Getting a good night’s sleep comes down to a few factors.
You need the appropriate environment, the right temperature, a supportive pillow, and a comfortable mattress.
Unfortunately, mattresses become uncomfortable with extended use.
If it’s time to replace your old mattress, you may have noticed that mattresses have become quite expensive.
Considering you just sleep on them, you may wonder what makes mattresses so costly.
Why Are Mattresses So Expensive? (10 Reasons)
The average price of a cheap mattress is around $200.
However, more expensive mattresses can cost over $5,000.
Certain factors like extra features, the type of cushion it uses, and its durability can make mattresses quite expensive.
Let’s look at these factors in more detail.
1. Heating And Cooling Capabilities
One of the reasons some mattresses are expensive is that they have heating and cooling capabilities.
Back in the day, mattresses were nothing more than a cushion.
The luxury ones simply had more cushioning than others.
These days, there are all sorts of new and incredible features designed to make sleeping easier.
One of those features is the ability to heat and cool a mattress.
Some mattresses come with a button or panel that you can use to heat or cool your mattress.
Some even have specific sensors.
The sensors allow you to cool or heat certain parts of the mattress instead of the entire thing.
This allows you to heat your head, for example, while keeping your feet cool.
This makes mattresses expensive for several reasons.
The first is that the mattress requires far more parts.
It isn’t a simple cushion anymore.
It has heating and cooling elements built throughout the mattress.
Those need to be high-quality, too, or else they might set the mattress on fire.
It also requires a power source.
Whether it’s batteries or something you plug into the wall, you’re going to be spending more money on your mattress even after you buy it.
Finally, the sheer allure of the mattress allows it to have a more expensive price.
It adds a luxury element to the mattress that enables it to sell at a higher price.
2.Contour Sensors
Some mattresses also have contour sensors.
These types of sensors essentially make the mattress contour to your body.
For example, the mattress will curve itself to fit the empty spaces of your body.
It will fill the area between your ribs and hips.
It can also angle itself to give you better support for your head.
As a result, you wake up in less pain.
The mattress essentially helps support your body.
Some mattresses also allow you to contour it manually.
You might be able to lift the head or foot part of the mattress on its own, for example.
By simply clicking a button, the mattress will raise itself.
This feature makes mattresses expensive for a few reasons.
The first is that it requires more engineering.
The mattress that is self-contouring uses specific materials that allow it to fit the shape of your body.
Those materials tend to be more expensive than standard mattress materials.
The mattress that allows you to lift it requires engineering, too.
There are also more safety measures put in place to ensure the mattress doesn’t injure the sleeper.
All these assets make producing the mattress more expensive to produce.
As a result, the manufacturer sells it at a higher price.
3.Delivery And Shipping Costs
Another main reason that mattresses are expensive is that their shipping and delivery costs are expensive.
When you buy a mattress, you’re not just buying the mattress.
You also have to pay for the delivery service.
Mattresses are large and heavy.
No matter where you buy it from, you’re going to be looking at some sort of delivery or shipping charge.
Even if you buy it from a mattress store, the price of the delivery ends up getting built into the price of the mattress.
Mattress stores and other online furniture stores charge a lot of money for delivery or shipping services because of how heavy and large mattresses are.
They don’t have a lot of room to transport them on trucks.
As such, they’re only able to transport or deliver so many a day.
That impacts how much money they’re able to make, so they have to charge more to make up for any lost money.
The weight of the mattress also impacts the durability of the truck.
Since the truck is under strain, it’s going to wear down faster.
To afford regular maintenance, the mattress shop charges an expensive fee for its delivery or shipping services.
4.Size
The size of your mattress also impacts its price.
There are 10 main sizes of mattresses.
You start with a crib.
A crib mattress is the smallest one available.
The biggest mattress is the California King.
Other popular mattress sizes are twin, full, and queen.
Twin beds are usually ideal for children and young adults.
A full bed is ideal for a single adult or someone who doesn’t mind sleeping very close to their partner.
A queen is ideal for adult partners who don’t mind getting close, too.
The king mattress is perfect for adults who want a bit of room away from their partners.
The size of the mattress that you choose impacts your price.
That’s because larger mattresses use more materials.
They’re more expensive to produce, so the manufacturer has to offset that cost with higher prices.
They’re also more expensive to ship since they’re bigger and heavier.
Essentially, the larger mattress that you buy, the more expensive the price becomes.
5. Memory Foam
One of the most popular types of mattresses is a mattress that uses memory foam.
Memory foam may seem like a relatively new type of material, but it’s been in use for some time.
NASA was among the first to use it.
