Awara vs Puffy Mattress

Latex Hybrid Mattress Design And Feel

Awara is one of several natural and organic mattresses that we have had the opportunity to test and review. Whether you are a die-hard vegan and zero-waste warrior, or you are just starting to learn the rules of recycling, natural and organic mattresses have eco-appeal for a lot of shoppers.

If you are in the market for an organic mattress, chances are, you’ve looked at lots of latex hybrids (like Avocado and Birch, for example.) Awara is in that same ballpark and uses latex foam and pocketed coils to create a bouncy and responsive mattress.

The 13” bed has two simple layers: 9” of zoned pocketed coils and 4” of 100% organic Dunlop latex foam.

The bed is covered in an earthy and soft cover that is made with a combination of organic cotton and organic wool.

In essence, we would describe this mattress as feeling a bit like a traditional spring mattress with a foam comfort layer. The bed is springy and responsive as well as cushiony with an almost sponge-like feeling from the latex foam.

Latex is typically pretty supportive and so we would say this bed feels like a medium-firm on our soft to firm scale.

Benefits Of A Natural Mattress

As a natural mattress, it makes sense that Awara has taken some extra steps to promote environmental activism and awareness. The mattress has several certifications that ensure it has been sourced and manufactured in an ethical and sustainable way. These include GOLS and GOTS organic certifications for many of their materials and a certification from the Rainforest Alliance.

Additionally, Awara has joined forces with ClimatePartner to plant trees for every mattress sold.

Even if you are not 100% on the green train, there are a lot of reasons that you might consider getting a natural and organic mattress (though the environmentally friendly policies and production are certainly a bonus.)

Latex is also one of the best mattress materials for folks with allergies or other sensitivities. This is an antimicrobial material, meaning you won’t have to contend with any dust mites.

What Sleepers Do We Recommend This Mattress For?

The way that you sleep can actually play a huge role in how a mattress feels for you. As a firm and supportive latex hybrid, we think that Awara is a great choice for back and stomach sleepers, who need a good amount of spinal support when they sleep.

For side sleepers, we’d probably caution against this mattress. It is comfortable, but not super pressure relieving the way that other types of foam are. If you sleep on your side, you put all of your body weight on your hip and shoulder, which need some cushioning to prevent any soreness and pressure points.

Awara is not quite soft enough to offer this kind of pressure relief, so in this comparison, Puffy is probably the winner for side sleepers.

How Does Weight Play A Factor?

As with sleeping position (aka the way that you distribute your weight) the amount of weight that you have can also affect the way that a mattress feels.

Typically, the heavier that you are, the softer a mattress feels, and vice versa, when you are lighter, mattresses typically feel firmer.

We think that Awara is a great choice for folks who are on the heavier side of the spectrum because it offers a lot of support and durability due to the springs and the resilient nature of latex. It should feel supportive but soft for those who weigh around 250 lbs or more.

Petite to average sized individuals should also sleep well on this mattress, as medium-firm is typically pretty ideal for most all sleepers.

With petite sleepers, though, we will throw in a word of warning: if you are petite and you sleep on your side, opt for a softer mattress. Most medium to firm mattresses are just going to feel downright hard to you.

What If You Sleep With A Partner?

This is another important consideration to make when you are shopping for a mattress. When two people are going to be sleeping on the same bed, it is important to find one that will accommodate both sleepers. You should keep in mind both of your preferred sleeping position and your body types, as well as motion isolation and edge support.

Motion isolation refers to the ability of a mattress to deaden cross-bed movement. Say, for example, you have to get up earlier in the morning than your partner does. You don’t want to disturb them as you get out of bed so it is important to find a mattress that does a good job isolating motion.

Both Puffy and Awara have made strides to limit cross-bed motion. Puffy is really excellent in this category. Awara, on the other hand, because it uses coils and bouncy latex foam, does move a bit more, so we’d say it is good but not great in this category.

Edge support is another category that pertains especially to mattresses for couples. Typically, if you share a bed, especially one that is on the smaller side like a full size, you might find yourself sleeping closer to the edge of the mattress than the middle. Because of this, mattresses need to have supportive and well reinforced edges to prevent sleepers from falling off the side of the bed.

