Not too firm, nor too soft, this Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gel Cool Mattress is the Goldilocks of cooling mattresses

I daydreamed extensively about the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gel Cool Mattress in the days ahead of its arrival, entertaining round-the-clock fantasies of floating to sleep on a cloud-like mattress which breathed cool air on me long into the night.

Considering I’m temporarily living with my in-laws, sharing a smaller-sized bed with my husband than we’re used to and waging daily battles against night sweats, hormonal insomnia, excruciating back pain and general body soreness, it’s no surprise I was starting to feel like a fairytale character – and not one of the ones who gets to sleep peacefully for months on end. More like constant Princess-and-the-Pea-style aches meet Goldilocks tossing-and-turning – nothing felt right in bed when it came to my body temperature or getting my back and hips into a comfortable position.

As part of the brand’s trusted Posturepedic range, the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gel Cool Mattress is more likely to be described as the “best orthopaedic mattress” on the market but this model is hoping to rank as “best cooling mattress” too.

The Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gel Cool Mattress is kitted out with the technology required to make it a best cooling mattress: things like a gel-infused comfort layer which promotes air circulation and Senslce, an advanced cooling technology that promises to lower your body’s temperature. It also ensures optimal body positioning and looks after your back as you sleep, thanks to a patented AlignSupport® coil system and ComfortCore™ pressure relief, topped with a double layer of Sealy medium foam. The overall effect is something fit for a fairytale: not too firm, not too soft, but just right. It’s as inviting to climb into come evenings as it is to type away on my laptop or curl up with my latest library find earlier in the day.

Specifications

Opening note

It took two weeks from ordering the mattress to finding an available delivery window – both an irritation and a source of comfort for the consumer. Yes, I desperately wanted to stop sleeping on a mattress that felt like it was stabbing hot spikes into my back all night and would have me waking more exhausted than I’d been before going to sleep, but also, I felt it was encouraging that so many others were ordering Sealy Posturepedics. Especially since this particular model mattress didn’t seem to have many reviews online – yet.

I was surprised to discover there was no trial period for this mattress when you ordered from Sealy. Two weeks is the expert-recommended time-frame to understand how well a mattress will work for your sleep needs and the time-frame used in most scientific sleep studies. I would have benefitted from longer than 14 days to make a commitment on a four-figure piece of kit. Especially because my first two weeks with the Sealy resembled a joyful Disney movie montage, while my bad nights (issues falling asleep, sweaty wakeups in the middle of the night), only started happening later in the month.

The guarantee for this mattress, handmade in England, is seven years. I have no doubt about its durability and ability to last that long, but it is a shorter warranty period than other comparable mattress brands, who tend to offer at least a decade.

The mattress arrived wrapped in a single plastic sheet, and the two-man delivery team got it down the stairs and into my temporary bedroom and on the bed frame at my in-laws within about five minutes. Brilliantly efficient. The downside that had me pulling the plastic wrap off within minutes? They arrived smelling like 18 packs of cigarettes had been smoked between them, and it was only 10 in the morning. I didn’t need them to take another mattress away since I’m hoping to remain on speaking terms with my in-laws for the rest of my life and thought it a bit rash to dispose of their mattress, but I did learn they would have taken an old mattress away for an additional fee.

Within seconds of the mattress landing on my bed frame, I collapsed onto it with a theatrical “ahhhhh”. It was that lovely, and I could swear tiny fingers were reaching up to coax my body down into its ideal position. A couple of minutes later, my youngest child, seven, was joyfully bouncing on it. The mattress seemed completely unfazed by the exertion.

Comfort levels

This mattress is leagues ahead of the competition when it comes to comfort and support: as someone who regularly visits a physio for a variety of post-ballerina-in-my-past-life injuries and currently-in-my-40s-wear-and-tear-injuries, I honestly felt like this mattress was my own personal physio-at-night time from the moment I first lay down on it.

It’s a medium firm option – not too soft or firm, and the only choice available for this model. This works well for me because I hate the feeling of sinking down into a too-soft mattress (agony), but also find that too-firm choices make my hips and back ache even more. This in-between option worked well when I was in bed on my own, but also felt comfortable when my children snuggled in around me or when my husband was snoozing by my side.

The Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gel Cool Mattress gets five-stars for support, pressure relief and helping my spinal alignment as a side sleeper, and I think anyone looking for additional back and postural support – no matter their age – would be thrilled to discover that a mattress can seemingly double as an at-home physio during the evening hours.

I was still recovering from a lower back injury and associated issues when I first slept on it back in February; I woke up that first morning feeling two inches taller and better-rested than I had been for weeks. My shoulders didn’t ache, my neck wasn’t sore, my lower back and hips felt less stiff than they had in months, and I’m sure I have this mattress’s amazing technology to thank for it (in part). Things like a twice-tempered patented coil system (AlignSupport®) and BasePlank foundation technology, which help distribute weight evenly as you lie back.

There’s also a double layer of medium foam in the middle, plus a breathable, gel-infused comfort layer (Geltex), which helps promote air circulation. The foam ComfortCore™ in the centre third of the mattress is designed to offer pressure relief to hips and back which need it most. The mattress is wonderfully textured, with deep curves and grooves to run your fingers all over.

