ComScore

ATTN, Side-Sleepers: The Avocado Green Mattress Made My Hip Pain Disappear

It’s also 100 percent organic.

PureWow editors select every item that appears on this page, and the company may earn compensation through affiliate links within the story. All prices are accurate upon date of publish. You can learn more about the affiliate process here.

Avocado Green mattress review: An undressed
Avocado
  • Comfort: 18/20
  • Quality: 20/20
  • Sustainability: 19/20
  • Smell: 19/20
  • Value: 19/20

TOTAL: 95/100

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to sleep well in (nearly) any situation. As someone who used a cheap twin bed until the age of roughly 27, I never even really put much stock in my mattress—whatever it was, I was snoozing on it like a baby. Cut to five years later, when my boyfriend and I decided to upgrade our old queen bed for a super-firm mattress we found on sale. Suddenly, I was tossing and turning nonstop. The culprit? A newly searing pain in my hips that simply wouldn’t quit. While I was able to mask the throbbing for a while with a good mattress topper (shoutout to Nolah, from $249), the need for a new, softer bed that would accommodate my side-sleeping habits—and the hips those habits were putting pressure on—was strong. Enter: the Avocado Green mattress with pillow top, which just so happens to be on sale, dropping it from $1,799 to $1,599.

How I Tested the Avocado Green Mattress

The Avocado was delivered to my home by a team who brought the item into our room. (A word to the wise: This baby is heavy, so you’re gonna want to spring for that in-home delivery and setup, $249). Since then, myself (a side-sleeper), my boyfriend (a back sleeper) and our two cats (all over sleepers) have been dozing on it every night for the past two months using a Saatva Amalfi platform frame (from $895).

At the request of my boyfriend, who found this mattress’s pillowy top to be a smidge *too* soft (but more on that later), we use it with a Nolah mattress topper.

What Is the Avocado Green Mattress?

The Avocado Green mattress is a 100 percent organic mattress with GREENGUARD gold certification, which tests low chemical emission products for compliance to “key chemical emission standards.” It also has Global Organic Latex Standard (GOLS), Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) certifications, respectively, for its three standout features: a hybrid Dunlop latex rubber foam innerspring, which is naturally antimicrobial, a breathable cotton cover and its wool filling, which is known to wick away moisture and be flame-retardant.

In addition to being fully organic, it’s MADE Safe-certified, which indicates that it's free of more than 6,500 harmful substances.

On the firmness front, it’s rated at a 7, or gentle-yet-firm, which the company recommends for both back and stomach sleepers. With the addition of the pillow top, the firmness rating is lowered to 6, which Avocado says makes it ideal for side sleepers—ding ding ding!—as well as all-around sleepers, heavier individuals and athletes.

First Impressions

Right out of the gate, we were able to use the mattress: There were no noxious odors that might put us off laying on it the first night, like you tend to see—er, rather, smell—with other brands. The Purple pillow, for instance, stunk up our whole room for a good two weeks—and that was just the pillow. While both brands use non-toxic latex materials, Avocado’s latex is fully organic, which was a big win in the smell department.

It also didn’t need to expand in the same way that a typical bed-in-a-box would. While it did take a few days to rise to settle into its full firmness—something that caused my back-sleeping boyfriend a bit of pain in the first few nights—it was still usable. Comfortable, even, for myself. If you find you don’t like it right out of the gate, give it a bit: The brand offers a whopping one-year trial period, so if it’s still not to your liking after it settles, you can always return it for a $99 fee.

Avocado

The Good

From the very first night I slept on the mattress, I knew my days of hip agony were over. I put my full weight on my side and waited for the familiar stabbing to come—but none did. While my sleeping pattern will always put pressure on the area, my too-firm mattress wasn’t offering my hips enough “give” while sleeping, adding even more pressure to the mix, as Aletha Health explains. (By contrast, a mattress that’s too saggy can also exacerbate hip pain for side-sleepers, as it can throw off your alignment, which also creates pressure, according to Spire Healthcare.)

