In the ads, they demonstrate why all other mattresses are awful by using “The raw egg test” where they drop a plate of glass with 4 raw eggs attached to it onto varying brands of mattresses in an effort to demonstrate why their mattress is better.
Is this test a legitimate predictor of how well a mattress will help with pressure points? Does this test actually demonstrate anything useful with regard to mattresses, or is it all hype and tomfoolery?
Companies sometimes come up with unique tests to ‘prove’ their products are better than those of competitors. I’ve never heard of a raw egg test and I would doubt it’s an official government test for mattresses. It just so happens that in this specific case the eggs don’t break. I don’t think that really proves it’s a better mattress, unless you happen to be a raw egg.
I don’t think the test demonstrates how great the mattress would be for a person. It shows that it’s soft enough for the eggs to sink in so as not to be broken, and that the rest of the weight spread over the entire rest of the surface will prevent the plate from breaking the eggs, but since a person doesn’t contact the entire surface area of the mattress with the person bits that don’t sink in what does it prove?
Here’s an idea. Stop using a mattress. Like people in east Asia, just sleep on the floor. Put a couple of folded blankets under pressure points, and use a good pillow under your head. (If you have no carpet, you’ll want a bit of padding under you.)
It took me about a week to really get used to it, and I’ve been sleeping on the floor for about four years. I’ve never felt better.
I’ll even match Purple’s offer on their thousand-dollar queen size – I’ll refund your money if you are not completely satisfied with sleeping on the floor.
Or do what teenagers do – sleep on your pile of laundry.
I can sleep on the floor for a couple of days but then my back starts to hurt, so I don’t think it’s good for everyone. I have a fairly firm mattress, though.
One of the things I will say is mattresses are something you should not skimp on, if you can afford it. Do your research and buy a good one.
Or hammocks. Most of South America sleeps in hammocks instead of mattresses, I’ve heard. I used mine recently for a camping trip and it was a lot more comfortable than the air mattress I usually use.
Penn and Teller did an episode of their “Bull****!” on Showtime several years back on the sleep industry and how they try to convince people that they need to spend incredible amounts of money on beds. I was intending to link to it, but apparently the episode was deleted off of Youtube. But if you can find someplace to see it, I definitely recommend it.
Based on what I understand about beds, just find any inexpensive bed and mattress combination that feels comfortable to you (some people can get by with a simple mattress on a hardwood floor). If you have special medical needs (like my mom did) then it might be worth going into the premium price range. But don’t start looking for a bed that can cure ailments that you don’t actually have.
It’s not presented as any sort of official government test. It’s used as a demonstration of how their bed works differently than regular beds.
Bodies aren’t flat. They don’t sit flat against anything. On your back, you have the curves of the spine and neck. On your side, you have your shoulders and hips versus the torso. In each case, trying to lie on a flat surface causes discomfort that leads to chronic pain.
The result is the need to have support that contours to the body so that you are fully supported at all lower areas rather than having pressure concentrations and alignment issues those cause.
All mattresses try to address those issues. The coil springs of a mattress are designed with a changing resistance, so the pressure points sink lower and the non pressure points still get some support. Foam cushion layers work to provide a similar kind of cushioning, crushing more on the parts that lie lower and sticking up more in the higher areas to try to support them there.
The problem is that none of these solutions really work. The ideal solution would be a custom fit bed that contours directly to your body so you get equal support on all parts. This is impractical as well as less useful, as you might like to move over or lie differently or let someone else use the bed.
The point of the egg test is attempting to show that it is soft enough that it gives under the pressure points without increasing the pressure on those locations relative to the support the rest of the body gets.
This test uses a flat plate that gives maximum contrast, but the principle is sound with respect to the human body. There are high points and low points that need to be supported, and adaptive cushioning seems a great solution. If you don’t like the egg test, the science page shows some different visuals.
This test does demonstrate why traditional mattresses don’t really accomplish what they intend to, and shows that the purple mattress does appear to work better. Of course it seems to me you can’t really be sure without trying one out yourself.
That’s the rub. The traditional mattress store model may lead to price increases at each step of the process, but it does allow you to try before you by. Purple’s model seems to be the buy so you can try model.
Now they do offer a 100 night guarantee, whereby if you don’t like it you can return it at no charge. They pay shipping. That at least takes some of the sting out of the potential for buyer’s remorse.
