Brooklyn Bedding Spartan Mattress Review 2024: The Best Mattress for Athletes?

Spartan Mattress

$1,999 at Brooklyn Bedding

Like

• Available in three firmness options that should work for anyone
• Accommodating neutral hybrid feel
• High tech "infrared" cover designed for athletes

Don't like

• Other good options at more affordable prices
• Not as many options as other beds from the same brand
• Not the best motion isolation

The Spartan mattress is one of many beds available from Brooklyn Bedding, which is one of our favorite brands. The company consistently manufactures beds that are affordable yet high quality, and this mattress is designed to fit a very specific niche for high-performance athletes, thanks to its special cover which we will discuss at length, along with all of its other features. 

First impressions of the Spartan Mattress

We first tested the original iteration of the Spartan Mattress about five years ago. After unboxing this new version of Spartan I immediately noticed some changes. It is now a thicker mattress and has more of a pillow top design that is similar to the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe mattress. 

The cover of the Spartan mattress did not change with this new update, and it is the most striking thing about the mattress. We'll get into everything about the cover and its features in this review, but it has a unique design and a nice feel to it. 

The Spartan mattress also had a very minimal off-gassing process, which is the odor, softness and misshapen look a mattress can sometimes have right out of the box. It was a bit soft in the first few hours but firmed up nicely by the next day. 

Video: Spartan Mattress by Brooklyn Bedding

Spartan mattress policies

Free shipping

Like most online mattresses, this will ship right to your door at no extra cost inside of a large box (as long as you live in the contiguous United States). If you live in Canada you can still purchase the Spartan mattress or any other mattress from Brooklyn Bedding but there will be a $250 shipping cost. 

Unboxing a mattress usually only takes a few minutes and we recommend unboxing it with a friend to make the process go more smoothly.

I have unboxed many beds by myself and while it's doable, it is much more difficult.

120-night trial 

All Brooklyn Bedding mattresses come with a slightly longer than standard 120-night trial period to determine if you actually like the mattress and want to keep it long-term. 

Keep in mind that it can take a month or longer for your body to adjust to a new mattress, no matter how well-suited it is to your sleeping preferences. The trial period begins the day the mattress is delivered, not when you actually start sleeping on it so make sure you unbox it as quickly as possible to not accidentally shorten your trial period.

Return policy

At any point after the first 30 nights post-delivery you decide the Spartan mattress isn't for you for any reason, you can return it and get a refund. There is no upfront fee to return a mattress, but $99 will be deducted from your refund.

Also, don't worry about keeping the box the bed came in or any of the packaging because that is not how mattress returns work. You just contact the company and it will coordinate with a third party to pick up the mattress for you and then the bed is usually donated. 

Warranty

All Brooklyn Bedding mattresses are backed by a standard 10-year warranty. If you buy a mattress online, a 10-year warranty is the minimum you should expect.

Spartan mattress construction and feel

The Spartan mattress is roughly 13 inches thick and features five distinct layers, not counting the cover.

The bottommost layer is a .25-quarter-inch-thick layer of support foam. This layer provides the eight-inch-thick layer of pocketed coils with a stable foundation. 

Above the coil support layer is a 1-inch-thick layer of gel memory foam that functions as a transition layer. Thin transition layers like this are common to help make sure sleepers only feel the bounce and support from the coils, not the actual coils to maintain comfort.

The next layer is a 1.5-inch-thick layer of "medium supreme response" comfort foam, which is meant to be body contouring like a memory foam, but not as slow to respond as a memory foam. 

Then the topmost comfort layer is a .75-inch-thick layer of "Copperflex" foam which is found in a lot of Brooklyn Bedding mattresses and is a generally comfortable, soft neutral foam.

This is the construction of the "medium" model of the Spartan. The construction is slightly varied in the "soft" and the "firm" versions, but the overall feel remains the same across the models with a soft, neutral hybrid feel.

This type of feel is generally accommodating for most sleepers because it doesn't lean too heavily one way or another. It doesn't have a dense memory foam type of feel or an ultra-responsive latex or gel feel either. Most people who try a bed like this usually find it comfortable.

In fact, the construction and feel of this mattress are virtually identical to the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe mattress which our team thinks is an excellent bed and is one of my personal favorites.

Spartan mattress cover

Where the Spartan mattress differentiates itself from the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe is the technology found in the cover. It features "far infrared rays" tech, which is designed to provide numerous benefits for athletes. 

Brooklyn Bedding Claims this technology can improve circulation and blood flow which speeds up muscle recovery and also leads to more restful sleep. We've tested beds with special covers that are meant to provide similar benefits like the "celliant" covers available on many mattresses from the brand Bear. 

Unfortunately, this feature isn't something we are able to do thorough testing on because we would need an entire science lab to test it effectively. However, one member of our team slept on the original version of Spartan for years and he didn't notice much of anything, and another member of our team slept on a mattress with a celliant cover and he swore there was something to it. 

There is some scientific literature to back up the benefits of the FIR tech in the cover of this bed, but we cannot definitively say whether it does what it claims. 

Spartan mattress firmness and sleeper types

Like the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe and the Signature mattress, the Spartan mattress comes in three different firmness options to choose from — a soft, a medium and a firm. 

The soft model is specifically meant for side sleepers looking for maximum pressure relief for their hips and shoulders and we rated it to be around medium-soft or roughly a two to four out of 10.

The medium model will be most ideal for combination sleepers and for couples who can't quite agree on a specific firmness and we found it to be exactly what they say it is at a flat medium or roughly a 4 to 6 out of 10.

