Does a $3,000 mattress actually beat a $900 one at year two, or only on the showroom floor? Long-Term Report

Owned a cheap one for four years and a expensive one for five, both queens, both all-foam. The difference showed up in year two, not year one, and it was density — the cheap one developed a body impression I could see from the doorway, the expensive one has a shallow one you only notice when you strip the sheets. If you can find the foam density figure for the comfort and support layers, that number predicts longevity better than the price does, and most manufacturers will give it to you if you email and ask.

Counter view. I have had a mid-priced bed for seven years and it is fine, and the two most expensive beds I have slept in were both worse for me personally because they were built for a heavier person. Price buys durability and materials, it does not buy fit. If your last bed dipped at year six, that is roughly normal service life for the category and not necessarily evidence you underspent.

The number that changed my thinking was cost per night. A $3,000 bed over eight years is roughly a dollar a night. A $900 bed over four is about sixty cents. Once I saw it that way I stopped agonising, because the gap is smaller than the sticker suggests — and the more expensive one only wins if it actually lasts twice as long, which is the thing you cannot verify at purchase.

Terse: spend the money on the mattress, not on the base, unless the base is broken. Adjustable frames were the largest waste in my house.

Trial lengths are worth folding into the price comparison. Some direct-to-consumer brands run very long trials — Nectar's is 365 nights with a warranty they describe as lasting as long as you own the bed — while a showroom purchase may give you 30 days or nothing. A cheaper bed you can return in month ten is a different risk profile to an expensive one you cannot return in week five.

Practical thing that has nothing to do with price: rotate it. Head to foot every three months for the first year, then twice a year. Both my beds that failed early were beds I never rotated, and the one I did rotate outlived its warranty. Costs nothing, takes four minutes.