GuideViews

The most popular mattress type is standard and is designed for one or two adults to sleep on.  Standard mattresses come in a variety of materials like coil spring, memory foam and latex.  They come in the standard mattress sizes like king, queen, twin, and full.

Crib mattresses are specialty mattresses designed for babies.  Remember that your baby will spend between 50-70% of their time on a mattress so you want to make sure you get the right mattress for the new crib you just purchased.  We review the important factors to consider when buying a baby crib mattress here. 

Another popular specialty mattress type is a futon mattress.  We review how to choose a futon mattresses here.  Futon mattresses are a very good choice if you are looking for the cheapest mattress option or if you want the ability to fold your mattress to conserve space.  The negatives for futon mattresses are that they may not offer the full comfort of some of the other mattress types and they will probably not last nearly as long as a traditional coil spring or memory foam mattress.

There are two types of waterbeds to choose from: hardside and softside.  The hardside is the more traditional design in which the water filled mattress rests inside a wooden frame.  A softside waterbed has a water filled mattress surrounded by a foam edge.  A softside mattress has the benefit of using standard sheets and also the foundations come in more style and design options than a hardside waterbed.