If you can't decide between a firm or a medium tension mattress, then the eveSleep Wunderflip mattress could just be the solution you need.
This ingenious mattress is designed so that you can flip the mattress over to sleep on either a firmer tensioned side, or a softer medium tension on the reverse.
eveSleep make the Wunderflip in six variations. There are three hybrid versions, the 25cm deep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid Mattress, the 27cm deep Wunderflip Hybrid Mattress and the 28cm deep Wunderflip Premium Hybrid Mattress, all of which combine full-height pocket springs with a memory foam comfort layer.
Plus, there's the (most expensive) Wunderflip Ultimate Hybrid Mattress that adds an additional layer of latex to the hybrid mix.
Then there are two foam-only Wunderflip mattresses, the 24cm deep Wunderflip Memory Foam Mattress and the 27cm deep Wunderflip Premium Memory Foam Mattress that bypass the pocket springs and use a foam core topped with memory foam.
I tested the budget-friendly eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress for this review, putting it through its paces in our family home to see how it performed compared to some of the best mattresses on the market. This is what I found.
Eve Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid Mattress review
Specifications
- Type: Hybrid
- Construction materials: Quilted cover treated with Purotex+ to reduce dust mites, memory foam, foam, springs (made from 15-20% recycled steel)
- Number of springs: 1000 full height springs
- Memory foam: Yes
- Sizes: Single, Double, King
- Comfort level: one side medium tension, one side firm tension
- Height: 25cm
- Side handles: Yes (4 in total)
- Flip or rotate?: Rotate (or flip for alternative firmness)
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Manufacturer sleep trial: 40 nights to try and return with free collection. After 40 nights you can still return your product within 200 nights however eve will ask for a small fee to cover collection costs
How I tested
My sleep stats:
- Sleep position: back or side
- Tension preference: firm
- Sleep problems: lower back pain and/or neck pain and occasional overheating
- Height & weight: 5"5 and 9.5 stones
Delivery
A mattress delivery can often be bulky and cumbersome, requiring brute force and a few pairs of hands to heave it up the stairs and into the desired location. Not in this case though!
The eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress arrived rolled up and vacuum sealed in such a compact package that I repeatedly questioned whether I had accidentally been sent a single mattress instead of a double! (Although I needn't have worried, I hadn’t).
Of course, despite its deceptive size, the mattress is still heavy. Thankfully eveSleep partners with Bensons for Beds for its deliveries who offer delivery to your room of choice as standard. So no heaving this mattress from the front door to the bedroom yourself as with an Emma mattress.
The removal and recycling of your old mattress is also possible when you order a new eveSleep matttress, however there is a cost of £45 for this.
Unboxing
Once in the bedroom, it was time to unpack. The mattress is wrapped in an outer plastic layer with cardboard packaging at each end stating, "best enjoyed fresh, unpack me within 1 month’.
According to eveSleep, this is due to the fact that when the mattress is vacuum packed for delivery it's compacted from its full height of 25cm down to just 35mm, and then it's rolled. The mattress foam can only stay compacted and rolled for so long before it starts to get damaged, so time is of the essence once it arrives. (This is standard for mattresses delivered rolled or in a box, and not unique to eveSleep).
Once the outer layer of packaging was removed it allowed the mattress to literally spring open and reveal its true double size!
There was an initial smell of chemical off-gassing once the final plastic packaging was removed, which can be common with new memory foam and foam mattresses. But that said, it wasn't a strong odour and it had faded within a few hours of the mattress being out of its packaging.
Construction
Stylish white, yellow and and grey colouring makes the eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress look very distinctive, but that's not the only reason it stands out from the crowd. This mattress is distinctive in its adaptabality too, with a clever design that means you can flip it over to get either a firm or medium mattress tension.
This feature is made possible thanks to several different mattress layers. First, there's the cover, which is deep and quilted and feels very comfy to touch and sink into. This section can be unzipped and attached to whichever side of the mattress you decide to sleep on, depending on your firmness preference.
This cover is treated with Purotex+, a technology certified by Allergy UK that eveSleep states 'reduces dust mites and other nasties by up to 96.6%', and it can also be removed and machine washed at 40°c, which will be a bonus for those keen to keep allergens at bay.
Beneath that is 40mm of memory foam that the brand says is ‘five times more breathable than standard memory foam’ thanks to its open cell structure. This memory foam layer also has what eveSleep describes as ‘three drill zones’. These are holes designed to allow even more air circulation through the memory foam layer in order to prevent overheating.
On one side of the mattress there is then a firmer foam layer. In combination with firmer full-height springs underneath, this side of the mattress is designed for those of us who prefer a medium-firm sleep surface. On the reverse, there's a softer foam layer and softer full-height springs for those who prefer a medium-soft mattress.
The centre layer is the 'ReactiveTM Spring System'. This features 1000 full height pocket springs which are softer at one end and firmer at the other to help create the different comfort levels on each side of the mattress.
The mattress also has a reinforced foam edge support which helps to stop the edges from dipping when you roll close to them, and those sides feature handles to make flipping the mattress easier.
Comfort
My first impressions when laying on this mattress couldn’t have been better. I instantly felt like I was being enveloped in a bed of marshmallow (as my children so nicely described it), thanks to the squishy memory foam top layer which moulded perfectly to the shape of my body.
Usually I prefer a firm mattress, so I initially tested out sleeping on the eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid with the firm side of the mattress up. Because of its memory foam top layer I didn't find the eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid as firm as other mattresses I've tested, such as the Sealy Newton Posturepedic Mattress. I would say it's firmer side is more medium-firm than firm, but, as I'm a side sleeper more often than not, I found the cushioning memory foam ideal in this posture.
