I’ve spent the last few years trying to find ways to improve my sleep quality. This has involved everything from tracking my sleep with an Oura Ring to various sleep aids to forcing sleep schedules to improve my sleep hygiene. But as a very budget-conscious freelancer, I was always reluctant to spend money on a nicer, more expensive mattress. So when I got the opportunity to try the vegan alternative to Avocado’s famous Organic Green Mattress, the Avocado Vegan Mattress, I was hopeful that upgrading to a premium mattress would finally be the thing to help improve my sleep.
After spending years browsing various popular bed-in-a-box options without pulling the trigger, I was curious to find out. Avocado has a slew of certifications aimed at people who are health-conscious and looking for environmentally friendly solutions, which added to my interest. And after sleeping on this mattress for eight months, I can say it’s worth the investment—with one notable caveat. Keep reading for my honest thoughts.
How I tested
I’ve been sleeping on the Avocado Vegan Mattress for just over eight months. When I initially received the mattress, it quickly became clear that, as someone who is predominantly a side sleeper, it was going to be too firm for me. After the first month, I added a three-inch Eco Organic Mattress Topper in Plush feel, which is how I have slept on it ever since.
The bed and topper both come in the standard size options, along with Twin XL and Cal King. I opted for a Queen, as I have two dogs who are happy to take up way more room at night than their small size justifies.
Delivery and setup
I’m a big fan of the bed-in-a-box phenomenon; all of my mattresses over the years have come from Amazon or Ikea, rolled up and dropped at my door. So, it never even occurred to me to opt into Avocado’s White Glove delivery option, where they unbox and set up your mattress in your home. And that was a mistake. This mattress is heavy.
The website lists the Queen (Medium) as weighing in at 118 lb, and I realized very quickly that my lifting capabilities don’t extend that far (especially for a bulky shaped box). The box was dropped off in my apartment lobby, but I lived up a single flight of stairs, and getting it up was a challenge. With a friend, I was able to push it, but it was a struggle—and I would not recommend that experience. For an extra fee of $249, Avocado will take care of everything. That includes: bringing your mattress inside, unboxing it, unwrapping it, and putting it on your bed frame. For $30 more, they’ll also remove your old mattress. In retrospect, that fee would have been more than worth it, given the hour of struggling it took me and my friend.
Even after getting the box upstairs, the unboxing process itself was a little difficult, just because the mattress was in a small room and I had a hard time cutting it open (though it expanded totally fine), having the White Glove setup would have saved me a lot of physical stress. Learn from my mistakes!
Mattress straight out of the box.
Mattress unbound and expanding.
Design and materials
Like Avocado’s popular Green Mattress, the Vegan Mattress is a hybrid made with organic latex and individually wrapped steel coils. The only difference? This vegan mattress replaces the Green Mattress’s organic wool with organic certified cotton (which is denser than wool, and also why it’s heavier than the Green!).
The standard Medium version I tested is 11” thick, comprised of three inches of GOLS-certified organic Dunlop latex and Avocado’s seven-zone coil system (which is designed to provide varying levels of support across different areas of the body). Avocado also offers a Plush version with an attached pillow top, and adds another two inches of latex for additional cushioning.
Similar to its flagship mattress, the Vegan Mattress uses GOTS-certified organic cotton batting, organic cotton cover, and is certified by a lengthy list of third parties to cover its materials to ensure it has low chemical emissions and lacks potentially harmful substances. It is also certified by Vegan Action and is PETA-Approved Vegan, making it a solid option for anyone who wants to avoid animal products.
Cotton vs. Wool: Why buy a vegan mattress?
Swapping out wool for cotton has a slew of practical benefits in addition to being an eco-friendly renewable resource, even if being vegan is not typically one of your priorities.
First, cotton is more breathable than wool. Cotton fibers allow for more airflow, improving temperature regulation. If you are a hot sleeper, this can be a huge advantage, as wool retains heat.
Cotton is also less expensive than wool. Though perhaps not a significant difference, the Vegan Mattress is currently priced $250 less than its wool having counterpart.
Last, cotton is hypoallergenic. For those with skin sensitivities, cotton fibers are softer, smoother, and all around gentler on the skin. Lanolin, a natural wax from sheep that coats wool, is known to create allergic reactions in those with sensitive skin, as well as potentially trigger contact dermatitis.
Firmness and feel
Being a side sleeper, finding a mattress that manages to be supportive without compressing my shoulder and hip to the point of pain has been a challenge for most of my adult life. My last setup (a $300 hybrid mattress and a foam topper) had been a step up and, I assumed, as good as I was going to be able to get without dropping $3,000 or more. I still woke up with aches and pains more mornings than not.
