Let’s start this Leesa bed review by stating what’s obvious. I’ve been growing roots in Berlin over the past three years. To a point where I’m now ready to call this damn gorgeous crazy impossible city my home. There once was a time when the thought of having all my belongings fit on the back of my bicycle was reassuring — that way I could push the eject button and ghost at any opportunity. But something, I’m not sure when, shifted.

I started buying plants. I got a second-hand sofa and started chilling on it for the simple enjoyment of being home. I started fermenting stuff. I even got a goddamn dressing gown. Me. A dressing gown.

Berlin became not so much a stepping stone in the grander scheme of my big adventure, but a place I started to long to come back to after the smaller adventures. A place where I would always be happy to return to my own bed, no matter how great the trip was. The only issue was that I didn’t actually own a bed. Thankfully, the good folks at mattress-in-a-box online company Leesa were ready to change that, and I’m here today to tell you that it takes very little to transform a backpacker dig into a real home in this Leesa bed review.

WHY MAIL ORDER MATTRESSES-A-BOX?

Casper started the mail order mattress trend a few years back. Followed Tuft & Needle, Saatva, Leesa, etc. The startup geek in me got increasingly curious as to why exactly the mattress industry needed to be disrupted in the first place, and why these direct-to-consumer companies were having such phenomenal overnight success. And the answer came the same as 95% of all answers to everything in life: the internets.

Not that long ago, mattress purchase was a brick-a-mortar shop affair only. Primitive. Some clever folks thought of cutting out store and salespeople overhead by selling regular-size memory foam mattresses vacuum-packed in tiny boxes the size of a fridge online. And so a trend was born. These companies’ products and business models may seem similar at first glances, but there are a few differences that made Leesa stand out for me.

THE ADVANTAGES OF LEESA

Leesa mattresses are all made locally for their respective market. Here in Germany, they are made in Thüringen. They are also a certificated B Corp Business, which means the company meets high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability and aspire to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Some of their projects include donating a mattress to an organization that serves homeless people for every ten mattresses purchased and also planting a tree for every mattress purchased.

Aside from that, Leesa mattresses come with a 100-night, in-home trial backed by a no-hassle, full refund policy.

UNPACKING PROCESS

Since I am going to be completely transparent in this Leesa bed review, I’m not gonna lie here, there was a lot of plastic. We’re miles away from my zero waste challenge. But the fact that each Leesa mattress is produced locally for its own market and packed in small boxes do contribute to the reduction of transport emissions. I would be keen to know more about the carbon footprint of a traditional mattress versus Leesa. And this raises one good point about Leesa’s business model. There was actually someone readily available at the other end of the line to listen and respond very swiftly to my incessant emailing regarding the sustainability and ecological impact of all this. It felt really great having a direct line of communication and such a good level of transparency from the manufacturer.

But back to the unboxing. As a one-woman show, I’m not 100% sure how else I could have managed to purchase, carry, unpack, and put into place a king-size mattress in my 4th floor elevator-less apartment alone. Toppling the mattress on the bed was the trickiest part as it weighed exactly the same as myself, but once that was done, it was all smooth sailing. Just you watch this wizardry:

HOW COMFORTABLE IS LEESA?

The recommended wait time for the full mattress expansion is one hour. And despite looking a bit squish-squish at first, it did firm up quickly to have now reached what I believe to be the optimal squish-to-firm ratio. I’m a huge fan of memory foam and this feels like a marshmallow-y dream come true.

As a belly sleeper, soft mattresses tend to give me lower back problems, and I haven’t at all experienced this with Leesa. It’s a mix of great support and just the right amount of softness, with the foam adjusting perfectly around your body. The three layers of foam are also not only breathable but also very stable. Movement from others in the bed is barely noticeable. I really can’t fault this mattress. It is amazingly comfortable!

Beyond the comfort, appealing price bracket and ease of transaction associated with purchasing a Leesa mattress, the business ethos and social impact of the company (donating one for every ten mattresses sold and planting a tree for every mattress sold) were equally appealing features to me. Would I recommend Leesa? Totally, yes.

And just like that, I had myself a real home. *Goes back to bed.*

This post is sponsored by Leesa Bed.