About us- Who Undercover mattress are

You likely have benefited from the reviews we have put out for a particular mattress or mattresses, but you won't know much about the producers of the review. Well, we here, at Undercover Mattress, are real people and we'd like you to know a little bit more about us, so you can rest easy about the information you are receiving from us.

We're on your side

Every review we do is based on an unbiased and objective point of view. We want to give you the best chance at finding a mattress that suits you most well and in order to do this we acknowledge the need  to give transparent and accurate assessments. This is why we give comprehensive reviews that includes the likely experience that particular types of sleepers would have. 

Methodology 

Our practice is quite straightforward. Analyse, data and fact-check, compare and publish.  We don't take shortcuts and don't settle for inaccuracies. Even when it comes down to the type of foam used or the PCF of a material, we ensure that the information we provide is not false. We are well aware of the fact that we have the responsibility to not allow any particular mattress popularity or acclaim to sway our verdict, but we'll also happily admit when the public reception matches our own view. 

Mattress areas we assess

Life would much easier for us if the only factor for what made a mattress ‘high-quality’ was how high you could jump on it and would likely make it more fun too. However, that’s not how it goes. The truth is, there are many ‘data points’ which help us determine the quality and suitability of a mattress. When performing our reviews, we like to go in-depth and don’t like to, in a figurative sense, leave any mattress unturned. We look at: 

1. Motion isolation: 🤸‍♀️This is the capacity of a mattress to isolate the rippling or dipping effect of movement, reducing how much motion from one side of a mattress is felt on the other. The old-school testing method is placing a glass of water on the mattress, but we also use oscillation readers, which detect the slightest of motion, giving a very clear answer about whether a mattress isolates motion well or not. 
2. Thermal-regulation: 🥵 This is how well the mattress deals with heat and if it can transfer heat away from you and keep you cool. Often a TOG rating is used which is the Thermal Overall Grade of the material, measuring its warmth. 
3. Firmness:  🧱This would consider if the mattress is too hard or solid for you, if it is too soft and slack for you, or if it is a balance between the two. We typically base our assessment on the ILD or Indention Load Deflection which is based on the 25% compression of the mattress material. 
4. Pressure-point relief: 🧘‍♀️ This is if the mattress gives you appropriate support and responsiveness in areas where pressure builds the most and is critical for a comfortable sleep. We use zonal readings to measure specific compression in areas of the mattress to see where support is required and offered.

1. Responsiveness/ adaptability:🦎 This is if the mattress has a fast response to the varying pressures exerted on it or if it can mold to your body shape. The responsiveness is the springiness of the mattress and the adaptability is its contouring ability of it, so usually you would want a mattress with a balance. This is a bit more tricky to put a numerical measurement to, so the ILD can be used for this too, but differently from how the firmness of the material is calculated. 
2. Spinal alignment: 📏This is simply the mattress’ support for the neutral alignment of your spine, analyzed through accurate laser-line measurements which can indicate if your back may become damaged during sleep on particular mattresses. 
3. Edge support: 👫This is the support around the outer parts of the mattress. Whilst the main part of the mattress may have adequate support, many mattresses are lacking the same degree of firmness on those sides which leads to unwanted rolling and lack of pressure relief on the mattress edges. Some mattresses offer specific reinforcement in these areas which also increases the firm surface area of the mattress and allows for equal mass distribution. 
4. Off-gassing: 💨This is the answer to whether the mattress releases what are known as VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds which are mainly harmless, but have an unpleasant odor. 
5. Breathability:👃 This is similar to thermal regulation, but breathability refers to the moisture-wicking capacity of the mattress too which helps you see if your sweat will be wicked away, so you can have a comfortable sleep. The MVT rate or Moisture Vapour Transmission rate is what is often used for measuring the rate at which moisture is transmitted through the material and this gives enough of an answer about the breathability of the mattress. 
6. Durability: 💪This is an assessment of how resilient the materials in the mattress are and how long they are likely to last. This is difficult to measure, but the scientific knowledge of a material's resilience and permanence is often enough of an indication of how long the mattress may be able to last. Yet we don't like to settle for that and we base our assessments a lot on the bulk modulus or compression modulus formula which calculates how well a material responds to constant pressure. This gives more accurate results. 
7. Washability: ��This requires no brainpower. It’s if the mattress or the cover for it more specifically, can be washed.

Looking at mattress pros and cons👍👎

Let's face it.  If a matress has been produced and released to the public it's got to have at least one favourable aspect about it, even if its universally and unanimously a terrible mattress. We think it's fair to include this detail.  Inversely, any mattress that sits at the top in the discussion of the best mattresses we've reviewed, is almost sure to have at least one flaw, or element that would make it potentially unsuitable for you and we are just as willing to integrate these into our assesments as we are the up-sides of a poorly constructed mattress. The pros and cons feature of our reviews is our way of handing the weighted scales over to you, for you to judge if the positives outweigh the negatives and if awesome parts of a mattress will let you overlook the areas where it doesn't impress. We have categorised them as what ‘we appreciate’ and what ‘we regret’ and they include information about what certain sleepers should expect to go for and go against them with regards the mattress' performance.

Example:

Our  characteristics ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Some people are numberphiles and would much prefer data to be dished out as cold, statistical figures instead of as text. If that applies to you, our characteristic data charts are made for you. We break down each of the characteristics which is discussed in detail within the article by attaching numbers to each aspect. This number summarises how well the mattress does in this area and the star rating is  out of five.  However the numerical verdict for firmness is an exception. That is out of ten to make it easier to judge.

Example:

Our overall ratings

To simplify and minimise the amount of effort you need to put forth in finding solutions to your mattress product dilemas, we have created a rating system which judges the mattress product in its entirety. It of course is hard to squeeze all  details in the review into this rating, so we recommend consulting other parts of the review to give you a more developed perspective, but the overall rating will give you a virtually immediate idea of how you will likely find the mattress. 

Example:

Nectar Mattress

Our grading of the Nectar Mattress

4.5 / 5

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Read our review of the Nectar

Our  verdict🕵️‍♂️

We aim to encapsulate our overall thoughts on the mattress product at the end of the review. This is ideal for you if you have just scan-read the assessment since it is a rounded summation of the analysis.  It will highlight what we felt is its most prominent features and what important materials are used which will affect the properties of the mattress. We will never use the verdict to tell you to explicitly tell you to avoid or buy the product, but we equip you as much as we can, so you can decide for yourself.

Example:

Our team 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦

We have a small team who are devoted to looking into what makes a particular mattress function in the way that it does. When combining our experience,  we have multiple years in the mattress industry and have put that to great use in determing what product is likely best for you.