YONKERS, NY — Restless sleepers tired of bedtime agony need look no further than Consumer Reports mattresses, sheets, and pillows tests to help give their bed a comfort make over. 

Finding a comfortable mattress, sheet set, and pillows can be a daunting challenge, but Consumer Reports’ May issue available April 6th on newsstands and at ConsumerReports.org, offers consumers expert advice, lab tests, home trials and survey data to help wade through the hype and make the best choice. Here are some of the findings:

Buying a mattress: one challenge in life consumers should take lying down

When shopping for a mattress, the best mattress is the one you find most comfortable and supportive, and the only way to know for sure is to try some out. Mattress shopping is further complicated by the pricing games manufacturers and retailers play. Markups can be high, so if shoppers don’t time it right, they can end up overpaying by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

To cut through the hype, Consumer Reports cut through 11 firm innerspring mattresses from Sealy, Serta, and Simmons, as well as adjustable air and memory foam models Select Comfort and Tempur-Pedic and Sealy respectively. Before Consumer Reports started its dissection, 54 staffers participated in blind rest tests of the mattresses, assessing each for comfort.

On average panelists judged all of the mattresses at least moderately comfortable on average. Panelists perceived the Sealy Posturepedic Reserve Spring Blossom Cushion Firm (Sears), approximate retail $1,800, as slightly more comfortable, and the Tempur-Pedic ClassicBed Advantage, $2,100, and Sealy Posturepedic Reserve Loring Park Firm (Macy’s), $1,730, a bit less so. But the differences were slight and far from unanimous.

Consumer Reports’ panelists were especially divided on the memory-foam mattresses, which use body heat to conform the foam to a sleeper’s contours. Forty-eight percent of panelists who tried the Tempur-Pedic liked that feeling, but 36 percent didn’t. Don’t automatically dismiss memory foam based on one assessment. Some panelists who were critical of the Tempur-Pedic didn’t find the Sealy Comfort Series Blue Lake Firm (Sears, $2,120), another memory-foam mattress, as objectionable.

The role played by personal preference, as well as store-to-store product differences, make it impossible for Consumer Reports to rate mattresses  in  the  same  way  they  do  cars,  TVs,  and  kitchen appliances, but Consumer Reports did glean information that can help you make the right choice. Here are five tips to help:

• Consider the type. Innerspring models are the best sellers. Solid-foam mattresses, either a single block of foam or several layers of different types, also offer a wide choice of “feels.” Some are memory foam, and some aren’t
• Work your way up the price ladder. In the showroom, try out various mattress brands, starting with their less expensive models. Once you find a bed you like, look at others in that price range and stop there. There’s little reason to buy any higher up a manufacturer’s line.
• Evaluate the bed. The best way to judge a mattress is to wear comfy clothes, remove your shoes, and lie down on it for at least five minutes in each of your sleeping positions. It takes at least 15 minutes for your body to relax sufficiently to accurately judge comfort.
• Haggle for a better deal. With so much price variability, there’s usually room to negotiate. Among the mattress buyers CR surveyed last year, 72 percent who tried to negotiate for a lower price were successful.
• Inspect it on arrival. Lie on the mattress to be sure it is what you expected, and check it and the box spring for damage. If you discover any damage, as we did in several cases, you should refuse delivery and ask for a new one.

Wake up call for sheet makers: Few top choices

Consider this a wake-up call to bedding makers: Only 4 of 23 sets of queen-size sheets performed well enough for Consumer Reports to Recommend.

For sheets that aren’t too soft or too crisp, well made and shrink little, Consumer Reports Recommends Bed Bath & Beyond’s Wamsutta 1000 ($200) Its extra-wide elastic looks a lot like the elastic waistband on boxer shorts, a clever use that help make an excellent fit. But these cotton sateen sheets are pricey, so look for coupons online and wait for sales.

If you prefer soft sheets, Consumer Reports Recommends both the Wamsutta Dream Zone ($150) and Target’s Home 600 TC ($70). Both are cotton-sateen sets.  The Wamsutta Dream Zone also provides impressive fit with its wide elastic band. Gather up those coupons from Bed Bath & Beyond before shopping so that you don’t have to pay full price. The Home 600 TC earned a Consumer Reports Best Buy distinction because it performed better in tests than sets that cost much more, and its pillowcase borders were nice and smooth after washing and drying.

