Over the past few years, we’ve actually built our own mattress emporium

exclusively from mattresses in a box. We sent GQ staffers, the sleep-indifferent and

sleep-obsessed alike, to put the mattresses through the same tests they would if
they were buying them at a store. Everyone's favorite test? Testing the
responsiveness and bounce by running across all 20 mattresses. In clean socks, of
course.

Obviously, you can’t replace sleeping for months on a mattress with a series of
catnaps. But by bringing all the mattresses in the same room, and bringing editors
of all different sleeping types and mattress expertise levels, it became a lot easier
to articulate differences in the small things, like, “Where is the line between
feeling swaddled in memory foam and feeling like you’re drowning in it?” and
“Does this mattress sleep hot, or is it just me?” Some people tested the edge
support, while others focused on heat or only considered mattresses that had spring
coils instead of pure memory foam.

Despite all the differences in preferences, some clear favorites emerged. The
best mattresses in a box are comfortable and supportive. That’s it. Two factors.
The materials, firmness, thickness, hyper-cooling gel-cushions, whatever—they all
combine to offer some combination of comfort and support.