You drive it, so you arrive tired, and then you sleep on whatever came with the van. Three things decide which mattress suits you: how you sleep, your build, and whether you sleep hot. Find yourself below — and if you would rather talk it through, the number is at the bottom.
The most common way to sleep
Your shoulder and hip carry the weight, so the surface has to give underneath them. Too firm and you wake with a numb arm. After a day at the wheel that shows up faster than it would at home.
Best firmness: Medium
Memory foam holds warmth. If you sleep hot as well, the Coolplus™ in medium-firm gives you the same cushioning without it.
The easiest position to support
Support that runs evenly from your shoulders to your heels, so your lower back keeps its curve. On a fixed rear bed that means no hollow forming in the middle where you both end up.
Best firmness: Medium-firm or Firm
The Comfisan™ is where most back sleepers end up. If you want the bed to feel like the one at home, the Imperial Elite™ 2000 is the closest we make.
Needs a firmer bed than most
Enough firmness that your hips do not drop and pull your back into an arch. Soft is the wrong answer here, and it is usually why front sleepers wake up stiff.
Best firmness: Firm or Hard
Avoid: soft memory foam — you sink too far into it.
If you sleep on your front and the bed in the van is soft, that is very likely where the morning ache is coming from.
You wake up warm and clammy
Something that carries heat away rather than keeping it under you. A motorhome shut up for the night warms through quickly, and on a site you cannot always leave a window open.
Best firmness: any — choose on how you sleep
Avoid: ordinary memory foam (Bodyshape™) — it holds your body heat.
Air moves through the Coolplus™ gel layer around thirty times more freely than through ordinary memory foam, so the heat you give off has somewhere to go. The Imperial Elite™ sleeps cool as well, because air moves through the springs.
Support, cushioning, and a firm edge
Support underneath and cushioning on top. On an island bed the edge matters too — that is what you sit on to dress and push up from to stand, so it should not give way under you.
Best firmness: Medium-firm or Firm
Where does it hurt? A lower back wants firmer support, so the Comfisan™. Hips and shoulders want cushioning — a Bodyshape™ Topper over a firmer mattress gives you both. If getting in and out is the hard part, the Imperial Elite™ 2000 has the firmest edge we make.
More support, and it has to last
Denser foam or pocket springs underneath, so you do not sink through to the base and so the mattress holds its shape. Depth does as much of the work here as firmness does.
Best firmness: Firm or Hard
Two thousand springs share the load rather than one slab of foam carrying all of it, so the Imperial Elite™ 2000 holds up best. If payload is tight on your van, ring us before you order and we will talk through the depths.
Firm is not always the answer
A softer surface that gives enough to cushion you. If you are light, a firm mattress may never press down under you, so you get all of the hardness and none of the support you wanted.
Best firmness: Medium
People often ask for firm because it sounds supportive. If you are light, a medium will hold you just as well and actually cushion your hip.
One of you always gets up first
A bed that keeps movement on the side it started. On an island bed you can each get out your own side, which helps — but the mattress still has to stop a turn carrying across it.
Best firmness: Medium or Firm — the usual middle ground
Every spring in the Imperial Elite™ 2000 moves on its own, so when one of you climbs out at six the other is not lifted with it.
Where we have marked something to avoid, that is us being straight with you rather than steering you elsewhere.
| You | Essential™ | Comfisan™ | Bodyshape™ | Novolatex™ | Coolplus™ | Imperial Elite™ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Side sleeper | OK | OK | Best | Good | Good | Good |
| Back sleeper | OK | Best | OK | Good | Good | Best |
| Front sleeper | Good | Best | Avoid | Good | OK | Good |
| Sleeps hot | OK | OK | Avoid | OK | Best | Good |
| Bad back | OK | Best | OK | Good | Good | Best |
| 16 stone and over | Good | Best | OK | Good | OK | Best |
| Under 10 stone | OK | OK | Best | Good | Good | Good |
| Two of you | OK | OK | Good | OK | Good | Best |
Most people ring before they order, and we would rather you did. Tell us the make and model, how you sleep, and what aches in the morning. We will tell you which one we would put you on, including if that is the cheapest in the range.
Ring 0121 663 6114 — Mon–Fri 10–5, Sat 10–2. We will talk you through the measurements before you order.
See the mattress range
