I sleep on a wrought iron double bed that my parents found buried in the garden of their new house in the 1990s. Thankfully my mattress doesn’t share the same prehistoric ancestry, but it’s not far off. A patty of springs and indentations from too many bodies, it’s a manifestation of my place in the family (youngest of three siblings, youngest of 21 cousins). But it turns out that as a fully functional adult you actually don’t need to wait for handmidowns, you can actually out-grow them and buy fully functional replacements yourself. Who knew!
But then comes the difficult decisions. The mattress world is a sea of jargon, and it’s much rarer that you would walk into a brick-and-mortar store and try lying down on a few these days. So I tried the grand dame of the mattress world’s newest offering so you can know where your money is best spent. After all, sleep is a major part of our lives and a mattress is a big investment. So, here’s what happened when I exchanged my primordial mattress for a futuristic one, the Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress.
Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress: is it worth buying?
In a word: Yes.
Hybrid mattresses combine a top layer of velvety foam with an under-layer of springs – the best of both worlds. The springs provide suspension, whilst the foam feels like a cocooning support layer. This edition is a sprung with memory foam layer mattress with 640 springs. I never knew I needed that many springs, but it turns out I did.
It was really easy to unpack, just plopping her on my bed, cutting her out of her corset and letting her sigh into position. You have to think ahead a bit here as they recommend letting it air out and fully expand for 24 hours. It does release a slight chemical smell for the first few hours, so I recommend doing this process in a well-aerated room.
Once fully fattened up, the Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress is almost ostentatiously tall, which feels American in a way I can’t quite describe. Not only does this feel amazing, with layers of support and cosiness, it also makes my bed look full and puffy, like a hotel. It has a soft, quilted finish too, so your sheets slide nicely on and it doesn’t have any obtrusive texture.
The comfort levels are off the chart. Whilst Emma says that it has a ‘medium firm feel’ I would say it’s medium in the sense that it’s both very soft and very firm. Supportive and cushioning, you sink into it, but not in a way that feels marshmallowy. I have actually (and this is true) found myself subconsciously muttering “wow that’s really amazing” as I clamber into bed. Whilst it’s super cosy it also has ‘thermoregulated cocoon’ to help you reach your ideal body temperature thanks to their ThermoSync technology, so you feel fresh and unclaustrophobic even on the warmest nights.