Casper Wave Mattress Review (2019 Update)

Comfort & Feel

There are three aspects that make up our assessment of comfort and feel. We call these "preference-based characteristics" because no rating here is better or worse – rather, the attributes that are most desirable to you will be determined solely by your personal preferences. We apply the same classification standards to each mattress so you can more easily compare apples to apples.

Softness ( what’s this )

Keep in mind that what mattress companies call “firm” or “soft” is a purely a preference. All mattresses should be supportive and promote healthy spinal alignment. Whether a mattress is fluffy and squishy (what mattress companies call soft or plush), or less so (what companies call firm), is purely down to your personal needs and preferences.

We classify the Casper Wave mattress as a Medium in terms of softness overall. The softness will vary a bit depending on where you are on the bed due to the channels cut into the support layers of the foam. The head and foot of the bed are intended to be softer so shoulders sink in a bit more for better pressure release, while the channels and gel-pod inserts in the middle third of the mattress give the lumbar/lower back areas firmer support so they don’t sink in too much. But overall, we’re calling this a Medium mattress in terms of total softness.

Not sure what softness is best for you? Take our Mattress Match Quiz and find out.

Cushioning Depth ( what’s this )

This refers to how deeply you sink into the mattress or feel cradled or hugged, versus a feeling of floating on top of the bed. We found the Casper Wave to have a bit deeper than average cushioning; we attribute that extra bit of cushioning to the small layer of memory foam in the Wave bed, which conforms to the body. Even so, you certainly do not sink as deeply as you would with a mattress that includes more memory foam up top, or a mattress with a thicker/more plush cover.

Responsiveness ( what’s this )

Responsiveness refers to how quickly a mattress recovers its shape after being compressed. When you press your hand into the mattress, for instance, then remove it, does it take several seconds for the mattress to return to flat, or does it recover immediately?

While the Casper Wave mattress does have a small 1.5” layer of memory foam (the third layer of the mattress), it really does not have any of that recognizable memory-foam feel, where after compressed, your hand print takes several seconds to disappear (some describe this as a slow, melting into the mattress feeling). Rather, the Casper

Wave mattress is fairly quick responding, meaning it recovers its shape quickly; not as quickly as an innerspring mattress might do, but definitely a lot faster than a memory foam mattress.

This also translates to bounce, which we test in two ways. When we dropped our 16-lb. bowling ball in the mattress, it bounced slightly. However, when our tester dropped his weight onto the bed, he did not bounce at all.

Back Support & Pressure Relief

The two things that you should always be sure to get from your mattress are spinal alignment (commonly thought of as "back support") and pressure relief. Unfortunately, no mattress will deliver these two things equally well for all sleepers. In particular, spinal alignment and pressure relief capabilities will vary across sleepers with different weights, body shapes, and sleep positions. To help you determine how this mattress will perform for you, we break down our spinal alignment and pressure relief assessments by sleeper type.

In our evaluations, the Casper Wave mattresses afforded very good back support and spinal alignment for all sleeping positions, and in our history of evaluating mattresses, this is fairly rare. We more typically end up feeling a mattress works better for two of the three main sleeping positions.

This means that the Casper Wave might be a solution for a couple that, for example, each sleeps predominantly in a different position.

We did feel that the Wave channels and gel pods in the mattress's support layers made a difference.

A possible exception in all sleeping positions, we felt, might be for those who are substantially heavier than our tester (250+ lbs.). While we cannot know for sure, our experience tells us that heavier individuals can sometimes sink ‘through’ the softer comfort layers of the mattress, bottoming out on the firmer support layers below.  

Spinal Alignment

The key to good back support is maintaining proper spinal alignment while you sleep. This means that the mattress should hold your spine in roughly the same position it's in when you're standing. The ability of a given mattress to do this will generally depend on your weight, sleep position, and body shape.

Here is how we break down the spinal alignment of the Casper Wave mattress:

Back Sleepers:

While our tester was on his back, he noted that his hips sank just deeply enough to create a perfectly neutral spine, while he felt the mattress did a nice job reaching up to support his lumbar curve. We feel that sleepers of a wide weight range would have a similar experience.

Side Sleepers:

The picture was also good, in our view, for side sleeping. Again, our tester felt that the Wave’s unique channeling did make a difference, allowing his shoulders to sink into the softer top part of the mattress.

Stomach Sleepers:

Achieving good spinal alignment for stomach sleepers can often be trickier as the hips can tend to sink down too far with some mattresses, but our tester felt well supported in this position as well, and that the Wave mattress’s carved channels did make a difference. While on his stomach, our tester experienced good alignment, and this hips/belly did not sink too deeply as they sometimes do with other foam mattresses.

Pressure Relief

Overall, we found the pressure relief offered by the Casper mattress to be excellent. Our tester didn’t experience any specific issues, and he didn’t feel that he ‘bottomed out’ or pushed through the mattress’s comfort layers and into the firmer support foam layers. However, we do wonder about heavier individuals, whose hips and shoulders could possibly sink through those top layers to the harder support layers of foam.

Other Features

Beyond the preference-based characteristics of comfort and feel, and the body matching for spinal alignment and pressure relief, a mattress will have a number of other attributes that can make it a better or worse choice for you. We call these "priority-based characteristics" because they are areas in which a mattress can be better or worse, but that will have differing amounts of importance to each sleeper. So, determining how much importance to give to these features will be entirely a matter of your own personal priorities. As always, we apply the same ratings standards to each mattress so you can more easily compare apples to apples.

