Tuft & Needle Mint Mattress review: A cooling, supportive mattress that's perfect for hot sleepers

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Finding the best mattress for you is both a blessing and a curse: the sleep is incredible, but it can feel impossible to get out of bed. Such was my experience sleeping on Tuft & Needle's all-foam Mint Mattress. 

It's the second mattress from bed-in-a-box brand Tuft & Needle, which now has four mattresses in total (including a hybrid version of the Mint Mattress). It'll quickly wrap you up in its soft and comfortable embrace. If you want to try to get work done while sitting in this bed, here's my recommendation: don't. My experience with the mattress is that you'll simply end up horizontal, slumped into an impromptu nap.

Construction

The Mint mattress is an upgrade from the company's Original Mattress, a 10-inch, medium-firm mattress. You can check out our Tuft & Needle Original Mattress review for our full thoughts, but it's a basic and comfortable mattress at a cheaper price point. 

Comparatively, the Mint Mattress is a little thicker at 12 inches tall, but also softer, cooler, and better for pressure relief. The company recommends the Mint if you're a side sleeper or you run hot while sleeping. With more support on its sides, the Mint is also good if you often sit on the edge of your bed. 

Our review of the Tuft & Needle Mint Mattress

The mattress comes rolled up and packed tightly in a box. I tested the Full size, which weighed 66 pounds and admittedly wasn't fun to carry up the stairs of my fourth-floor walk-up (another set of hands will definitely help if you live in a similar situation). However, once I got the mattress up to my room, the rest of the setup was much easier.

After I cut through the plastic wrap, the mattress unfurled and rose to its full size. Though the company says there may be a new mattress smell, I personally didn't notice one. Regardless, this potential smell is a result of the packaging process, not chemicals. The mattress is CertiPUR-US and Greenguard Gold certified, so it's free from harmful chemicals and gases.

I positioned the mattress on my new Zinus bed frame, threw on one of my favorite sheet sets, and slept on it that same night. Tuft & Needle gives you 100 nights to test out its mattresses risk-free. If you don't end up liking it, you'll get a free refund and the company will also coordinate free pickup and send it to a donation location of your choice. 

I, for one, never returned my Mint Mattress. It's incredibly comfortable, supportive, and adaptive to both my body's movement and the room's changing temperatures. 

The mattress features Tuft & Needle's signature Adaptive Foam, which contours to your body and provides pressure relief like memory foam but is also breathable and bouncy like latex.

The mattress sleeps cool thanks to two times the amount of breathable Tuft & Needle Flex and Adaptive foams, which allow air to flow freely through the mattress and improve breathability. Even as the weather got exponentially hotter during the summer, my body never did while sleeping on this mattress. It has a soft and thick knit cover with a bit of texture you can feel through your sheets — cozy and comforting, and something that sounds perfect for colder temperatures. But surprisingly, this cover doesn't get overwhelming or hot in the summer, and that's because of the rest of the mattress' cooling and breathable design.

Between the Adaptive Foam layer and Flex Foam layer, there's a transition layer that provides contouring and pressure relief support. The base layer is the most firm and gives better edge support. Instead of sinking downwards every time I roll too close to the edge, or I perch on my bed, putting on my shoes, the mattress seems unaffected by the shift in weight.

The core of the mattress is, of course, also supportive. I sleep in all sorts of positions (side, stomach, back), and each feels comfortable. I've found that I'm also able to rest on my side for longer periods of time than on my previous mattress. If you sleep with a partner, the mattress is firm and adaptive enough that you won't disturb the entire bed when you reposition yourself or get out of bed early in the morning. Overall, the mattress simply feels stable yet comforting, which is exactly what you want to collapse into at the end of a long day. 

What are your alternatives?

The Tuft & Needle Mint Mattress also comes in a hybrid version, which combines foam with individually wrapped coils for extra support; it costs about $600 more than the version we tested. There's also the Tuft & Needle Original Mattress, which is a better option if you sleep cold. Read our review of the Tuft & Needle Original Mattress.

If you're specifically looking for a cooling mattress, the Nest Bedding Natural Latex Mattress is the top pick in our best cooling mattress guide. However, it's about double the price of the Tuft & Needle Mint Mattress.

Read our best mattress guide for other recommendations.

The bottom line 

My first introduction to Tuft & Needle was its Pouch bean bag chair (may it rest in peace), which remains one of my favorite products I've ever tested. I shouldn't have been surprised that its flagship mattress would be a hit too. From the very first night, it proved to be supportive, breathable, and comfortable, and it's been consistently so in the year I've been testing it.