They applied memory foam to the seatbelts and chairs in their rockets.
Memory foam also became popular in the use of helmets.
As a mattress, memory foam offers quite a few benefits.
It sinks against your body when you lay down on it and apply your weight.
It then contours and supports your body.
The real trick, however, is that after you leave the bed, it resumes its shape.
Other mattresses tend to sink with age.
The more that you sleep in the same area, the worse the sagging becomes.
Eventually, you’ll start to feel the springs in the mattress, and it won’t be comfortable anymore.
Memory foam is resilient.
It lasts for a long time and provides greater comfort.
This type of mattress is expensive because it’s a bit more expensive to make.
It uses a material called polyurethane.
Since this isn’t a natural cushion, it goes through quite a bit of processing before it’s ready for use in a mattress.
That makes the production of these beds a bit on the expensive side.
6. You Usually Buy New
Another reason mattresses are expensive is that you usually buy them new.
Buying a secondhand mattress usually isn’t a good idea.
For one, by the time people are ready to throw out their mattress or sell it, it’s usually because the mattress is starting to show wear and tear.
The mattress might be sagging, for example, which means sleeping on it might make you feel the springs inside it.
It might also have tons of stains on it.
You don’t want to know what those stains are and where they came from.
Some mattresses might also have bed bug eggs in them.
Even if the owners got rid of the bed bugs in their room, there’s always a chance that more eggs are hiding in the mattress.
The last thing you want to do is allow that mattress into the bedroom.
As such, there isn’t much of a market for secondary mattresses.
That leaves you paying the full retail price of a brand-new mattress.
While there are always sales and discounts, they’re not usually so steep as to match the price of a questionable secondhand mattress for sale.
Mattresses are expensive because you usually buy them brand new.
7.durable
Mattresses are also quite durable.
All they do is rest on your bedframe all day.
They’re also nothing more than a cushion.
They don’t see quite as much abuse as your couch or chair.
As such, they last a long time.
Mattresses are also built to be resilient.
If they don’t support the individual, they’re not going to sell.
They would end up being a waste of the manufacturer’s resources.
The manufacturer wants to sell as many mattresses as possible, so they ensure that each mattress is durable and resilient.
The problem with durable mattresses, at least from a manufacturer’s perspective, is that they last a long time.
This means that people don’t buy that many mattresses in their lifetime.
Because of this, the demand for new mattresses isn’t always very high.
This then means that mattress manufacturers have to be mindful of how many they produce each year.
If they make more than what they can sell, they lose money.
However, if they don’t make enough, they lose customers to other mattress manufacturers.
This means that they usually sell their mattresses at higher prices.
It ensures that they make as much money on the sale as possible.
Even if they don’t see that customer again for a few decades, the high price helps keep them afloat a bit longer.
8. Come With A Frame Or Base
Some mattresses also come with a base or frame.
A mattress, on its own, is quite expensive.
A mattress that comes with a base is even more expensive.
A mattress that comes with an entire frame is the most expensive.
That’s because you’re paying for a whole bed, which means more materials and costs for the manufacturer.
The benefit of buying a mattress that comes with a base or frame is that the mattress fits both perfectly.
A problem you can sometimes face is that the mattress doesn’t quite match the base or frame.
It might spill over the base or there might be spaces between the mattress and the frame.
That can lead to some problems.
A mattress that comes with a base or frame is usually built specifically to fit that base or frame.
It looks better, and you don’t have to worry about anyone falling into the trench made by the smaller mattress.
Mattresses are expensive if they come with a base or a frame.
9.Custom
While you can find standard mattresses at any furniture store, some manufacturers focus on making custom mattresses.
These are usually the most expensive types of mattresses since a lot more work and time goes into them.
If you have a unique bed, you might need a unique and custom mattress.
You may even have an interest in building a dream bed.
It might come with a unique headboard or the mattress might have certain features that you can’t find on other mattresses.
Whatever the specific design, a custom mattress is more expensive to produce.
Since the company is using all its resources and time on your specific order, you’re going to be paying for that special attention.
10.Brand Name
A final reason mattresses are expensive comes down to the brand name.
Some mattress companies have made a great reputation for themselves for producing high-quality mattresses.
When it comes to sleep, people tend to take mattress shopping rather seriously.
They’re more willing to pay a higher price for a mattress that comes from a reputable brand rather than pay a cheaper price for a mattress from a company that they don’t know.
Brand name, alone, can make a mattress more expensive.
Conclusion
Mattresses are necessary cushions to help you sleep better at night.
If the mattress has unique features, memory foam, or comes from a reputable brand, then you can expect it to be expensive.
