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 Sapira mattress as a Medium Firm bed on our scale. Compared to the company's other mattress, the Leesa, this is a firmer bed.

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 by your mattress; how far you sink into it. The Sapira mattress has a shallower than average cushioning depth, so the feeling on this mattress is more floating-on-top than sinking in deeply.

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?

The Sapira mattress does have a layer of memory foam, but it isn't the top layer. When we pressed down on the mattress, we did notice some delay in returning back to shape, but when laying on the mattress, we really did not notice much of that memory feel. Overall, we would call this a fast-responding bed.

Responsiveness also translates to bounce. Many mattresses with a coil unit have quite a bit of bounce, but in the Sapira mattress, the memory foam layer tends to absorb any bounce that might be generated by the pocketed coils. The net effect is a mattress with less bounce than we expected.

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 Sapira mattress from Leesa afforded very good back support and spinal alignment, particularly for back and stomach sleepers. We also felt it would be a good choice for heavier individuals, even heavier stomach sleepers, which can have a harder time finding a mattress that's supportive enough. We did have some questions about its suitability for very light persons, who might not sink into the mattress enough.

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 Sapira mattress:

Back Sleepers:

In our evaluation, we felt the Sapira bed would be an excellent choice for most back sleepers. Our 200-lb. tester felt his hips sinking into the mattress just the right amount, even while he felt the mattress reaching up to support his lumbar area. We felt the Sapira bed would be a good choice for most back sleepers of average weight, including those who might be heavier than our tester. We did question whether the Sapira mattress might be too firm for those much lighter than our tester, because persons weighing less than 100 or 150 lbs. might not be heavy enough to compress the mattress enough to create appropriate spinal alignment.

Side Sleepers:

The Sapira mattress is a firm bed, and that can make side sleeping tricky; a bed must be soft enough in order for shoulders and hips to sink into the mattress enough to create a neutral spinal position. For our 200 lb. tester, he felt his shoulder not quite able to sink enough into the mattress, resulting in an upward tilt to his spine. We felt that persons heavier than our tester would likely be fine in a side-sleeping position, as they would be able to sink a bit more into the mattress.

We would be concerned about significantly lighter side sleepers, who might not be heavy enough to compress the foam with their shoulders or hips.

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 on the Sapira mattress, and felt that stomach sleepers of any weight would also be well supported.

Pressure Relief

Even though our 200-lb. tester felt his shoulders were not sinking quite enough into the mattress, he didn't feel any issues with pressure points or joints. We felt that those around our tester's weight, and heavier, would also experience very good pressure relief on the Sapira mattress. We questioned pressure relief for lighter persons, and for those who are curvier (e.g. those with broad shoulders or hips), who may find the Sapira bed too firm.

Other Characteristics

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 Sapira bed, we tested motion isolation first by dropping our 16-lb. bowling ball on the bed, then with our tester dropping his body weight on the bed.

Either way, there was almost no movement from our bowling pin, which leads us to conclude that the Sapira mattress would be a very good choice for those sensitive to a partner’s movements in bed.

Innerspring and pocketed coil mattresses often are not the best at motion isolation, but the Sapira is doing a very good job at that; the memory foam on top of the pocketed coil layer seems to help dampen any movement transferred by the coil unit.

Temperature ( what’s this )

For most people, we do not think the Sapira mattress will feel hot. Memory foam has a reputation for heat retention, but in the case of the Sapira bed, the memory foam layer is not on top. Furthermore, the bed’s top Avena foam layer has pin-core holes piercing the top layer to help promote airflow.

The largest portion of the bed is comprised of the pocketed coil unit, which is made of steel, thin fabric pockets, and air, so naturally air should flow well. Some innerspring mattresses have a foam edge support, but the Sapira features two rows of firmer coils around the edge, so air can move in and out of the sides of the mattress.

Lastly, the shallower cushioning depth of the Sapira mattress means that less of your body is exposed to air.

Edge Support ( what’s this )

The pocketed coil unit of the Sapira mattress has two rows of narrower, firmer coils around the edge specifically for edge report. In our testing, this edge support worked very well. While sitting on the edge of the bed, our tester felt very stable.

When laying on the very edge of the mattress, our tester also felt stable, and didn’t feel he was slipping or leaning at all. If you tend to sleep on the edge of your bed, or find yourself pushed there by kids and pets, we think the Sapira mattress would be an excellent choice.

Ease of Repositioning ( what’s this )

One of the highlights of the Sapira by Leesa mattress, for our tester, was ease of movement. Mattresses with memory foam don’t have the best reputation when it comes to how easy it is to roll into different positions. However, the memory foam in the Sapira bed is two inches down, and the top Avena layer is a very responsive foam we felt had many behavioral qualities of latex. Our tester felt that changing positions was very easy.

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 Sapira mattress, the company makes no claims about the use of natural materials, however all of the 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.

The coils are made of steel, which does not off-gas.

The company does have some social initiatives. For every 10 mattresses sold, Leesa donates one mattress to charity. The company says that it has donated more than 30,000 mattresses so far to disaster recovery, homeless and women’s shelters, and Habitat for Humanity. Read more about Leesa's social initiatives on its website.

The company also says it plants a tree for each mattress sold.

Adjustable Base Compatibility ( what’s this )

We did not specifically test the Sapira bed with an adjustable base. However, the company sells its own adjustable base that can be used with its beds, and using an adjustable base (either Leesa’s adjustable base or another brand’s) will not void the warranty. Since the company endorses use of adjustable bases, we assume that compatibility is likely good.

Price, Value & Longevity

What It Costs

Prices shown are list prices. Remember that GoodBed keeps our site current with the best available discounts on online mattresses, many of which are exclusive discounts for our readers.

What You’re Getting

The Sapira is an 11-inch hybrid mattress made of foam over pocketed steel coils, with three inches of premium comfort materials, including Leesa's proprietary latex-like Avena foam, along with visco-elastic memory foam. The pocketed coil unit features a firmer two row of slimmer coils as edge support. The bed is covered in a sturdy, stretchy, nice-feeling cover.

How Long We Think It Will 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. In the case of the Sapira mattress, the top Avena foam is of 3.75 lb. density, with the memory foam a 4 lb. density. Both are high densities that indicate high-quality materials. Steel coils have a long track record for durability. Overall, we did not notice any red flags in terms of durability for the Sapira mattress.

Overall Value

Pricing for the queen size Leesa bed is $1,595, a price that’s higher than many of its online-mattress competitors. The advantage, in our view, is Leesa's transparency with respect to the densities of the foams and gauge of the steel. That's information that likely won't be available when shopping in a mattress store. So compared to what you might find in a local store, we think the Sapira mattress is a good, but perhaps not an exceptional value.

If you prefer to try a mattress in a store, you can find Leesa and Sapira beds in select Pottery Barn and West Elm stores (check the Leesa store locator), which could be very reassuring for those hesitant about ordering online before trying the bed.