Spinery mattress uses eco-friendly natural materials free of toxic fire retardants and petrochemicals and is biodegradable

You lie on it for most of your life and probably never think about it, but the mattress is one of the most important pieces of furniture in the home. So, a good one is a sizeable investment given that about eight hours of every day are spent on it.

Top hotels, for instance, tend to match the price points of a room to the quality of the mattress, says John Brennan of the Park Hotel in Kenmare. “It is something no one sees because it is covered, tangible, but yet a good night’s sleep in a lovely room gives a guest a good experience”, he says. His mattresses of choice are the fully sprung Kingcoil Kayfoam handmade in Kildare and used in the Park, as well as in Dromquinna Manor, where luxury glamping tents are furnished safari style with pillow topped mattresses from the same company for an added layer of comfort.

“A mattress can be turned four ways,” explains Brennan, who replaces them every seven years, “but your mattress at home will get more use than one in a hotel and a good one should cost not less than €1,200-€1,400.”

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At Cloona Health Retreat in Mayo, owner Dhara Kelly with decades of experience, also furnishes rooms for the weeklong stays with mattresses from Kingcoil.

In Arnotts, no fewer than nine brands of bedding are displayed at prices from €279 for an Odearest open coil foam mattress and five-year guarantee to €5,499 for a top-of-the-range Vispring, boasting over 2,000 springs, natural fillings and a 30-year guarantee. Potential buyers are advised to lie on the beds to make the right choice of tension based on the position in which they sleep.

Manufacturer Kayfoam Woolfson owns bedding brands King Koil, Kaymed and Odearest. Photograph: Tom Honan

No harsh chemicals are used in the acclaimed Yorkshire handmade Harrison Spinks mattresses, which Arnotts Home and Living buying manager Catriona McGovern always recommends as a good investment for first-time buyers.

“It’s a renowned family business committed to sustainability with their own sheep, grow their own flax and hemp and so all the mattresses are made with natural materials.”

A standard double at €1,200-€1,300 comes with a ten-year warranty, though she also adds that an Odearest for under €400 is good quality for a guest room.

“The more you learn about mattresses, the more you realise just how important they are and the health benefits in the quality of sleep.”

That’s in keeping with the fact that it has been estimated that the average person spends 26 years of their life, one-third of their life, sleeping.

It can be overwhelming, given that there are several types of mattresses — memory foam, hybrid, pocket sprung, open sprung and latex. Then there is personal preference for degrees of firmness or softness. Harvey Norman has a huge selection from €279 for a small double foam up to €1,449 for a pure gel mattress with 10-year warranty. Its website has a “let’s find your dream mattress” quiz.

One Irish company making a name for its latex mattress is the Spinery, winner of the Business All-Stars Award in June. It all began when one of Dr Lawrence Woods’ children developed an allergy to flame retardant. Woods has worked in spinal healthcare for thirty years and has seen how back pain suffered by most of his patients could have been prevented with a better mattress.

With this in mind and the experience of his son, he set off to research and design with Dr Sinead Moore PhD, the perfect mattress that would be comfortable, supportive, promote spinal alignment and use eco-friendly natural materials free of toxic fire retardants and petrochemicals. It would also be biodegradable. The result was The Spinery Mattress, which comes with a 100-day free trial and a ten-year warranty. The mattress starts at €995 for a single mattress.

Deirdre McQuillan is Irish Times Fashion Editor, a freelance feature writer and an author