Purple Mattress Review

The Purple mattress was created by two brothers: Tony and Terry Pearce. They both have engineering backgrounds and together developed the Hyper-Elastic Polymer™, a soft-yet-strong material that gives under pressure points and redistributes that pressure to other areas.

After a couple years of licensing to other brands and tinkering with designs, they went live on Kickstarter and have never looked back. Purple now features three models all made in the USA:

1. Original Purple
2. Purple Hybrid
3. Purple Hybrid Premier

Purple has made a name for itself thanks to its unique materials and feel. But it’s certainly not the only mattress that’s been making waves.

Table of Contents

Purple Mattress

While the unique structure of the Purple Mattress isn’t a fit for everyone, it does keeps temperatures neutral and provides spine support and pressure relief for all sleeping positions.

Check Prices Here

What is the Purple Mattress Made of?

The updated Purple features a slightly different construction than the original. While both mattresses utilize Purple’s signature Hyper-Elastic Polymer, the new version also has a SoftFlex cover design and introduces polyfoam around the comfort layer to enhance the mattress’s edge support.

I opened up the updated Purple to give you the full rundown on what’s inside.

Cover – The new cover features a SoftFlex material that’s made from a combination of polyester, viscose, and lycra. This combo is stretchy and breathable, so it moves with the Purple’s comfort layer and helps with airflow.

Comfort Layer – Next up is 2 inches of Purple’s proprietary Hyper-Elastic Polymer. This unique material is set up in a grid structure, so the walls of the grid flex underneath pressure points while remaining supportive everywhere else. This responsive feel could appeal to combo sleepers, as the mattress should provide a balance of comfort and support in all positions. Additionally, this layer is bouncy and sleeps cool, and it’s wrapped around the edges with sturdier polyfoam for enhanced edge support.

Transition Layer – Underneath the Hyper-Elastic Polymer is a transitional layer made up of 3.5 inches of high-density poly foam. This material is firmer and more supportive than the comfort layer, so it keeps you from sinking too far into the mattress. This makes it fairly easy to move around on the mattress — which, again, is a real plus for combo sleepers who switch positions in the night.

Base Layer – Finally, the mattress is supported by four inches of high-density poly foam. This layer helps account for the mattress’s overall firmness, which we’ll discuss in more detail below. 

Purple Mattress

While the unique structure of the Purple Mattress isn’t a fit for everyone, it does keeps temperatures neutral and provides spine support and pressure relief for all sleeping positions.

Check Prices Here

How Firm is the Purple Mattress?

Alright, now you know what’s inside of the mattress — and that means we can start to understand how it feels to lie on top of it. Let’s start by taking a look at the updated Purple’s firmness.

Now, it’s important to keep in mind that firmness is fairly subjective. Because we all have different weights, body shapes, sizes, and so on, your assessment of a mattress’s firmness might be different than mine.

That said, I think it’s fair to say the Purple is on the firmer side.

Testing the Purple Mattress

Understanding a mattress’s firmness is important, but it’s certainly not the only factor that affects how a mattress feels. So let’s also review the updated Purple when it comes to Pressure Relief and Motion Transfer.

Pressure Relief and Motion Transfer

Sure, it’s not the most titillating concept around. But Pressure Relief — or a bed’s ability to relieve tension at sensitive areas such as the hips, lower back, and shoulders — is an important measure of a mattress’s feel. You want to know whether a mattress will ease pressure on relevant parts of your body so you sleep comfortably all night long.

To test the Pressure Relief on the updated Purple, I turned to my handy pressure map. I lay this device on top of the mattress, then climb on top and let the map track my body’s force as I try out different positions. Low-pressure areas are highlighted in blue, and the highest pressure areas show up as red.

Back – When I’m lying on my back, I feel like my hips aren’t sinking too far into the mattress and my spine is well-aligned. I think most back sleepers should be happy with the level of support on this mattress.

Side – Switching from my back to my side is easy thanks to the bounce and quick response of the Hyper-Elastic Polymer. Once I’m on my side, I feel a tiny bit of pressure. This shouldn’t be a big deal for combo sleepers who only spend part of the night on their sides, but strict side sleepers might want to look for a mattress that lets you sink in a bit more.

