I shared our guest bedroom mini-makeover with you a couple of weeks ago and I’m happy to say that since then, we’ve managed to replace the emergency blow-up bed with a proper mattress and frame. It had always been our intention to move our existing mattress into that room and get ourselves a new one fairly quickly after we’d moved in. That’s not to say I didn’t like our existing mattress. In fact, I liked it very very much and felt happy that we would be giving our guests a great nights’ sleep.

But it did mean we would be a mattress short for our own bed and so sourcing a new one that we liked just as much was going to be a tall order. So the timing was pretty perfect when Simba got in touch asking if I’d like to review their new Simba Luxe mattress but – I will readily admit – I was a little nervous. Would we like it as much as we liked our Eve mattress? I became a total convert to the ‘bed-in-a-box’ mattresses that seemed to be popping up everywhere a couple of years ago since we had ours. I’ve chatted with friends who have tried them as well and there was almost a unanimous decision that there were lots of good ones out there in the market right now. So what could the Simba Luxe offer that was any different?

For one thing, the Simba Luxe places itself firmly in the ‘luxury’ category. This is an investment mattress – let’s just make that abundantly clear. But if you are going to spend money anywhere in your home, why not invest in something you will be using literally every day and can have an incredible impact on your health? Now, I had stayed in 5-star hotels with luxury mattresses before and I know they can be absolutely incredible. But a bed in a box stating it’s in the same class? Could that possibly be the case? Well, I was going to find out.

What Makes the Simba Luxe a Luxury Mattress?

First, I had to ask, what puts the Simba Luxe into this luxury category? Here’s what I found out:

The Simba Luxe contains 10 comfort layers (by contrast, when I got my Eve, it only had 4) using the finest soft and breathable fabrics, 10,500 patented conical springs and a ‘7-zone’ support base. The Simba claims to reduce pressure on key compression points across the body and enhances ease of movement throughout the night.

One thing that stood out as immediately different about the Simba Luxe is that it comes complete with a luxury topper which contains 4000 tiny conical pocket springs which move with you, are highly responsive and bounce back quickly (unlike traditional memory foam which takes a little while to ‘spring back’). The topper is removable with a strong zipper and it feels soft but is still incredibly supportive.

Then below this, Simba has developed smaller, finer and more responsive springs for ultimate support – 10,500 of them over 3 layers! They then varied the tension in the lowest layer to match the zoning in the support base which allows it to hold your body perfectly.

They also re-engineered their Simbatex fabric which is the cooling material used especially for the Luxe. It uses charcoal, a natural purifier which delivers superior air flow and durability so you won’t overheat in the night. In fact, they are so confident about the Luxe mattress, they offer a 100-night guarantee – if you aren’t satisfied, they will come and take it away and you’ll get your money back. But if you fancy keeping it (and, not to spoil anything but trust me, you will), the Luxe’s comfort layers will hold it’s shape and firmness for 10 years.

The Set Up

Like most mattresses in a box, the Simba Luxe is no different. But for those of you who aren’t familiar with purchasing a mattress in a box, this is essentially the process…

The Simba Luxe is delivered in a box – it’s pretty heavy so let the delivery guys do the work for you by bringing into the room of your choice.

Next step? Take it out of the box and lay the coiled up vacuum-packed mattress on your bed base. Also, my apologies that these pics are a bit grainy! It was evening when the shots were taken as everything is pretty heavy and I wanted Wayne’s help in shifting things about. Like so many things, you can do it on your own but it’s much more fun with a friend! Ha!

Then, remove all the wrapping (they provide a little handy cutter which is kind of nice) and watch the bed spring to life! (Bed spring? Geddit?!)

And then, you wait. Give it around 3 hours before you decide to sleep on it but it’ll be at it’s best about 48 hours after this.

My Verdict – How Luxe is the Simba Luxe?

I wanted to sleep on it for a few weeks’ before giving my final verdict. While the mattress is ready to sleep with a few hours of unrolling it and laying it flat, the first night we found it incredibly soft and wondered if we were going to get used to it. Our old mattress was so much firmer than this one so we speculated it may still need some time to reach its maximum firmness.

After 2 nights, however, this is exactly what happened. The bed had, by then, reached its full height and suddenly the mattress felt so much more supportive. That top layer, I have to say, is genius. It’s super comfortable (to the point where you won’t want to get up out of it, as you sink in just a little) but you feel like you are being cradled. I imagine it’s a bit like returning to the womb! You feel almost as though you are suspended with little to no pressure on any point on your body.

And for someone like myself who suffers from Night Terrors and has always had a very difficult relationship with sleep, I have not had one night where I’ve failed to fall asleep soundly within a very short time period. This – genuinely – is probably the best thing I can say about it. I am not used to being able to fall asleep right away – I will toss and turn sometimes for hours and wake up feeling exhausted in the morning. I haven’t had one night of restless sleep since we started sleeping on the Simba Luxe.

And it wasn’t just me. Wayne (who took some convincing that we needed a new mattress at all) has fallen in love with it as well. He has long suffered from issues in his hip and so having something that relieves that pressure point from his body when he’s lying on his side is incredible. It means he’s not waking in the night with any sharp pains and his whole body is supported effortlessly with no pain at all.

The other thing I noticed is that I can’t feel Wayne move around in his sleep. He gets up about half an hour before me in the morning to get ready for work and I often don’t even realise he’s gotten up at all – and I’m a really light sleeper. I notice and will wake up for EVERYTHING but he could probably be doing jumping jacks on top of the mattress next to me and I wouldn’t even feel it.

The dog sometimes sleeps with us as well as the cat and while Meisha doesn’t really move once she’s settled, the dog will often get off the bed at some point in the night. It would always wake me when Quito did this but now, I don’t even notice if he’s jumped out of the bed. I don’t notice anything anymore. It’s really pretty freaking amazing.

When we moved to a traditional mattress to the Eve, it was a revelation. But now moving from the Eve to the Simba Luxe, we have had that revelation again. It’s an incredible mattress and it’s truly redefining what a luxury mattress is supposed to look like. I had thought if we didn’t fall in love with it, we’d simply use this mattress in the guest bedroom and keep our old one. But there’s absolutely no chance of that happening now!

Have you ever considered a luxury mattress in a box? Would you give the Simba Luxe a trial run for 100 days? You can try it out on Simba’s website here and at all John Lewis stores nationally.

Disclaimer: My Simba mattress was provided to me free for my honest, unbiased review and as always, all opinions, words and images are my own. I only work with brands I really like and think you’ll love too! Thanks for supporting the companies that support Swoon Worthy.