Best Cheap Mattresses on Walmart for 2025
A glimpse into one of the large storage spaces at our testing facility.
Aly Lopez/CNET
CNET's team of sleep experts has spent years testing, reviewing, cutting open and researching beds. Collectively, we've tested well over 300 beds. All the testing happens in our 6,000-square-foot mattress warehouse in Reno, Nevada, which includes two mock bedrooms we use to film our reviews and test beds.
Our testing approach to mattresses is very hands-on and involves analyzing a bed's construction, feel and firmness. We make sure every bed gets multiple points of view from our entire team to ensure we're best representing different genders, body types and sleeper needs.
Firmness and feel
The Mattress Smasher tests the firm side of the Plank Firm mattress.
Aly Lopez/CNET
The first and arguably most important factor we look for when we test a bed is how it feels and how firm it is. These are some of the most subjective factors in mattress testing. They depend on your body weight or how much pressure you put on the bed. Through the years, we've found that our experience doesn't always match a brand's website.
To test firmness, we have every lie on the bed in different positions, compiling the data to compare it to other beds we've tested. We note how it feels on our backs, and pressure points like the shoulders, hips and knees. Once we feel comfortable with our experience with the bed and have recorded our subjective firmness, we pass the bed off to the Mattress Smasher 9000.
The MS9k is a proprietary machine built by the CNET Labs team. This gives us an objective numerical value for firmness across every bed we test.
Motion isolation
I often describe motion isolation as how well a bed dampens movement across the surface, aka, can you feel someone move around next to you? This is a huge factor that couples need to consider when choosing their next bed. To test motion isolation, I would lie on the bed and close my eyes while someone else moved around on the other side of the bed. Then, I'd rate how much I can feel their movement.
Testing the motion isolation with a glass of water on the end and flopping around. It passed.
Dillon Lopez/CNET
Next, we perform the classic water glass test. It involves setting a glass of water on the edge of a bed and rolling toward and away from it. We note how much the water sloshes in the glass. Traditionally, memory foam tends to do the best in this area.
Edge support
Edge support refers to the strength of the bed's perimeter. This is important for people who sleep on the edge of the bed or have mobility issues that make it difficult to get in and out of bed. To test a bed's edge support, we lie on the edge and measure how much it compresses under our weight. It receives a low score if it feels like we might slide off. Hybrid beds with reinforced edges tend to do the best in this area.
Temperature
Temperature control is one of the most sought-after features in mattresses. Hot sleepers need cooling tech to ensure their body heat doesn't interrupt their sleep. Unfortunately, there is no threshold that mattresses must reach for a brand to slap a cooling label on a bed. In my experience, only a handful of beds are actually going to move the needle in this area. Most are just marketing.
Part of the testing includes removing the mattress cover and analyzing its interior construction and materials.
Dillon Lopez/CNET
While testing a bed, we rank its cooling and note what cooling features are included in the construction, like a special cover or gel-infused foam layers. Some beds, like Purple, have an interesting construction that helps them sleep temperature-neutral, which is good for hot sleepers, but I don't consider it to be truly cooling. We also test beds in a temperature-controlled room to ensure we're always getting a consistent experience across beds.
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