Leesa Original Mattress Review 2024: Leesa's Flagship Foam Mattress

7.0

Leesa Original mattress

Score Breakdown

Performance 8.7Support 7Return Policy 6Pressure Relief 6Features 7

Read more on How we test mattresses

$1,039 at Leesa Mattress

Like

• Accommodating firmness level for all sleeping positions
• Leesa is great with donating to charity
• Ideal for sleepers under 230 pounds
• Comfortable, neutral feel that's super accommodating

Don't like

• Not supportive enough for people over 230 pounds
• A little too pricey for shoppers on a tight budget

Product details

• Type Soft neutral foam
• Firmness Medium or 5
• Warranty 10-year limited warranty
• Trial 100 nights
• Price $$

If you're trying to be more conscious of your purchases, your next mattress is a good place to start. Community involvement is a quality more people are looking for in the brands they choose to support. Leesa, one of the popular bed-in-a-box mattress brands, is a certified B Corporation that focuses on social and environmental needs. Part of how it earned this title is that for every 10 mattresses it sells, it donates one to a family in need.

Leesa also cares about sustainability and manufactures its mattresses in factories that run on renewable energy. How cool is that? If you value eco-conscious and philanthropic commitments from a company, Leesa stands out. The Leesa Original mattress also happens to be extremely comfortable too.

I put the Leesa Original mattress to the test, analyzing the flagship bed's most important features, like firmness, construction, durability, motion isolation and how hot it sleeps. I've sorted out who I think the Leesa Original mattress is best suited for and why you should or shouldn't buy it. 

First impressions 

The Leesa Original mattress is delivered right to your front door, compressed and rolled up inside of a box. All you'll need to do is unbox and unwrap it from the packaging, and it'll inflate into a full-size mattress ready to sleep on. (Give it around 24 to 48 hours to fully inflate and adjust.) It also has a new mattress smell, kind of like a new car smell. It's a little overwhelming right out of the box, but it should dissipate after a few hours and disappear within a few days (at most). 

In terms of style, the mattress looks like your standard foam mattress, similar to Casper or Tuft and Needle, although I liked the cover a bit better. It reminds me of a cozy baseball sock with the stripes on the top. It's soft, but also stretchy and breathable. 

Since the Leesa Original has a memory foam layer underneath its breathable top layer, I was expecting more of a memory foam feel. The mattress feels more neutral and bouncy, closer to a traditional spring mattress. I didn't get that quicksand-like sensation, which was a big plus for me. I'm a neutral to hot sleeper and sometimes I can get too warm in a memory foam mattress that sucks me into the foam layers. 

Instead, it offered good pressure relief for my hips and shoulders, but it wasn't so soft that my back sank into the mattress. For this reason, I rate the Leesa Original mattress a medium on the firmness scale, or a 5 out of 10 (with 10 being the firmest). 

Video: Leesa Mattress Review

Watch CNET video producer Owen Poole review the Leesa Original mattress.

Comfort 

Like a lot of foam bed-in-a-box mattresses, the Leesa bed is three layers thick and 10 inches tall. 

• The base is a supportive 6-inch foam layer that acts as the foundation for the mattress.
• The center is a memory foam layer that brings pressure relief and neutralizes the firm foam slab below it. 
• The comfort top layer is made of what the brand calls its cooling foam. While it's not exactly cold, it has a neutral feel and is more breathable than typical memory foam. 
• The Leesa Original mattress cover is made of soft twill fabric, although it's not machine washable or removable. 

Motion isolation

Quality foam mattresses are generally pretty good at absorbing motion, and the same goes for the Leesa Original mattress. I even put it to the water glass test. I placed a glass of water (not wine like that one memory foam commercial -- I'm not that gutsy) on the edge of the bed and rolled around to see what happened. The glass didn't jiggle, sway or fall over. 

Unless your partner is throwing themselves around the mattress, you should hardly feel them move in the middle of the night. 

Edge support

There is some give on the edges of the mattress when I sit along the side. It's a bit sturdier when I lie down, although it's not so bad that you feel like you're going to roll off the side like a log. Edge support is something worth considering if you sleep with your significant other or a large fluffy animal that takes up a bunch of space on your bed. 

Temperature

The Leesa Original mattress isn't a cool-sleeping bed, regardless of its cooling foam layer. I'd say it's a temperature-neutral mattress. If you generally sleep at a moderate or cool temperature, this bed should be fine for you. For the most part, I didn't feel uncomfortable or overly hot while testing the Leesa mattress. 

Who should sleep on it?

Similar to how shoes fit differently, mattresses aren't made to accommodate every body type -- or sleeping position. The Leesa Original mattress is comfy and accommodating, but there are some people we don't recommend it to.

Position

Unless you want a very firm mattress or a very soft mattress, the Original Leesa bed should work for most sleeping positions, including side, back, stomach or a combination of them. Side sleepers should get the pressure relief they need, while stomach sleepers and back sleepers should feel properly supported. 

Body type

You want your mattress to be suitable for your body type, or the bed might not last as long as you expect it to. Beds without a strong foundation in the base layer wear and tear easier than hybrid mattresses and are less supportive. 

With that in mind, Leesa isn't the best for people over 230 pounds because of its all-foam construction. Leesa makes a hybrid mattress that is recommended for people over that weight range, and you can find it on its website. Check out our list of the best mattresses for heavier people to see even more options.

Price

Leesa is priced about average compared with the most popular bed-in-a-box brands like Casper and Purple, or a hair more expensive. You can get a twin-size mattress for around $849, and prices max out at $1,599 for a California king-size. Commonly, the brand gives you a discount, especially around holidays like Memorial Day and Black Friday.

Trial and warranty

Online mattress brands know you're taking more of a risk by buying a mattress virtually, so they try to give you incentives. With Leesa, you'll get free shipping, a 10-year warranty and a 100-night sleep trial. You can also choose white-glove delivery, which means it'll remove your old mattress and set up your new one for you.  

The final verdict

For a safe, comfortable foam mattress, the Leesa Original mattress is a good pick. It's hard not to like because it's right in the sweet spot between soft and firm, and the foam is just generally comfortable. It's not syrupy like some memory foam, nor is it supple and bouncy like latex foam mattresses. It's plush and supportive, and generally a good bed for people under 230 pounds. 

You might like it if:

• You want an accommodating, neutral-foam bed
• You value a philanthropic company that donates to charity
• You sleep on your side, back, stomach or a combination
• You weigh under 230 pounds
• You want a bed with good motion-isolating abilities 

You might not like it if:

• You want a bed with either a soft or firm profile, not in the middle
• You weigh over 230 pounds
• You want a bed with cooling technologies

Leesa mattress FAQs