Simba’s Earth Escape 2024 Mattress Review

Pain. If there’s one thing that really ruins your night’s sleep and your mood the next day, it’s pain. Choose your fighter: for me it’s a combination chronic ulnar nerve pain and lingering lower back pain that usually appears around 3 a.m. It ruined my nights on and off for the better part of a decade. I’m not alone: ​​estimates suggest Almost one in five Britons suffer from some form of back pain. (Needless to say, if you’re one of them, hit pause while reading this and consult your doctor.) Anyway, one unexpected side effect of this irritation is that I’ve accidentally been on a years-long, humble quest to find one best mattress for back pain.

When good people are on the team GQ recommends offered me the opportunity to test drive a car postpone new Simba: Escape from EarthI already felt qualified. What about the bar for success? Extremely (some might say unrealistically) tall.

Earth Escape is part of Simba’s new natural Earth collection, whose mattresses include GQfavorites (they regularly rank high in our best mattress guide). The key to the new range is in the name: Earth mattresses are all about eco and sustainability, eschewing the plastic-based materials and fibers that can fill many memory foam mattresses in favor of good old natural mattresses. based materials: in this case wool and viscose grown in Hampshire.

Let’s talk about depreciation

Instead of memory foam, the Earth Escape’s 10-layer frame uses no less than 4,800 springs. This, combined with all-natural materials, creates the feel of an old-school luxury mattress (think a large four-poster mattress in a Cotswold country house) rather than the cool minimalism of foam. This is a mattress you can enjoy.

As any good tailoring aficionado knows, the benefit of wool—besides the fact that it is plastic-free and therefore free of any associated harmful chemicals—is that it is a combination of soft, resilient and naturally adjustable. temperature. As a result, the mattress becomes cozy in any weather; warm but never sweaty.

Inside, Simba says the mattress consists of 1,900 titanium alloy Aerocoil microsprings on top of a deeper layer of Coremax springs. Translated into proprietary sleep lingo, this means that instead of the noisy, uneven support you might associate with the ancient innerspring mattress you grew up on, the Escape provides quiet and surprisingly even support throughout the entire mattress, regardless of whether you’re on the side of the mattress or not. , berth in the back or front. And they’re strong, too: I weigh over 100kg but still feel as supported as my 5ft 3in, 60kg partner. More importantly, the number and width of the suspension supports allows us both to ride at night without disturbing each other’s sleep.

Sleep without guilt

As soft as memory foam mattresses are, there’s no escaping the fact that they’re mostly made of polyurethane, oil-based plastic, and a pretty old mix of chemicals. If you’re not happy with that, then go ahead. But if you’re more environmentally conscious, all of Earth Escape’s materials are naturally derived; The plant-based viscose topper is environmentally friendly and the wool is grown here in the UK, minimizing its carbon footprint. (It still arrived in plastic packaging, however, so there’s always room for improvement.)

Simba’s mattresses are also made here, supporting local manufacturers; and the entire company is a globally certified B-Corp, so it is committed to fighting the climate crisis, social injustice, and the fight against poor sleep. Simba has also committed to eliminating mattresses from going to landfill, so the Escape range is manufactured with minimal use of adhesives and reusable materials, with recycling in mind.

So, should you buy it?

Before I give my verdict, a couple of honest notes about the Earth Escape after over 100 nights on it. Firstly: he is a tall boy, 30cm tall. The plump wool cushion is held in place by traditional stitching, giving the Escape’s surface some fairly deep dimples. It’s not a big deal (in fact, it adds to the luxury), but it does take a little getting used to if you’re used to a flatter foam mattress.