Do You Flip or Rotate Your Mattress?

Do You Flip or Rotate Your Mattress? 2

Mattresses are something you spend money on an as-needed basis and not on a want-basis.

You consider buying a new mattress only when the older one gets too uncomfortable to sleep on. Every mattress comes with a specific lifespan, after which it starts to lose its support and sags beyond recovery.

However, there are ways that can be employed to prolong a mattress’s lifespan.

If you’re someone who has a habit of maintaining their bed, the chances that your mattress will last longer are high. Of the many bed maintenance activities, one is to flip or rotate your mattress.

It simply involves flipping or rotating your mattress to allow the spots that have sunk in to go back to their original form.

Flipping and rotating your mattress is the key to keeping it performing at its best for a very long time.

If you want your mattress to stay in a comfortable and usable form for longer, you need to make it a habit to flip or rotate it every few months.

If you are new to this concept, this mattress flipping and rotation guide will cover all you need to know about flipping and rotating your mattress.

This blog post will teach you how to keep your mattress well-maintained, fresh, and comfortable for the longest possible time!

The Need for Flipping/ Rotating a Mattress

The Need For Flipping/ Rotating A Mattress

The purpose of a mattress is to deliver comfort and ensure a good night’s sleep. People invest in the best mattresses so that there is no compromise on their comfort.

Mattresses are usually on the pricier side, and hence, changing mattresses frequently is not an option for many. This is where flipping or rotating a mattress comes into play.

When you sleep on the same side of the mattress, it stays under pressure constantly and develops impressions of your body weight on it, which causes the surface of the mattress to become uneven.

An uneven surface affects the spine alignment, causing discomfort and even pain in your back and spine.

However, when you flip or rotate your mattress, it exposes the fresh, newer, and a much more even surface of the mattress that keeps your spine in a perfectly neutral alignment, allowing you to sleep comfortably throughout the night.

Flipping or rotating your mattress ensures that your spine alignment is not affected and that your comfort isn’t compromised on.

It is a highly promising way of prolonging the lifespan of a mattress. If you make it a habit to flip or rotate your mattress, you will not need to invest in a new mattress for a very long time!

Is Mattress Flipping A Thing?

Is Mattress Flipping A Thing?

So we’ve established that flipping and rotating your mattress can greatly prolong its lifespan.

What’s more, flipping a mattress is no rocket science! It simply involves turning it over, allowing you to sleep on the other side.

When you flip your mattress regularly, you stop the same side (and the same spots) from having to bear all your weight for several years straight.

Flipping a mattress allows you to sleep on the bottom side of your mattress while the foam on the top side recovers.

Every time you flip your mattress, you are laying down on the side of the mattress that has gotten adequate time to recover and return to its original shape.

When Should You Flip Your Mattress?

There is no fixed answer to this question. Only the older, double-sided models are flip-able. The frequency depends upon the extent of use and the quality of materials used in the construction of the mattress.

You will know that it is high-time to flip your mattress when the surface starts to feel uneven, making you uncomfortable while you lay down, which will eventually affect the quality of your sleep.

How Often Should You Flip Your Mattress?

Newer models of mattresses need not be flipped since they have a pillow-top on one side only (single-sided mattresses).

Flipping these mattresses will only make things worse for you as the other side is not foamed or padded.

For the flip-able mattresses, it is recommended that you flip your mattress once every three months to one year, depending upon the materials used.

How to Flip a Mattress?

It is always better to rotate your mattress when you flip it. To properly flip your mattress, first, rotate it 90 degrees so that it is hanging over the bed’s end.

Then, raise the mattress to the edge, and finally, lowering it so that the other side of the mattress is up. Once done, rotate the mattress further 90 degrees to bring it in place.

This way, you are not only flipping your mattress but also completing a rotation.

This way, what used to the foot of the mattress is now the head. You can always simply flip the mattress without having to rotate it, but pairing it with rotation is one of the best mattress maintenance practices.

It also ensures that you give the mattress more of a chance to recover its shape.

Rotating Your Mattress

Rotating Your Mattress

Rotating your mattress involves turning it around 180 degrees. As a result, the side of the mattress that was the foot becomes the head and vice-versa.

Rotating your mattress does not involve flipping, which means that you will be sleeping on the same surface, just in a different area.

By doing so, you are allowing the side of the mattress that has been exposed to your weight for quite some time to even out the pressure and restore its original shape, which is the key to maintaining a high level of comfort.

How Often Should You Rotate Your Mattress?

There are certain factors that you need to take into consideration when deciding on the right time to rotate your mattress. These include:

  • How often is it being used?
  • Who is sleeping on it?
  • Is it double or single-sided?

If you sleep on your mattress every night, it will lose support and will start to sag sooner than later. If that is the case, you should rotate your mattress once every three months.

However, if your mattress is used only occasionally, such as when guests arrive, rotating it with the same regularity is not necessary. Instead, you can rotate it every six months or once a year.

If you are the only one sleeping on the mattress every night, you will start to notice that your mattress sags from one side only.

However, if you share the mattress, the surface will become uneven sooner if the two people significantly differ in weight.

This marks the need to rotate your mattress at a greater frequency, preferably once every three months.

A double-sided mattress can be flipped or rotated every three months. A single-sided mattress, on the other hand, cannot be flipped and should be rotated once every three months.

How to Rotate a Mattress?

Most new mattresses that are single-sided need to be rotated and not flipped. They are labeled as ‘No flipping required.’

Rotating a mattress is simpler than flipping. To rotate your mattress, all you need to do is turn the mattress around by 180 degrees such that the head of the mattress becomes the foot.

What’s Better – Mattress Flipping or Rotating?

What’s Better – Mattress Flipping Or Rotating?

There is no definitive answer to the question of which technique is better. It completely depends on the type of mattress that you use. If you own a single-sided or pillow-top model, it cannot be flipped at all.

This is because flipping would mean the surface that does not have a pillow-top is brought up, which can be extremely uncomfortable.

You might not even be able to sleep on the other side, as it might not be designed for people to lie on. The best mattress maintenance technique, in this case, would be rotating it.

As for double-sided mattresses, they can be flipped or rotated, or rotated and flipped.

Different models of mattresses will benefit from different techniques. Other than the model and construction of a mattress, the composition also influences the mattress maintenance technique.

Some compositions make mattresses firmer than others. The firmer a mattress is, the more resistant it will be to stress and pressure, and hence, the less frequently it needs to be flipped or rotated.

On the other hand, softer mattresses have lesser resistance. The softer it is, the lesser resistance there will be, and the sooner will the mattress sag.

You can’t really vouch for one over the other because it all comes down to the construction of the mattress – whether it is single-sided or double-sided.

To sum it up, if you have a double-sided mattress, the best technique is to rotate AND flip so that the entire surface of the mattress gets a chance to even out the pressure and retain its shape.

As for single-sided mattresses, when the only option you have is rotating the mattress, how frequently you need to rotate the mattress depends on the extent of use and the firmness of the mattress.

So, what do you prefer? Do you flip or rotate your mattress?

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