In this category, Awara has the slight edge (pun not intended) over Puffy. The zoned coils which give the mattress a bit of added bounce when it comes to motion transfer also give the bed strong and supportive edges that won’t budge, even when your partner’s kicking and rolling banishes you to the smallest sliver of bed on your side. Puffy also has pretty good edge support, but foam is just not going to be quite as supportive as coils.

This popular foam mattress is 10” thick, which is pretty average for a foam mattress. It contains three distinct layers of foam, all of which serve to give the mattress a specific feel.

The base of the mattress is a 6” thick layer of firm support foam, which is dense enough to support most any body type.

On top of that is 2” of Puffy’s “Climate comfort foam,” which acts as a transition layer and has a neutral foam feel.

The top-most layer is a gel-visco poly foam that Puffy calls “cooling cloud foam.” This is essentially a gel memory foam layer.

This foam is meant to stay cooler than traditional memory foam, and we think it feels like memory foam but does a good job of remaining temperature neutral, meaning you won’t feel like your mattress is the cause of your night sweats.

Stain Resistant Cover

The mattress is covered by a stain resistant, removable and machine washable cover that is soft to the touch.

It is pretty uncommon to see removable covers on mattresses, and even when we do see them, they often aren’t machine washable. Puffy’s cover is definitely ideal for folks who are busy or prone to stains and, we think, make it a pretty good mattress for children and wine-lovers alike.

Puffy Is Pretty Accommodating

The feel of Puffy is pretty fitting for its name. We think it has a really nice light and airy memory foam feel. It is soft yet fairly responsive, which makes it an accommodating option for a lot of different sleepers.

In terms of firmness, Puffy is medium on our scale.

Because it is medium firm, we think that Puffy is a good option for all sleeper types. It is supportive enough for back and stomach sleepers while also offering enough pressure relief for side sleepers.

Additionally, we are surprised to find that, although it has a memory foam feel, Puffy is also pretty responsive (unlike some traditional memory foam.) Because of this, we think combination sleepers should be able to switch position on this mattress without much issue whatsoever.

Petite to average sized folks are the right size for an all-foam mattress like Puffy but the one demographic that we would caution against choosing this mattress is larger folks.

As we mentioned when talking about Awara, a bed with coils is your new best friend if you weigh over about 250 lbs. The added support and durability that comes from a hybrid mattress is great for those with larger frames and Puffy truly just can’t compete here.

Which One Is More Affordable?

If you are in the market for a new mattress, we suspect that you are going to have some sort of a budget in mind. When it comes to a queen size mattress, both Awara and Puffy are over $1,000, so if that is out of your budget, we’d recommend looking at beds that are under $500 instead.

If $1,000 to $1,500 is within your price range, though, we’d say that Puffy and Awara are both pretty moderately priced for what you get.

Getting down to strict numbers, Puffy is more affordable, with an MSRP price of $1,150 for a queen.

Awara, on the other hand, comes in at $2,098 for a queen before any discounts. Though it is more expensive than Puffy by a fair margin, Awara is actually one of the more affordable natural latex hybrids that we have seen.

Either way you decide to go, always keep your eye out for sale and promotions. We find that both Awara and Puffy like to play numbers games (like a lot of mattress retailers will do) and knock a couple hundred dollars off the MSRP price right from the get go. They can also both provide coupons and deals for their mattresses that will bring that price down even further.

Verdict

All in all, these are both popular mattresses with a lot of their own perks. When it comes time to make a decision, ask yourself these questions:

• Are you passionate about living an eco-friendly lifestyle? Awara is made with natural materials and “green” policies and practices. Puffy, though, also makes strides to be green.
• Are you on the lighter side or heavier side? If you are a petite sleeper, Puffy is probably a better option and if you are heavy, Awara is most likely the way to go.
• How much are you willing to spend? Puffy is the cheaper of the two options.
• What do you want your bed to feel like? Puffy has a fluffy memory foam feel while Awara has a bouncy and responsive latex hybrid feel.