I’ll admit, my first night on the Avocado Vegan Mattress wasn’t great. In fact, I straight up reached out to my editor and asked her what I should do if I hated the mattress and needed to return it. Her suggestion? I could take advantage of Avocado’s generous return policy and scrap the review or try adding a mattress topper to help add some plushness to the top. As much as I love a mattress topper, I was extremely skeptical and convinced the whole thing was going to end up being about as comfy as my budget $300 setup.
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I’m more than happy to report I was wrong. Just a few weeks later (without a topper), I could feel my body beginning to adjust to the firmness of the mattress and becoming more comfortable. However, adding the three-inch Eco-Organic Mattress Topper in Plush was a full game changer. Made from three inches of pure Talalay latex, known for its light, airy, and buoyant feel, the addition of this topper made me feel like I was sleeping on an entirely different mattress. Still firm underneath, but zero pain in my hip or shoulder. I realize I probably should have gone for the Plush feel of the mattress initially over the Medium, but realized in retrospect that adding the topper to the Medium was $50 less overall (an accidental, but perhaps worthy hack?).
With my old mattress, I would almost always wake up several times throughout the night and have to switch positions to relieve pressure on my hip and shoulder. That doesn’t happen anymore. I can sleep through the entire night without moving (and, importantly, without disturbing my dogs’ precious slumber) and still wake up pain-free. (Additional credit for that also goes to the Avocado Organic Mini Molded Latex knee pillow, which has been significantly more comfortable for side-sleeping than any regular-sized pillow I’ve ever used.) At the same time, I can sit up in bed and read for hours at a time without experiencing lower back pain from the surface being too plush. It’s the perfect combination of support and comfort I honestly didn’t expect to find.
I don’t sleep with a partner, so I can’t really speak to how movement on one side of the mattress ripples across to the other. However, I can say that one of my dogs—who historically has popped out from under the covers at the slightest shift—regularly fails to realize that I’ve gotten out of bed and left him to sleep in by himself.
Temperature regulation
I’m one of those sleepers who has to have blankets, even in the summer, but I loathe being hot. I regularly turn my air conditioning down a few notches at night to accommodate these contradictory facts. But even on the handful of nights I’ve forgotten to adjust the temperature, I have yet to wake up in sweaty sheets. The Vegan Mattress really does sleep cooler than I expected, which is a benefit of swapping out wool for cotton that I wasn’t entirely sure was true when I first tried it.
My first instinct was to pass most of the credit for temperature regulation off to my new beloved Bearaby Second Skin Sheets (which I received at the same time as my new mattress). However, even when cycling over to older sheets that had provided no cooling help with my last mattress, I never felt like I was sleeping on a slowly heating surface. Cotton for the win!
Longevity and durability
Eight months isn’t necessarily a long lifespan for a mattress, but it’s enough that I would normally expect to notice some wear. However, the mattress and topper have both held up well.
Despite the fact that I usually sleep in the same spot every night, there’s no body-shaped indentation appearing in the topper yet. The edges of the mattress are still supportive and holding their shape. The mattress itself is heavy enough that I’ve had no problems with it shifting on the bed frame (a constant struggle with my last mattress on this very same frame), and the topper has stayed in place remarkably well, too.
It’s also worth noting that the Avocado Vegan Mattress has actually moved with me twice so far—once into storage where it sat on its side for about six weeks, and once to a new apartment. I learned my lesson after the delivery situation and hired movers both times, but the important takeaway here is that all that shuffling and storage didn’t have any negative impact on how the mattress (or topper) has held up.
One last thing
Although my own previous mattresses have all been squarely filed under the label of “affordable,” I’ve tried a number of more expensive mattresses while staying with friends and family over the years. I’ve never been particularly impressed, which is part of why I never bothered to invest in something pricier. The Avocado Vegan Mattress was a surprise. No, it hasn’t solved all of my sleep issues, but I feel pretty confident that it’s solved all of the sleep issues a mattress can solve—it’s reduced my joint pain, helped me sleep cooler, and generally helps me sleep more soundly through the night. That’s not purely anecdotal, either, as my Oura Ring has confirmed I do a lot less tossing and turning, fall asleep more quickly, and wake up each day overall better rested since making the switch.
If you’re considering this, or another Avocado mattress, the company offers a one-year trial period, a 25-year warranty, and financing options via Affirm. Just do yourself a favor and don’t skip out on White Glove delivery service while you set yourself up for better sleep.
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