Is the Emma premium mattress worth it? We found out

Mattress design and materials

The Emma premium mattress has six layers of foam and springs combined, in order to give the most comfortable and supportive sleep possible. This makes it quite a cumbersome mattress. Despite it arriving in a box, it was still a lot of effort to get it up the stairs. This is a minor point, but if you do invest in this mattress make sure you have help or strength on your side when hoiking it in.

Anyway, about those layers… six does sound like quite a lot. What are they up to? Well, the first, uppermost layer is actually the cover that encases the top of the mattress. But this is an important layer, despite being thin. It’s made from Emma’s ultradry fabric, which helps with temperature regulation and wicks sweat away. Handily you can unzip and remove this cover to wash it. We haven’t attempted this yet, but it’s good to know it’s an option – especially for allergy sufferers whose nemesis is dust and dust mites.

There’s then a layer of halo memory foam, which is an adaptive foam that adjusts to your body shape. In theory, this should alleviate aches and pains on pressure points such as hips and shoulders. Delve a layer deeper and we hit the airgocell foam. Put simply, there are two layers of this stuff, which claims to absorb sweat, then evaporate it off (delightful) and help with airflow. All this should keep you nice and temperate all night long.

Read more: Emma vs Simba: Which hybrid mattress is best?

The last two layers are one of springs and one of foam. Starting with the former, you should know that these aren’t just any springs, they’re five-zone carbon flex springs which basically means the mattress is zoned with different ones at different bands across the width. This helps provide targeted support for where your shoulders, hips, head etc are. It should help keep your spine aligned and ideally stop you from feeling your partner moving about.

Finally, the foam base layer is the firm foundation of the mattress and is designed to stop your mattress from sagging over time and also to evenly distribute your weight.

Mattress comfort

When we initially lay on the mattress we had some reservations. It felt really soft, and we were worried it wouldn’t provide the support we like. Emma says this premium mattress is their best medium-firm support, so we thought it’d be quite hard. But hang in there…

We found that actually once we started sleeping on the mattress, it held up and did give excellent support. The initial sink when you lie or sit on the bed comes from that halo foam, but then the deeper layers kick in.

Read more: Best pillows for every type of sleeper

We are prone to being kept awake by our partner tossing and turning, getting out of bed – the works! But the zoned springs really do their job, and we were left to sleep on. In fact, we found for the first time in our life (of bedsharing) we weren’t disturbed at all. This left us very impressed – and well-rested.

The other thing we were really impressed with was how we were kept at a just-so temperature all night long. Some foam mattresses we’ve tried, even the ones that say they are cooling, have left us a bit on the sweaty side. But not so with the Emma premium. We found we were never woken up feeling too hot and having to kick off the duvet. So those two Airgocell foam layers are definitely doing something.

Sleep trial

If you like to try a mattress before you commit, we see you. So does Emma and as such, offers customers a 200-night sleep trial. This means you can order your mattress – and pay for it – and then sleep on it for 200 nights. If at the end of the trial, you don’t like it, you can contact Emma to have it taken away again and you’ll be refunded.

We haven’t had to make use of this service, as we’re happy with our mattress. But Emma claims returns are hassle-free and there don’t seem to be any sneaky terms and conditions about how you use your mattress during the trial, making it seem like a pretty foolproof option to us.