A personalized mattress matching tool reads one sleeper. That might be your answers, the pressure under your body, or your body's size and shape.
It runs that input through rules its maker wrote. Then it gives you a result in its own terms. That's often a starting support level, and with some tools, suggested mattresses or products.
Think of the result as where to start lying down. You still pick the bed.
Three ways a tool can read you
| Questionnaire | Pressure mapping | Body-shape measurement | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it reads | What you tell it: how you sleep, your body, what you like | How pressure spreads across body regions such as the head, shoulders and torso. A pressure-sensing system under you takes the reading in different sleep positions | An estimate of your size and shape. Researchers have used body measurements for different builds to model how stiff a sleep surface each needed. The answer differed between builds |
| What it can't see | Your body. It's only as good as your answers | Anything beyond the moment you lie there: heat, a partner's movement, how a bed feels weeks later | What you prefer. A shape reading has no sense of how a bed feels to you |
| What it needs from you | Honest answers about how you really sleep, not how you wish you slept | You, lying in the positions you actually use | You, in person, as your body is now |
From Your Input to Your Result
Whatever a matching tool reads, it works through the same four steps.
- It captures one sleeper. The input describes whoever answered or lay down, in the positions they reported or used. Nobody else is in it.
- Rules translate the input. Whoever built the tool decided how each answer or measurement becomes a result. In one research system, a single camera image and a body pressure reading were used to estimate height, body circumferences, weight and body type. The model then chose a combination from a fixed set of mattress densities, toppers and pillows. That's a research method, not a store tool. Still, it shows the idea: measurements in, a choice from a set menu out.
- The result speaks the tool's own language. It comes out in labels the maker chose. There's no shared industry scale that every tool, store and brand uses. So one tool's label doesn't carry over to another's.
- The label points to a band, and the lie-down takes it from there. Many mattresses from different makers can sit inside one band. At a Mancini's Sleepworld location, ask to lie on several mattresses from different brands at your level, side by side. That way you're comparing beds that share a starting point.
SleepMatch Is Two Separate Tools
Mancini's Sleepworld offers SleepMatch as two separate tools, and they're easy to blur together.
- The online SleepMatch quiz, which you can take wherever you are.
- A SleepMatch body scan at a Mancini's Sleepworld SleepMatch location, which produces a color-coded report.
Your SleepMatch color comes from that in-store report. In the four steps above, the color is the result. It's a label in SleepMatch's own terms that names a support level to start from. The report uses four colors:
| Color | What the report says |
|---|---|
| Red | Maximum support |
| Blue | More support |
| Green | Medium support |
| Gold | Less support, plusher |
The comfort guide uses a different scale. Its firmness groups are Extra Firm, Firm, Medium Firm and Soft. Don't try to convert one scale into the other. Instead, ask to see beds at your color's support level.
Reading a Result for One Sleeper
A result describes one body at one moment. It helps to read it that way.
It describes whoever gave the input
Shopping for a parent or partner? The tool can only describe the person who answered or was scanned. So that person has to answer the questions or get scanned, and has to be there to lie down.
It reflects how that person sleeps now
Has something recently changed how they lie, such as an injury or a new sleep position? Tell the person helping you, and give the lie-down more weight than the label.
It names a starting band, not a model
Several beds from different makers can fit one result. The result narrows the field. The lie-down picks the bed.
It's about the mattress only
Pillow height and the base underneath are separate checks. A good support result doesn't settle either one.
Some pain belongs with a doctor first
MedlinePlus advises contacting your provider right away for back pain that's worse when you lie down or wakes you at night. The same goes for weakness or numbness in the buttocks, thigh, leg or pelvis. Pain like that is a question for your doctor before it's a shopping one.
Two Sleepers, Two Results
Each of you gets your own result, because two bodies press into the same bed differently. In a pressure-mapping study, men exerted higher pressure on the head, shoulders and torso. Women showed a more even distribution.
Each result describes only the sleeper it measured, so it can't speak for the other person. Here's how to use your two results together, whether they match or point to different firmness levels:
| If your results are... | Start here | The test you do together |
|---|---|---|
| The same level | The shared band, on king mattresses or another bed with room for two | Lie side by side on several beds from different brands at that level, and each name your favorite |
| One level apart | Beds at both levels, placed near each other on the floor | Try the beds from both levels together. Note which ones each of you could sleep on without trading comfort away |
| Far apart (for example, one Red and one Gold) | Ask a Sleep Specialist to show you two mattresses side by side on one frame, one chosen for each sleeper. A split king setup uses two separate halves that together fill a king's footprint (see mattress sizes). Ask which of the beds you like come in the sizes that setup needs | Each of you picks a bed in your own band. Then you lie on the pair together, as you would at home |
Whichever result you're testing, you both lie down, in the positions you really sleep in.
Three Practical Questions About Matching Technology
Is the in-store scan worth doing if I already took the online quiz?
The two tools start from different inputs. The quiz works from your answers. The scan happens in person at a SleepMatch location, and it's where a SleepMatch color comes from.
Adding the scan earns its place in three cases. You doubt your answers really describe you. You're choosing for someone else who can come in. Or the quiz's starting point felt wrong once you lay on the beds it pointed to.
Can I skip matching if I'm short on time?
Yes. Matching only picks the first beds you lie on. Without a result, lie on one bed from each of the comfort guide's groups. Notice which direction feels better, and narrow from there.
You reach a starting band by feel instead of by label. The rest of the lie-down works the same way.
Can a machine really know what I need?
It knows what its input captured, and what its maker's rules say to do with that input.
- A questionnaire knows your answers.
- A pressure reading knows one moment on one surface.
- A shape estimate knows your build.
You supply everything else by lying down. That's how the bed feels in your real positions, and whether you'd choose it over the one beside it.
Once you have a starting point, take it to a Mancini's Sleepworld location and lie on several beds at that level.