All of this technology comes wrapped in polyester and polypropylene fabrics, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, as someone who has seen carpet moths devour a gorgeous natural material trundle mattress, I appreciate these materials are more hardwearing than natural fibres. On the other hand, I do like the idea of sleeping on some natural fibres, which I’ve found can be more cooling for me than man-made ones.

Motion transfer and edge support

This mattress has given me many nights of blissful sleep, but I’ve also had a handful of perimenopausal insomnia episodes, where I haven’t been able to get any shuteye until 3 or 4 in the morning and noticed my husband’s every fidget next to me. I’m confident I wouldn’t notice these movements if I hadn’t been awake to see them: I never felt myself moving around when he was, and the mattress felt like a steady hand holding me.

This included edge support, too: thanks to UniCased® technology at the sides, the mattress seems to have a larger surface area than a double and you don’t have the sensation you’re about to roll off at any moment. Because of my hormonal issues and my tendency to get up often in the middle of the night for one reason or another, I’ve been sleeping on the far left side of the bed and enjoying it (far more than sleeping closer to the wall which feels like a recipe for overheating).

Scent

While it’s not uncommon for new mattresses to have an off-gassing chemical odour as compounds are released into the air that can last for several days, truthfully, I didn’t notice anything. I was too pleased to be rid of the intense cigarette smell that accompanied the delivery guys, which seemed to dissipate as soon as I chucked the external plastic wrap.

Temperature regulation

I’ve been experiencing fairly extreme perimenopausal symptoms for the past 18 months, which have improved in the last several months after hormonal intervention (Mirena coil) but continue to impact my sleep, causing insomnia and waking with night sweats.

My body temperature regulation is becoming a more noticeable issue as I find myself layering up before bed on chilly nights and then peeling those layers off after realising they’re stuck to me and I’m sweating and lightheaded. I found myself spending less and less time in bed relaxing because it was getting so uncomfortable, so I loved the sound of a cooling mattress that might be able to help me temperature-regulate through the night.

This mattress is a huge improvement over the last one I slept on. In addition to the mid-layers designed to promote air circulation and breathability, the top layer has Senslce, an advanced cooling technology which promises to help lower your body temperature. It’s also made with Allergy UK-endorsed ProShield®, to maximise breathability and keep dust mites and other allergens away.

Cooling mattresses aren’t miracle workers and my bad hormonal nights – though fewer and farther between – were still bad. I woke up sodden, groggy and uncomfortable in the middle of the night on a couple of occasions. But overall, I felt more in control of my environment and body temperature, which allowed me to do insanely rebellious things before bed, like having the audacity to not remove my sweatshirt on chillier evenings before falling asleep. (And in answer to your question, no, the hot flushes didn’t happen on those nights, but when I was in a vest top and shorts or silk PJs.)

Environmental credentials

Sealy UK mattresses are handmade in England (in Cumbria), and the brand is FSC-certified and operates a “zero to landfill” policy, with the brand aiming to divert all its materials away from landfills through recycling and repurposing. The Sealy Posturepedic is 100% recyclable at the end of its life.

Value

When you reach a certain age (hint: my age, 40s), you realise that splurging on an expensive mattress is less of a luxury and more of a necessity than those heels you thought looked cute online. That said, spending over £1,500 on a mattress is a lot of money, and I would have loved to see a more substantial trial period and longer guarantee for the price. (For example, I tested a Simba Hybrid Ultra last year at a similar price point with a 200-day trial period and 10-year guarantee.)

But given the things the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gel Cool Mattress does for my back and hips are probably worth £50+ an hour at physiotherapy, in the long term I may very well find that this mattress has paid for itself because it is so fantastically supportive, durable and well-made. Plus, it targets my specific lower back and hip issues like it was designed for me.

Should you buy it?

I’ve already recommended this mattress to my in-laws (in their 70s and 80s, with lower back issues) and my friends (in their 40s, also with lower back issues). I don’t think my body can get away with “any old mattress” anymore, and considering the improvement in my quality of life and quality of sleep after using this Sealy Posturepedic for a short time, not only do I believe not all mattresses are created equally, I’m convinced prioritising back health is a key midlife goal for me. I also think that the cooling technology in this mattress is effective enough to provide good sleep for a majority of nights, which, as far as menopausal issues go, is pretty good.

I don’t particularly aspire to life as a fairy tale character, but I do want my sleep to look more like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty’s. This mattress could definitely give me my sleep’s happily ever after.

How we test

At woman&home, how we test cooling mattresses is a little different to some of our other buying guides. We've been working on something called 'The Tester Network', which is a special place we reach out to you. I asked for readers who were suffering from night sweats, because nobody else knows quite what they're like until you've battled through them. These ladies are the best people to talk about cooling mattresses.

When I had volunteers (most of whom were experts at night sweating and writing), I asked them about their sleep needs. Jen described her back pains and sleep needs, and I matched her up with this mattress. Then, I sent her a list of questions to consider while she was sleeping and then gave her a full month to sleep on the bed and then to feedback on it.

Experts generally recommend two weeks, but I was keen to give it a full month to get through a cycle of hormones and general craziness. Jen will continue to test this mattress for us and will keep you updates on how her sleep progresses. She's not being paid or bribed, this is an independent review, so you know everything she is saying is authentic and true.