Sleep Gear

The cheap fixes, and their limits

This section is mostly about spending less money. A $60 topper, a $15 mask and a decent blanket solve a surprising share of the problems people try to solve with a new mattress. They also have hard limits, and the limits are the part nobody selling them mentions — so that's what this page is about.

A topper changes feel. It does not change support.

This is the single most useful sentence in the category and almost nobody says it, because saying it costs a sale. Adding foam on top of your mattress changes what the surface feels like against your body. It does nothing whatsoever to what's happening underneath.

So: if your mattress is too firm, a topper genuinely fixes that, for about a tenth of the price of a new bed. If your mattress sags, or has lost its support, or you wake up with your hips lower than your shoulders — a topper will not fix it. You will simply sag more comfortably for a few months, and then buy the mattress anyway. Softness on top of a broken support core is not support.

Our topper picks are here, with a straight answer on which problem you actually have. If it turns out to be the support core, you need a mattress instead — and yes, we earn more when you go that way. It's still the right answer less often than the industry implies.

Sleep masks: one job, mostly done badly

A mask has exactly one job — block light — and the difference between a good one and a bad one is almost entirely about the nose. Light gets in through the gap either side of the bridge of your nose, and a flat piece of fabric cannot seal it. That's why contoured masks with molded eye cavities outperform flat silk ones, and why the luxurious silk mask you were given as a present is probably the worst performer in your house.

The eye cavity matters for a second reason: a flat mask presses on your eyelids all night, which is why people take them off in their sleep without remembering. The picks are here.

Weighted blankets: the trade-off is unavoidable

The usual rule of thumb is roughly ten per cent of your bodyweight, and the physics of the category has one unavoidable consequence: the weight comes from fill, and fill is insulation. A weighted blanket sleeps hot. Every "cooling" weighted blanket on the market is trying to claw back some of the heat its own weight creates, and none of them fully succeed. If you already overheat, this is the wrong product and no version of it is the right one.

We're also not going to tell you what a weighted blanket does for anxiety, ADHD or insomnia, because that's a medical question and we have no medical advisor. The evidence is thinner than the marketing suggests, and we're not the people to ask. What we can do is tell you how to pick one — weight, fill type, washability — and flag the genuine safety limits around children.

Box springs: the one nobody has springs in anymore

Almost nothing sold as a box spring today contains a spring. They are rigid foundations wearing an old name — which happens to be what a foam or hybrid mattress actually wants, but it means the word on the box tells you nothing and the specs decide it. It also means a lot of people buy one they don't need, because a mattress and a box spring were sold as a pair for so long that the second one still feels compulsory.

The expensive part is the warranty clause: mattress makers routinely void coverage for a base that flexes or has slats spaced too far apart, and the damage takes two years to show up. Our box spring picks are here — six bases sorted by height, deck rigidity and whether they fit up your stairs, with the readers who should buy nothing named first.

The order to try things in

If your bed is uncomfortable and you're not sure what to change, work up from cheapest:

• Too hot? Sheets, then pillow, then the mattress. In that order — the first two cost under $100 between them.
• Too firm? A topper. This is the one case where the cheap fix is genuinely the right fix.
• Too soft, or sagging?A topper will not save you. That's a support problem and it needs a new mattress.
• Neck hurts? The pillow, almost always — and a doctor if it persists.
• Room too bright? A mask, for $15, before anything else.

How we pick

We haven't used any of these. Everything here is reasoned from what the listings actually commit to and from what the materials physically do, and where a product's claim can't be checked we say so rather than repeating it. Here's the full method.