Motion Isolation ( what’s this )

With a bowling pin standing upright on the Casper Wave bed, we tested motion isolation by dropping a 16-lb. bowling ball on it, as well as the whole weight of our 200-lb. tester.

In the bowling ball test, the bowling pin wiggled a tiny bit but didn’t fall. And when our tester dropped his entire weight onto the Wave bed, the pin barely moved.

We felt that the Casper Wave bed would be an excellent choice for couples who don’t want to feel their partner getting in and out of bed.

Temperature ( what’s this )

For most people, we do not think the Casper Wave mattress will feel hot. Memory foam has a reputation for heat retention, but in the case of the Casper Wave bed, the memory foam layer is not on top. The top two layers are softer and less dense foams, which should have better airflow than denser materials.  

New in the 2019 version are pin-core holes punched through the top two foam layers, intended to improve airflow and heat management.

If overheating in bed is an issue for you, and you’ve experienced it with other mattresses, then a foam mattress in general may not be the best choice, but experienced no heat-related issues on the Wave bed.

 Below: Pin core holes in the top two comfort layers

Edge Support ( what’s this )

Foam mattresses aren’t typically very supportive along the very edge of the mattress—important if you like to sit on the edge of the bed, or if you tend to sleep along the edge. With the Casper Wave mattress, our tester did experience a substantial amount of dip when sitting on the edge of the mattress.

When laying on the very edge of the mattress, our tester felt his body starting to lean and slip off the edge once he began to warm up and soften the memory foam layer. He felt less stable in this position than he did with the original Casper bed. Overall, if you spend a lot of your sleep time right on the edge of the bed, we feel other mattresses will be a better fit.

Ease of Repositioning ( what’s this )

If you tend to move and change positions a lot over the course of a night, ease of repositioning will be a priority for you. Our tester did experience any big problems, though it was not quite as easy to move around as on the original Casper bed, which is firmer. But overall, we don’t expect the majority of people will have big problems here.

Green Features ( what’s this )

For mattress shoppers concerned with the use of natural materials, sustainable manufacturing practices or the like, we offer our subjective evaluation of any efforts taken by the company to make the mattress more green, healthy, or safe. 

In the case of the Casper Wave mattress, the company makes no claims about the use of natural materials, however all of the Casper foams used are certified to the CertiPUR-US standard, which verifies that a material has low VOC off-gassing as well as a lack of chemicals and other substances regulated by the CPSC. And the latex-blend layer is certified to the OEKO-TEX standard, which asserts similar minimal off-gassing.

We also gave the Wave mattress a ‘sniff test’ and while it certainly had what we would term a ‘new mattress smell’ we did not feel it was anything that would not dissipate in a day or two, and we did not find it bothersome.

Adjustable Base Compatibility ( what’s this )

We also tested the Casper Wave mattress atop an adjustable base. Here, we are looking for how well the mattress conforms, and for any concerning behaviors that might lead us to believe that the bed could be damaged. We noted that the foot of the bed lifts substantially from the foot of the adjustable bed, but this is typical for new mattresses. With use, mattresses tend to relax and better conform to the foot. Out of the box, the Casper Wave did conform very well in its midsection, where the mattress will need to bend the most. The Casper company sells its own adjustable base that can be used with the Casper bed, and using an adjustable base (either Casper’s or another brand’s) will not void the warranty.

Price, Value & Longevity

How Much Does a Casper Wave Mattress Cost?

Prices shown are list prices. Remember that GoodBed keeps our site current with the best available discounts on all online mattresses, many of which are exclusive discounts for our readers. This is an exclusive discount for our readers, and also provides GoodBed with a small referral fee from Casper that supports our work at no cost to you.

What Are You Getting?

The Casper is a 11-inch mattress made of polyurethane foam with, along with a 1.25” layer of 50-50 foam and latex as the second layer, plus a 1.5” layer of memory foam sandwiched as the third layer. As one of the very first, if not THE first companies selling mattresses online, Casper has a long track record in the industry. And recognizing that some people still prefer to try a mattress in person, Casper has opened a number of showrooms (currently in 12 states) where you can try out and buy their products.

How Long Will the Casper Wave Mattress Last?

When it comes to estimating the comfort lifespan of a mattress, we tend to use foam density as our best, albeit imperfect, predictor of how long a foam will retain its shape and resiliency. However, Casper does not disclose the densities of the foam used in the Wave bed. Most of the foams used are standard polyurethane foam, which generally has a good track record for longevity. If we have any concerns, it’s the 1.5” layer of memory foam. Overall, though, we do believe the Casper bed will hold up well.

Overall Value

When Casper first hit the market, it was a revolutionary sales model and product, and at the time was an exceptional value, especially compared to traditional mattress stores. These days, the competition has caught up, and policies pioneered by Casper, like free delivery and returns, are now standard practice.

Pricing for the queen size Casper bed is currently $2,295 -- a price that's gone up almost $300 with the 2019 version of the Wave, which at face value doesn’t compare well to the online competition among foam mattresses. But that doesn’t account for what we feel are some genuine innovations that result in tangible benefits. The “wave” pattern created by varying carved channels in the support foams really do, in our view, make a difference in support, spinal alignment and pressure relief in all sleeping positions—something that’s fairly rare. And in the case of two sleeping partners that tend to sleep predominantly in different positions, that’s a performance aspect that could tip the scale. You're also getting free in-home setup and removal of your old bedding, something that's a $149 option for other Casper mattresses.

And if you prefer to try a mattress in a store, Casper showrooms offer just that (currently in 11 states), allowing you to test in person but still take advantage of online pricing. Casper also offers a 10% discount to active duty and retired military and their spouses.