The firm model will be best for people who spend the majority of the night on their back or stomach and is around a medium-firm on our firmness scale or roughly a 6 to 8 out of 10.

So no matter what your primary sleep position preference is, you should be able to get by on one of these options. The ability to choose your firmness option when checking out is a nice feature to have since you can get something more specialized to your sleep style. Most people will likely wind up with the medium model because it works for pretty much everyone.

Spartan mattress performance

Edge support

During my testing, I didn't feel any roll-off sensation putting my body weight along the edge of the mattress, so we would describe the edge support of the Spartan to be stronger than the average mattress. The outer perimeter of the coils layer on the Spartan mattress is extra reinforced specifically to improve the edge support.

This is especially important for couples sharing a mattress because you might end up sleeping near the perimeter of the bed, despite your partner's best intentions.

Motion isolation

If waking up in the middle of the night because your partner tosses and turns a lot, having a mattress that isolates cross-mattress motion well is important. We observed the Spartan as pretty average in this category and since it's a hybrid bed that doesn't prominently feature dense memory foam, this makes a lot of sense. 

It does use pocketed coils though, which have almost entirely replaced traditional innersprings in mattress design. These coils do a much better job at isolating motion, so we don't see this being a deal breaker for the vast majority of sleepers. If you are a really light sleeper who wakes up easily if your partner tosses and turns, it could happen more on this bed than others. 

Temperature Regulation

Unlike the Aurora Luxe mattress which features one of the coolest sleeping mattress covers we've ever tested, the Spartan mattress doesn't have any noticeable cooling elements. 

Thanks to the breathable nature of the pocketed coils and the foams used by Brooklyn Bedding, the Spartan should sleep temperature neutral. We didn't find any red flags for this mattress retaining lots of body heat, so if you do sleep hot, it will have way more to do with your sleep environment and your bedding than the mattress.

Spartan mattress pricing

When compared to the other mattresses in the Brooklyn Bedding lineup, the Spartan mattress is pretty expensive. The Aurora Luxe mattress is actually slightly more affordable than the Spartan which I found surprising considering the beds are nearly identical aside from their respective covers.

Brooklyn Bedding will run discounts pretty much year-round, usually anywhere between 20% off to 30% off any mattress in any size. 

Brooklyn Bedding also offers veterans and members of the military a 30% discount year-round on all of its products.

Make sure you check out our mattress deals page for the most up-to-date pricing and discounts on the Spartan or any other bed you are interested in.

Final verdict

The question of "who is the Spartan mattress best for?" is actually a really easy question to answer thanks to the newly updated design of the bed and it all comes down to the "far infrared rays (FIR)" tech found in the cover. 

If you're a high-performance athlete looking to get an extra edge I could see someone giving the Spartan mattress a try and seeing if technology in the cover makes a difference. Again, it's not really something we can definitively say works or not but there are some studies that show benefits.

Personally, I think the best thing you can do as an athlete is find the best mattress for your specific sleep preferences to make sure you get the best night's sleep possible and any extra features should be a secondary priority. Fortunately for the Spartan mattress, it has a very comfortable and accommodating feel and several different firmness options so even minus the high-tech cover I think people will enjoy it, but the cover is really what you're shelling out some extra money for.

If the cover doesn't interest you, then you can save money by going with the Aurora Luxe or the Signature which are similar in many ways aside from the FIR cover.

You might like the Spartan mattress if:

• You want to be able to pick and choose your firmness level
  
• You have a decent amount of money to spend on a new bed
  
• You are interested in the muscle recovery technology featured on the cover
  
• You are seeking a hybrid mattress
  

You might not like the Spartan mattress if:

• You want a bed with cooling features
  
• You want a memory foam feel 
  
• You are shopping with a strict budget
  
• You are seeking an all-foam mattress
  

Other mattresses from Brooklyn Bedding

Brooklyn Aurora Luxe: This mattress is basically identical to the Spartan mattress aside from two major things -- the cover and the price. Instead of having a high-tech cover meant to help athletes, the Aurora Luxe has an active cooling cover that has one of the strongest cooling factors we've ever tested. The Aurora Luxe is also a few hundred dollars more affordable than the Spartan.

Brooklyn Bedding Signature: The Brooklyn Bedding Signature mattress is one of our all-time favorite beds thanks to its combination of comfort, features and value. After factoring in discounts the Signature is usually around $1,000 for a queen size and it's a hybrid that uses similar foams to the Spartan. You can spend up to get a cooling "cloud pillow top" with the Signature as well, but not the infrared cover.

How does the Spartan mattress compare to similar mattresses?

Spartan vs. Bear Elite Hybrid

The Bear Elite Hybrid is the most high-end mattress from the brand, Bear, which focuses a lot of their marketing toward athletes. The cover features a material called "celliant" and promises similar benefits to the infrared cover on the Spartan. 

Both the Spartan and Bear Elite have multiple firmness options and accommodating feels that most will find comfortable and the pricing between the two is almost the same before and after the discount. Overall these are two very similar beds that have compelling features for athletes.

Spartan vs. Molecule Hybrid

Molecule is another brand that focuses its marketing on athletes and even has a few professional athlete endorsements. This mattress makes similar claims about its cover and overall construction having benefits for athletes, they are less specific about what the materials actually do.

The types of foams used in the Molecule Hybrid are quite a bit different than the Spartan and the bed has more of a responsive memory foam feel as opposed to a neutral hybrid feel that's more body contouring.

Spartan mattress from Brooklyn Bedding FAQs