My physio says a cushioned surface like this can help to aid healthy spine alignment and reduce pressure points on areas such as the hips and shoulders when laying on your side, and it certainly seemed to do the trick, with my shoulders and hips able to sink far enough into the mattress that my spine stayed straight.
Sleeping on my back was equally as good on the firm side of this mattress, although when I flipped the mattress onto its softer side – whilst it was still very comfortable – I felt like my hips sank a bit too low for comfort.
Similarly, on the rare occasion that I slept on my front, the firm side felt supportive enough that my hips didn’t sink in too far, but, for me, the softer side was a bit too soft.
A potential downside to that marshmallowy memory foam is also some lack of responsiveness. That means that it's a bit harder to turn over on this mattress, as the memory foam moulds into a bit of a dip to 'hug' your body. Myself and my husband both noticed that it was a bit harder to change position than on a firmer mattress.
Whilst this may not be a problem for everyone, when I injured my back recently it did make turning over much more problematic, and it's something to consider for anyone who has mobility issues.
Temperature regulation
Older memory foam mattresses were notorious for making sleeper's overheat at night thanks to memory foam's dense elastic structure.
However, according to eveSleep, the full height springs used in the Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress ensure that air can circulate easily, whilst the open cell memory foam they use is ‘five times cooler than the traditional stuff’. Those three drilled air channels in the foam also aim to increase airflow so that body heat and humidity can dissipate.
I put this mattress through Ideal Home's mattress testing process during a summer heatwave in a very warm bedroom, and I certainly noticed that I didn’t feel as hot as I sometimes do at night.
Whether this was psychosomatic because I’d read about the mattress’ cooling properties, or down to the mattress itself, I can’t be sure, but it seems likely all those increased cooling measures played a part, and I certainly slept like a log without a fan even on during even the hottest of evenings.
Motion transfer
I’m the first to admit I’m not the easiest person to share a bed with! Even the slightest movement from someone else in the bed can stop me from getting to sleep.
However, when two people were laying on the eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress the motion transfer (that's any vibrations through the mattress caused by one person shifting position) was minimal, especially when sleeping on the firm side.
That's no doubt because memory foam is one of the best materials for preventing motion transfer on a mattress. That's down to its cushioning which helps to dampen any movement, and it was certainly true in this case.
When I lay on this mattress with my husband the motion transfer that I could feel was minimal, and if it was me and one of the children climbing into bed (who are obviously a lot lighter) I could hardly feel it at all.
If you’re planning on sharing this mattress with someone else then you'll be happy to hear there was also no rolling together in the middle of the mattress. Instead my husband and I slept soundly on our own sides.
Edge support
Although this mattress does have edge support – in this case an outer wall of foam around all four sides – I didn't feel it was as robust as alternative (albeit more expensive) mattresses.
Instead, the edge support felt very soft, which meant that the mattress sank significantly when sitting on the edge of the bed. This could be an important consideration for anyone with mobility issues as it makes it much harder to push up from the edge of the bed to stand.
When two people are sleeping together on the mattress the lack of significant edge-support also means that you can’t roll too close to the edge without it sinking. Whilst we'd always recommended opting for the largest mattress size possible to avoid anyone sleeping on the edge, this does still reduce the amount of usable mattress space – potentially a particular problem for anyone who regularly has little ones crowding into their bed, or anyone with a small bedroom that can't accomodate a larger mattress.
Additional features
The flippability of the ‘Wunderflip’ mattress is one of this mattress' key selling points, and as the name suggests, it is truly wonderful!
I think catering to the fact that not everyone wants the same mattress firmness/softness is a great idea, and the fact that this mattress can be flipped over and the top comfort layer zipped onto either side is ingenious.
In practice, unzipping the top layer was very straightfoward, and the side handles made it easy to flip the mattress before re-zipping the top layer to the other side.
In my view, this makes the eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress perfect for a guest room in which you are catering for different sleep requirements, or indeed as a mattress that can endure different life-stages, for example during pregnancy when a woman may start sleeping on her side but then return to her usual sleeping position after having the baby.
It could also work well for growing kids, for instance, in our house my young children preferred the softer side of the mattress – which makes sense as they are lighter and so sink into the mattress surface less – whereas the firmer side was the preference for me and my husband who are naturally heavier than the kids.
Verdict
Overall I was impressed by the eveSleep Wunderflip Lighter Hybrid mattress, especially considering its relatively affordable price point.
I wasn't sure how useful its two-sided firmness levels would be in practice, but its design is well thought out, the top cover super easy to unzip and flip, and it makes a great mattress for a guest bedroom where the differing tension options should keep even the fussiest of guests happy!
It could also be a brilliant buy for an Airbnb or furnished rental property as it gives sleepers the adaptability to choose the right sleeping surface for their needs.
Personally, I found the firm side of the mattress more medium-firm than firm, and, for me, the soft side was a little too soft. But as a side and back sleeper, I still found that firmer side really comfortable thanks to the mix of marshmallowy memory foam and supportive pocket springs.
The fact eveSleep has made efforts to add breathability to that memory foam top layer also made for a cooler sleep, and I didn't find myself overheating at night.
Plus, the rolled delivery made getting this mattress up our stairs and into the bedroom easy (helped by the delivery team who will deliver to the room of your choice) which makes it a good option for anyone with awkward access.
The downsides are its lack of edge support. I found the edges very soft, and whilst this wasn’t a significant issue for us when sleeping, the softer edges are worth bearing in mind you have any mobility issues, as it makes getting out of the bed more difficult.
And although the memory foam surface does a great job of isolating motion – so it's a great option for couples – that does mean there's some lack of responsiveness, so turning over in the night or changing position is a little harder work.
All in all though, if you’re looking for an affordable mattress to suit a wide range of sleepers, this super adaptable mattress is something of a one-of-a-kind, and well worth considering.