For consumers who like crisp sheets, Consumer Reports Recommends L.L.Bean’s Pima Cotton Percale Sheets ($100). These 100 percent cotton percale sheets consistently earned high scores in all of the tests, putting them at the top of the Ratings and earning a Consumer Reports Best Buy designation.

As for the other 19 sheet sets, Consumer Reports tests and reporting revealed a litany of problems. Some fitted sheets made by Canopy and Vermont Country Store came apart at the seams in strength tests. Some sheets from Canopy and Tommy Hilfiger could tear from just a heavy cat’s claws.

Other sets had fitted sheets that popped off the corners of mattresses they claimed to fit or flat sheets that fell short on the sides of the bed (Divatex and Vermont Country Store). Some wrinkle-free sheets weren’t (Canopy and Eddie Bauer).One company’s sets had mismatched colors (Vermont Country Store).

Consumer Reports’ tests included sheets made of 100 percent cotton, rayon, or a rayon blend with claimed thread counts ranging from 200 to 1,000. Thread count is the number of vertical and horizontal threads per square inch.

Consumer Reports latest tests again confirmed that higher thread count doesn’t guarantee better  made sheets. In fact the top-scoring $100 L.L.Bean percale sheets, which had a claimed thread count of only 280, were strong, shrank very little, and easily fit mattresses up to 17 inches high, even after we washed and dried them five times.  Here are some tips for how to choose:

• Learn the lingo. Usually long-fiber cottons, such as Pima, Supima, and Egyptian, are stronger and less likely to pill. Combed cotton has short fibers and debris removed, resulting in a smoother fabric. Usually cotton/polyester blends don’t wrinkle as much as 100 percent cotton sheets, but they aren’t as soft or as porous, so you may feel warmer while sleeping.
• Choose crisp or soft. Feeling new sheets in the store won’t help you figure out how the sheets will feel once they’re washed. That’s because sheets are usually treated with fabric enhancers and softeners to improve hand feel. So wash them a few times before decided to keep them. Weave also affects how the sheets feel. Percale is closely woven and feels crisper, while sateen has a softer feel and may have a glossier look. Twill weaves create a heavier fabric that can feel soft or crisp.
• Get the right fit. Measure your mattress’ height, including mattress pads. Remember that padding settles, so measure in at least two spots away from the corners. Buy sheets that are a couple of inches deeper to allow for normal shrinkage.
• Keep your receipt. Before using sheets, wash them to remove finishes or excess dye. If the sheets shrink or fade, or if you don’t like how they feel once they’re washed, you’ll need the receipt to return them. Ditto if the sheets are mislabeled or if sets are missing pieces.

Pillow Talk

Consumer Reports sent 71 staffers home with an expensive and an inexpensive pillow of the type they normally use: polyester, Feather/down, or memory-foam. The brands were selected from popular stores like The Company Store, Kmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, JC Penney, Target and Tempur-Pedic.  Each panelist was instructed to sleep on each pillow for five consecutive nights. And, while fully awake, our textile expert assessed the pillows’ construction quality.

Although some testers said that expensive polyester-filled and down-filled pillows were more comfortable than their cheaper counterparts, personal preferences about pillow firmness, fluffiness, flatness, and size were almost as important.

For memory-foam pillows, the inexpensive and pricey versions offered about the same comfort, sleep quality, and construction quality. Depending on their preferences, memory-foam fans could have saved more than $60 by buying the less expensive pillow.

Before buying, consumers can compare firmness by placing pillows on a flat surface and compressing them with your palm to about half of each pillow’s original thickness. The more pressure you have to apply, the firmer the pillow. The faster the pillow returns to its original shape, the more resilient. Check for neat stitches, straight seams, evenly distributed filling, a usable zipper, and piping that reduces wear on the edges. A tightly woven cover protects the fill. Memory-foam pillows can have an odor at first so take a good sniff. However, this should dissipate with time.

For more information on how pillow models fared, the complete test results on all 23 brands of sheets, and more expert advice on shopping for a mattress and giving your bed a comfort make over visit www.ConsumerReports.org or pick up a copy of Consumer Reports May issue, available April 6th wherever magazine are sold.