The medium-firm cush of the Avocado Green with a pillow top, by contrast, offered a just-right level of support for my aching sides. This was likely helped along by the mattresses's fancy five-zone coil system, which is designed to distribute weight more evenly across the entirety of the bed to alleviate pressure points—like those found in my hips. (But don’t just take my word for it: It’s also backed by the American Chiropractic Association, which is given to products with a chiropractic-related benefit and is rated by consumers and doctors of chiropractic.)

This coil system is also made to cut down on motion transfer—something I can wholeheartedly confirm. While I can sense when my boyfriend or cats are moving around, my body doesn’t bounce along with them.

I also love that this mattress comes with a 25-year (limited) warranty (non-prorated for the first ten years, with a prorated charge for years 11 to 25), for defects in workmanship or material. But honestly, between the all-organic materials and the hand needle tufting techniques that are used to make the bed’s rosettes, they’re likely to be few and far between.

The Bad

Truth be told, there’s not a whole lot about this bed that’s not to like, sans for the fact that at 142 pounds, it weighs more than I do. As one might imagine, this can make it somewhat difficult to change the sheets, since lifting it to get the corners underneath is a definite sweat session.

Beyond that, while the pillow top was a dream come true for me (truly, I’m never going back), it might be too squishy for back sleepers who rely on that extra firmness for support. My boyfriend, for instance, did acclimate to the mattress after it settled, but requested that we put the mattress topper back on for a little bit of added stability. Now, we’re both fully comfortable.

Last but not least, as an animal lover, I wish that I had done some more research before making my bedding selection, as I likely would’ve opted for the brand’s vegan mattress over the Green. Because, while the Green mattress uses responsible shearing practices to obtain its wool, if the RWS certification is any indicator, the vegan option removes the wool from the picture entirely—hence why it’s PETA-approved.

Final Thoughts

The Avocado Green mattress with pillow top is an ideal mattress for side-sleepers like myself who are experiencing added pressure on their joints. For those who tend to sleep on their backs or stomachs, it might be preferable to pick this mattress up without the pillow top for a little added firmness, and vegans may want to opt for the vegan version to avoid using wool.

Though rare (the Allergy and Asthma Network states that roughly 1 to 6 percent of the population will affected), it should be noted that this mattress may not be a great choice for those with existing latex allergies, as Avocado does not claim that its organic latex is hypoallergenic.

The pillow top version is high-quality, organic and great with motion transfer. It also doesn’t seem to trap heat thanks to that aforementioned wool, which, believe it or not, has cooling properties, despite the fact that we live in Florida, where it’s perpetually 90 degrees.

Yes, it comes at a fairly high price point, but it’s also at least partly backed by the company for up to 25 years (which, by the by, is a good 15 years more than most beds need to be changed out, according to the Sleep Foundation). And honestly? You can’t really put a price on a great night’s sleep, free of pain.

The 15 Best Mattresses-in-a-Box, According to People Who Have Slept on Them


Want to know which buzzy products are *really* worth buying? Sign up for our shopping newsletter to uncover our favorite finds.

Why You Should Trust Us

Nicole is PureWow's Commerce Director. With a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Michigan State University and more than 15 years of experience writing and editing shopping content, she has made a career for herself covering her favorite topics: fashion, lifestyle, travel and rock 'n' roll. She lives in Florida with her boyfriend and two cats, and she can usually be found stalking hairless animals on the internet. Check out her blog at nicolebjean.com. (You can also follow her on Twitter or Instagram.)

PureWow is the best friend you never had when it comes to finding the best, most useful lifestyle products online. Founded in 2010, our company’s editors and writers have spent more than a decade shopping online, digging through sales and putting our home goods, beauty finds, wellness picks and more through the wringer—all to help you determine which ones are actually worth your hard-earned cash. From our PureWow100 series, which sees each and every item we test being ranked on a 100-point scale of awesomeness, to the painstakingly curated lists our fashion, beauty, cooking, home and family editors create as vertical experts, you can trust that our recommendations include some of the greatest items you’ll find on the internet. Whether you're looking for travel-size hair dryers you can take on-the-go or women’s walking shoes that won’t hurt your feet, we’ve got you covered.


photo e1692203622260

Commerce Director

Nicole is PureWow's Commerce Director. With a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Michigan State University and more than 15 years of experience writing and editing shopping...