Hi Shane,

Many thanks for your email about the Hypnos Kingswood mattress from John Lewis. Also many thanks for letting us know that we've come highly recommended. It's always good to hear our work in creating high-end mattresses here in the UK, along with a full advice service on all things mattresses have been well received!

Let's have a look at the Kingswood mattress and see what we can uncover from the listing with John Lewis.

Hypnos Kingswood Mattress Contents:

Before you can compare any mattress you need to know as much detail as possible about the internal components. From upholstery types, GSM (grams per square meter) and spring type/tensions.

Unfortunately, like with most mattress manufacturers, this Hypnos listing only comes with partial information. We can use our experience to help flesh out some more detail for you.

Image from: www.johnlewis.com/hypnos-kingswood-turnable-pocket-spring-mattress-medium-tension-king-size

Filled with British wool
Insulating and naturally absorbent, layers of British wool as well as two layers of Swaledale wool give this mattress a dense and supportive feel. Natural fillings help to promote a healthy airflow throughout the night, so your body temperature stays regulated and you experience a comfortable night's sleep.

Wool is an incredibly resilient and breathable natural fibre, which is why you will find it in nearly all high-end beds. It's one of the softer natural fibres and often needs to be paired up with other fibres to help keep its loft. Sadly without the GSM it's impossible to comment further. However, from the picture on the John Lewis website, it looks like the total GSM of this mattress is somewhere in the 2000gsm region, given the fact a layer of micro springs takes up part of the space also. More on why we would never use micro springs below.

From looking at the upholstery this would be a medium to soft feel mattress in the comfort layer. Care needs to be taken with 'firmness' ratings of mattresses. This is because they are nearly always incorrectly attributed to the spring tension. Spring tensions come in soft, medium or firm but are based solely on your bodyweight, not comfort preference. Confusion eh!

The comfort or feel of the mattress is created by the fibres layered up on top of this spring tension. Have a look below at the table of fibres and how they individually perform. If you mix, blend or layer them you can tweak these properties. Ie Horsetail is often used with wool to help increase its loft.

ReActive™ pocket spring system

High-quality pocket springs actively minimise pressure points on your body and work to distribute your weight evenly across the mattress. They respond, and then flex to each body shape, in order to alleviate tension and enhance a natural spinal alignment. Pocket springs also help to maintain the structure of the mattress.

Hypnos disclose that there are 1200 pocket spring in this mattress. However, they don't give the tension or gauge of the wire making it impossible to judge whether or not the support is adequate for your bodyweight. It's worth noting that these pocket springs are spunbond (polyester covered) and not calico. At the price point of £2000 for a mattress you should easily be able to avoid synthetic casings, which are warmer and slower to react than natural calico pocket sprung systems.

This mattress also contains micro springs. These springs serve little use in our experience and seem to be used by manufacturers to simply 'up the spring count'. They compress almost instantaneously and are usually used in lieu of more valuable and durable upholstery layers.

Have a look at our guide below for more information on understanding pocket sprung mattresses.

High quality finish

Made from a cotton-blend fabric that is free from chemical treatment, the cover provides a soft and cool sleep surface. Three rows of hand side-stitching ensure edge-to-edge structural support and cotton felt tufts keep all of the fillings in place.

Again you need to know what the cotton blend is. However, most higher-end mattresses should be using a damask like all of our models do. We use a chemical-free plant-based fire retardant to, which helps keep our range of hand made mattresses as breathable and natural as possible.

The more important things to note are the lack of detail on the side stitching method used, tufting and other mattress details. These details show just how much time and effort have gone into making the mattress and can signal the quality level of a mattress when combined with the mattress upholstery GSM and spring detailing.

Mattress Recommendation:

As a back sleeper you don't want anything too soft, but as a side sleeper you also need something with some forgiving upholstery layers. I believe that an soft mattress will be too forgiving but a firmer feel maybe uncomfortable given your weights. So we would recommend a medium feel mattress in the comfort layers with deeper GSM's if you sleep on your sides. At your bodyweights, you both require a 1.4 medium gauge pocket spring as well.

We would recommend you have a look at our Artisan Bespoke 002 Mattress which is at the same price point as the Hypnos mattress. It uses a dual pocket spring system which is calico encased and vanadium coated. It's a medium feel but with a livelier support system if you need to turn quickly during the night. It's two-sided and has a 10-year guarantee (not a proportional warranty like many retailers more on that here).

Artisan Bespoke 002

1: 1200GSM BLENDED BRITISH FLEECE WOOL AND COTTON

2: HAIRPROOF CAMBRIC COVER

3: 200GSM SOFT BAMBOO

4: 1200GSM PURE HORSETAIL

5: 1000GSM BONDED BRITISH FLEECE WOOL AND COTTON

6: 2508 (2 TIERS) CALICO ENCASED POCKET SPRINGS [56MM] [1.40MM]

TOTAL: 3600GSM

DEPTH: 27-30CM

CHEMICAL FREE COVER

We think for the £2000+ you're looking at spending on a new mattress you should expect more in terms of details and the actual fillings.

We hope that helps and gives you food for thought. If you have any more mattress related questions please get back in touch on info@localhost or 0161 437 4419.

Sleep well
John & Ryan