They also address one other problem of traditional mattresses - the propensity to degrade over time and become saggy. They claim they don’t have that problem. Of course the egg test does nothing to address that claim.
In summary, the egg test appears to be a highly dramatic demonstration of a key failing in traditional mattresses and how Purple attempts to provide a superior performance.
Right… thus the part about the bits of person that sink in vs the bits that don’t. And as you say, the parts that don’t sink in as much aren’t flat and don’t take up the entire rest of the mattress. Does this mattress work great to evenly distribute pressure? Maybe, but since they aren’t simulating a body, the demonstration is just flashy without proving anything.
The rest of your post sounds like a commercial. Are you affiliated with this company?
I dropped an entire bowlful of raw eggs on the carpet the other day, and not one broke. Eggs are pretty sturdy unless you apply specific pressure to one point. I have doubts that any egg dropped on any mattress would break.
People have different body shapes, weights and sleeping styles.
I myself am pretty bony. But I like to go to sleep on my side. I have a very firm mattress, so I got a memory foam layer on top of it. That relieves the pressure points. But does allow my waist to sag down and make some discomfort in the small of my back. A person with a thicker midsection would probably find my mattress just right. I will fine tune the mattress with an additional foam layer.
I think it is best to start with a firm mattress and then add to it from all the available top layer foam solutions. That way you don’t wear out the mattress. Especially if you are a heavier person. Also, less or no spring noise and disturbance of a person with you.
Though I like to go to sleep on my side, I usually wake up quite relaxed on my back. Most people change positions many times during the night. I do it a LOT. Maybe due to trying to be on my side and not comfortable.
When testing a mattress, be sure to really, really, relax in the position you “think” you like to sleep in. It can be difficult. You will likely tense just a bit here and there to account for your unsupported parts. That will fool you into thinking it fits. Especially if you already have a bad one for you. You will be trained to fit, so one that is just marginally better, might feel a lot better. Wait a while as you relax and really sag onto and into that mattress. Particularly note the base area of your spine, small of your back. If on your side, it should be horizontally straight. No twisting. If on your back, it should be supported upward a bit. Not sagging into the mattress. We usually curve back to front at the bottom of the spine, then front to back in the top half or so.
If you are on your front. That is weird. Maybe sleep on a massage table with that face hole in it.
Makes me want to comment something about, female fertility, breaking eggs, rough sex, on the wrong bed. And maybe not spilling the wine with the bowling ball, during the whole adventure.
Purple looks like the latest of several companies that sell solid foam mattresses (i.e., ones without springs) online. (Casper, Keetsa, Leesa, Tuft & Needle, and Yogabed are some of the others.) These companies fold and squish the mattress into a box about the size of a washing machine and send it to you by UPS or Fedex. You unbox the mattress and lay it out, and it gradually reinflates. Mostly, these companies don’t have retail stores where you can try out the product but they do, allow you to return the mattress within a few months if you don’t like it.
I learned through experience that there is actually a big difference between a $50 mattress and a $250 mattress, but I bet you get diminishing returns the more you spend, and unless you have arthritis, or want to pay for a heated mattress, because you live alone, and want to turn the house heat down to 50’F at night (my grandmother for the last ten years she lived in her house with just a cat in Westchester Co.) I would never pay $1000 for a mattress unless it was meant to fit an adjustable bed, or something.
That $50 (it was $95 or something, on clearance) mattress sucked. We bought it new, and after one year, it had a big divot in the middle. We bought foam padding, and folded it creatively under the mattress, and got it to limp on for about 16 more months. The $250 mattress is holding up great after 2.5 years, so far. It still sleeps like new.
That’s why I mentioned starting with a firm mattress. So you are not flexing the springs much. Or, an all foam, firm base mattress. Foam can degrade over time with lots of flexing. Tune up a firm base, with foam layer tops that can be replaced, added, subtracted.
If you watch the video, they dropped 4 eggs with a 300 lb. sheet of glass on top of them. None of the eggs broke. I humbly submit that had you dropped something that weighed 300 lbs on top of the bowlful of eggs, they probably would have broken.
ETA: Not that I’m claiming the test shows anything useful about the quality of sleep you’d have on that mattress.
I don’t know what you’re seeing.