Stomach – Moving to my stomach, I’m pretty happy with the level of support. My hips don’t sink in too far, and my spine feels fairly well aligned. That said, I don’t think I’d want to spend all night on my stomach. If you’re a strict stomach sleeper, you might want to look for something extra-firm. But combo sleepers who only spend part of the night on their stomachs should find enough support.

Purple Mattress

While the unique structure of the Purple Mattress isn’t a fit for everyone, it does keeps temperatures neutral and provides spine support and pressure relief for all sleeping positions.

Check Prices Here

Is the Purple Mattress Right for You?

Pros

This is a very bouncy mattress. You sleep more on top of the bed than “in” it, which is rare for bed-in-a-box mattresses. This quality makes it easy to move around and switch positions on the mattress, which should appeal to combo sleepers.

This is a great mattress for combo sleepers. That’s true both because it offers great mobility and because it provides a balance of pressure relief and support in all three sleeping positions. While you might not want to spend all night on your side or stomach, you should be comfortable if you spend part of the night there.

The mattress sleeps pretty cool. It has a breathable cover, and the Hyper-Elastic Polymer is temperature neutral. This should be a good option for people who tend to sleep hot.

Cons

The mattress probably isn’t the best fit for strict side sleepers. Because it’s on the firmer side and the comfort layer is only 2 inches thick, there’s not much space to sink into the mattress. If you need a lot of pressure relief, you might want to look for a mattress with a thicker comfort layer (such as the Purple Hybrid Premier) and/or a plush pillow-top.

This might not be the best option for heavier folks, who may find that they drop through the comfort layers and mostly just feel the firmness of the polyfoam layers. If you need more support, check out the Purple Hybrid Premier or a classic innerspring mattress.

How Purple Mattress Compares to Other Mattress Brands

Anyone who’s considering the Purple mattress has probably taken a peek at other major brands in the bed-in-a-box space, such as Casper and/or Nectar. So let’s review how the Purple stacks up against these other popular options.

Casper vs Purple Mattress

The Casper and Purple mattresses vary significantly in their construction. The original Casper mattress features an all-foam construction and a Zoned Support system that’s firmer near the middle of the mattress and softer near the head and foot. As noted above, the Purple is primarily constructed from the brand’s proprietary hyper-elastic gel polymer.

These construction differences produce very different feels. The original Casper has a balanced foam feel that’s responsive and bouncy. As we’ve discussed, the Purple has a squishy-yet-firm feel that’s also bouncy and responsive.

These mattresses also differ slightly in terms of their firmness levels. We ranked the Purple at 6.5/10, while we ranked the Casper a touch firmer at 7/10.

The mattresses are most similar when it comes to price. Depending on discounts and coupons, both mattresses should cost around $1,000 or so for a Queen size.

Nectar vs Purple Mattress

The Nectar and Purple mattresses have very different constructions and materials, which is most evident in their comfort layers. The Nectar’s comfort layers feature multiple layers of memory foam, while the Purple features a hyper-elastic gel polymer.

These materials create different feels. Thanks to its memory foam, the Nectar has a slow-moving feel that offers plenty of pressure relief and body contouring. Once again, the Purple is bouncy, responsive, and simultaneously squishy and firm.

The firmness ranking for these mattresses will depend a bit on the weight of the sleeper in question, but we ranked both of these beds around a 6.5/10.

The Nectar and Purple are also very similar in terms of price, although the Purple costs around $100 less.

Purple Mattress

While the unique structure of the Purple Mattress isn’t a fit for everyone, it does keeps temperatures neutral and provides spine support and pressure relief for all sleeping positions.

Check Prices Here

Commonly Asked Questions

How long will a Purple mattress last?

Purple mattresses are very durable thanks to the gel grid. They should last for approximately 7 to 10 years.

Do you need a box spring with a Purple mattress?

Nope! You do not need to use a box spring with a Purple mattress. It is okay to lay it directly on a base.

Can you flip a Purple mattress?

No, the Purple mattress is not flippable. Flipping the mattress would result in sleeping on the firmer base layer instead of the gel grid.