Are Sealy mattresses any good? Everything you need to know about this mattress titan

It's the world's biggest mattress brand. But is a Sealy mattress a good investment?

Cocoon by Sealy mattress
(Image credit: Sealy)

If you're looking to upgrade your sleep setup, you may well have come across Sealy as an option. We spend about one-third of our life either sleeping, and doing so soundly and comfortably couldn’t be more important to our health and mental wellbeing, so you really do want to buy the best mattress you can possibly afford. With that in mind, it’s natural to gravitate to a well-known brand, with a reputation for high quality. And Sealy certainly fits into that bracket. 

The biggest bed brand in the world, Sealy has a long and illustrious history. It began producing cotton-filled mattress in the town of Sealy, Texas, in the late nineteenth century. In 2013, it merged with Tempur to create a company that now operates in more than 50 countries worldwide, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the UK. As well as mattresses, Sealy also sells beds and headboards, both separately and as part of a set.

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Part of the same conglomerate that owns Silentnight, Rest Assured, and Stearns and Foster, Sealy is a huge player in the medium-price mattress market, and makes bold claims for its proprietary ‘Posturepedic’ system. This specialised manufacturing method is based on springs that are squared off at the top and bottom, and connected via a coil that runs the whole length of the mattress; allowing each spring to move in a way that moulds well to the sleeper’s body.

Sealy claims to spend more on sleep research and product development than any other mattress brand in the world. And that investment seems to be paying off, because its products generally attract positive reviews from both mattress experts and general consumers for their high quality and overall value.

What kinds of mattresses does Sealy make?

Building on its legacy of inner-sprung mattresses, recent years have seen Sealy take other approaches to mattress construction, including memory foam and pocketed coil systems. However, this means there are now numerous types of Sealy mattress, which can get a little complicated and confusing. 

Today, Sealy has four broad mattress lines:

  • Response is Sealy’s line of inner-sprung mattresses, and its cheapest range overall. 
  • Conform is Sealy’s line of mid-priced, memory foam mattresses. 
  • The Hybrid line combines foam layers with pocketed coils for support. This is the most expensive type of Sealy mattress. 
  • The Mattress-in-a-box line covers both 100 per cent memory foam styles, including the Cocoon by Sealy range, and hybrid mattress styles. 

Each range can be further sub-divided into three collections: the Essential Collection, and the Performance Collection and Premium Collection. In terms of quality, these titles basically imply ‘good’, ‘better’ and ‘best’, with pricing to match.

Which Sealy mattress is best?

Overall, the best Sealy mattress you can buy today is the Sealy 1400 Nostromo. We’ve listed it as number 8 in our overall list of the best mattresses and number 4 in our list of the best mattresses for back pain. More to the point, we believe this is one of the best pocket sprung mattress on sale today, period. That’s because of its solid, seven-zone construction, with 1,400 pocket springs providing a generous level of support and comfort, tencel fibres helping with temperature regulation, and a latex comfort layer providing pressure relief for side sleepers.

The mattress is also self-cleaning and hypoallergenic. And with a generous depth of 29cm and a quilted pillow top, this is a high quality, medium mattress that should provide you with a great night’s sleep, at a very reasonable price.

Are Sealy mattresses good quality?

Sealy mattresses are generally considered high quality, with both customer and expert reviews ranging between good and excellent. Although Sealy produces a wide variety of mattresses, there isn’t one particular range that attracts either special praise or criticism: quality seems to be pretty consistent across the board. 

The main criticisms of Sealy mattresses lie in two connected areas: their durability, and the length of guarantee. While the manufacturer’s guarantee that comes with Sealy products will vary from mattress to mattress, and country to country, a period of around five years is fairly common. However, as we explain in our article How often should you change your mattress?,  seven to 10 years as a good rule of thumb for how long a mattress should last. 

Besides that niggle, though, we’d say Sealy is a dependable, all-round brand that’s behind some first-class mattresses. Take, for example, the Sealy Posturepedic 2000 Latex Single Mattress, our number one pick of the best latex mattresses overall. This product’s combination of 2,000 individual pocket springs and a latex foam layer does a great job at distributing your body weight and relieving your pressure points for comfort and support. 

There’s also the Sealy Pocket Prestige 2800 Mattress, one of the best mattresses for side sleepers we know of. With almost 3,000 pocket springs, this mattresses adjusts minutely to each of your movements, so even if you’re a fidgety sleeper, you’ll still be able to get a decent night’s sleep. Or If you're looking for the best mattresses for stomach sleepers, we recommend the Sealy Activ Geltex 2200 Pocket Spring Mattress, which combines 2,200 pocket springs with additional mini pocket-springs to distribute your weight evenly while contouring to your shape.

Find yourself getting sweaty at night? Then check out Cocoon by Sealy’s Chill mattresses. As the name suggests, these mattresses provide a cooling experience thanks to Sealy’s proprietary ‘Phase Change Material’, which dissipates heat; and come in a variety of styles. While if you’re buying for the little ones, Sealy Activ Latex 1400 Pocket Spring Mattress is number one on our list of the best kids mattresses. Using a combination of pocket springs and latex, allowing for both comfort and airflow, it’s also hypoallergenic and eco-friendly. 

We could go on, but you get the idea. While Sealy mattresses aren’t the cheapest on the market, they are generally of high quality and likely to provide you with a good night’s sleep. And when you divide that cost across the number of nights you’re likely to sleep on it over time, that works out as very good value indeed.

Tom May

Tom May is a freelance writer and author of the book, Great Ted Talks: Creativity. He has been editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. He has also worked for a wide range of mainstream titles including Radio Times, NME, Heat, Company and Bella.