Could the Nectar Mattress Make Me a Bed-in-a-Box Convert?

  • Value: 18/20

  • Functionality: 19/20

  • Ease of Use: 19/20

  • Aesthetics: 17/20

  • Comfort: 20/20

  • TOTAL: 93/100

The first time I ever saw a bed-in-a-box was thanks to Gretchen Geraghty. (She’s an Instagram influencer, for the uninitiated.) “Here’s my new mattress!” she declared on her IG story, pointing to an impressively small box sitting in the middle of her new apartment. “Yeah right, what’s the catch?” I thought as I watched her unroll the mattress and place it on her bed frame with ease in the subsequent slides.

Considering the only bed-in-a-box I’d ever slept on was an air mattress—never a good experience—I highly doubted that a quality mattress could come that way.

That is, until the hard, worn-out mattress in my childhood bedroom started giving me back pain every time I visited my parents. It needed to be replaced, STAT, and when Nectar generously offered to send me one of its bed-in-a-box style mattresses, I caved.

Luckily, I was home for the holidays, so I got to experience the setup process in action. When the mattress arrived, my dad and I hauled the compact box upstairs and into my room—no “pivoting” necessary. And the unboxing process was just as easy—after unrolling it onto the bed frame and cutting off the plastic casing, my newly-upgraded bed was ready for a test drive.

After a few nights of sleeping on the soft, yet supportive layers of memory foam, I was impressed. My middle back pain was gone, and I noticed that I fell asleep in a few minutes flat instead of tossing and turning like I was used to. This side sleeper was content.

But the true test came a few months later, when I moved home in March to quarantine with my family. Since then, I’ve slept on my Nectar mattress almost every night and honestly, it’s probably been the best part of living at home (minus the home-cooked meals of course).

Why, you ask? First of all, the mattress’ five layers are designed to relieve common pressure points for a difference that I can actually feel when I lay down after a long day. Plus, its gel memory foam ensures that body heat gets distributed evenly throughout which is a total game-changer for hot sleepers like me. Those factors, combined with its medium firmness ensure that I sleep straight through the night and wake up feeling like I just got 10 plus hours of sleep in a luxe hotel bed.

My only true complaint is that The Nectar Memory Foam Mattress comes encased in a ton of plastic, which doesn’t exactly feel eco-friendly. But plastic is the reason the brand is able to package it so compactly, so it seems kind of unavoidable when it comes to the whole bed-in-a-box thing.

The TL;DR? I’m a total bed-in-a-box convert now. And between Nectar’s free shipping and returns, 365-night home trial period and current sale, which includes $100 of your mattress plus two free pillows, there’s never been a better time to see what the hype is all about.

Buy It ($949; $699)

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