning.com family of beds here.
*Nadia’s Novosbed mattress was provided by Goodmorning.com for the purposes of this review
**photos by Sarah Wright, founder of Yes And Studio
Nadia Elkharadly
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