The Purple company made some bold claims about their Purple mattress and caught my attention with their viral Raw Egg Test video. I invested significant time into researching the company, its history, and its technology until it became impossible to ignore the potential that a Purple mattress could offer.
I ordered a Purple mattress with the intention of putting their marketing messages to the test through objective data capture and statistical analysis.
Initially I wanted to share this data as soon as I had a significant number of points to present, but held off on publishing until now.
I wanted (still do!) to become a Purple affiliate, but found their affiliate program manager unresponsive, even when pressed for feedback on how to bolster my application. I’m hoping that this situation improves after I get the right eyes on this piece.
I hope you enjoy the review – I’ll respond to comments left below.
Purple Mattress Value
What’s a good night’s rest worth to you?
$1,299 for Purple king-size mattress
10 year life (warranty)
365.25 days in a year: low side 3652 days in ten years
—
$0.356 / day
Purple Mattress Price Analysis
The table below shows how much it’ll cost you to sleep on a Purple mattress of your own, assuming a ten-year mattress lifespan:
| Size | Twin XL | Queen | King / Cal. King |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $699.00 | $999.00 | $1,299.00 |
| Cost / Day | $0.191 | $0.274 | $0.356 |
0% APR financing (6 months) is available for qualified consumers through Affirm (onpurple.com/financing), and Purple’s generous 100 night trial and return period make the Purple mattress an obtainable, low-risk investment.
While not exactly ‘pennies a day,’ the price for better sleep is not too high, especially when compared against similar mattresses offered by Purple’s direct competitors, like intelliBED.
Order Placed for One Purple Mattress
I placed an order for a Purple mattress in the early morning of August 31st, 2016. Purple’s 100 night trial helped – with the option to donate the Purple mattress to charity, I knew that in the worst case scenario, someone else would have a Purple mattress to sleep on. In the best case, I’d wake up each morning a new man.
I had high expectations for the mattress. The strong social proof helped: with glowing reviews, “this many people can’t be wrong!” Aside from that, the time that I spent familiarizing myself with the Purple company, their intellectual property, and their products (like the Royal Purple Seat Cushion) all led me to believe that I was in for a treat.
The order confirmation email and Purple website both suggested that it’d be about two weeks before I heard back regarding the status of my order.
In the early hours of September 6, I was a little peeved to find that I’d been charged for the order prior to shipping, but I was willing to let it slide. Then, at 8:41AM of that same day, I received notification that my order had shipped. Not bad! Purple set expectations at two weeks, and filled my order in one.
The Mattress Arrives
My Purple mattress arrived on September 9. The UPS courier delivered it to my front door.
Unfortunately, the AC downstairs at my home had stopped working. The compressor fan wasn’t spinning up, but I was able to straighten it out early September 10.
On the morning of September 10, I moved the mattress out of the doorway, and into my bedroom. I worked alone. I started by pulling my old mattress off of the box spring, and propping it against the wall. I positioned a mover’s dolly beneath the rolled-up Purple mattress, and gently positioned it upon the box spring. Within the packaging, I found a leaflet with a URL (onpurple.com/unroll), where I was able to watch a short video showing how to unroll the mattress. I referenced it to get a clear picture of the orientation that the mattress had been packaged in, though I could have figured this out by grabbing a tape measure.
Enzo came by to see about some boxes, and I shared my excitement over the new mattress, inviting her to play with the enclosed samples of Purple material. She helped me a bit, and lay down on the mattress after we got it righted, exclaiming that it felt great.
The pamphlet also contained two Purple-branded sleep masks, a nice touch.
First impressions: it’s a lot more cushioned than the mattress that it may be replacing, and the one that I slept on before I fixed my A/C downstairs.
I didn’t realize how old the mattress that I had been sleeping on was. It’s a Bassett DreamMaker Chiropractor, produced in July 1991. A funny aside: when I brought up the Purple mattress in a conversation with my parents, they insisted that they had purchased quality mattresses – I had no doubt that the mattress was once decent, but it’d long-exceeded its useful life.
Purple Mattress Composition
Each Purple mattress is composed of the following:
2″ Hyper-Elastic™ Polymer
3.5″ HD Medium-Soft Comfort Foam
4″ HD Medium-Firm Support Foam
Objective Sleep Data
Data Collection
Objective sleep data was collected with my Misfit Shine activity tracker (MSRP $69.99, Amazon.com). It tracks the time at which I begin to sleep, my total sleep time, time spent awake (going to the bathroom in the middle of the night!), light sleep, and restful sleep.
Raw sleep data is provided at the end of this review 🙂
Data Analysis
To put Purple’s claims of better quality sleep to the test, I took the ratio between restful sleep and total sleep as a measure of sleep quality. I cleaned the data of any nights that I spent away from home prior to further analysis.
The cleaned data was used to produce the charts and descriptive statistics given below.
Data Reporting
Combined Data
This scatter plot shows sleep quality across all nights. The vertical line indicates the night that I began sleeping on the Purple mattress, September 10th, 2016.
On Purple
This histogram shows the distribution of sleep quality across those nights that I spent on the Purple mattress:
The accompanying table provides descriptive statistics of those nights:
| Mean | 0.458401988 |
| Standard Error | 0.014165746 |
| Median | 0.440665196 |
| Mode | #N/A |
| Standard Deviation | 0.128276284 |
| Sample Variance | 0.016454805 |
| Kurtosis | 1.413555782 |
| Skewness | 0.72661973 |
| Range | 0.685375123 |
| Minimum | 0.186335404 |
| Maximum | 0.871710526 |
| Sum | 37.58896303 |
| Count | 82 |
| Confidence Level(95.0%) | 0.028185391 |
Old Mattress
This histogram shows the distribution of sleep quality across those nights that I spent on my old mattress:
The accompanying table provides descriptive statistics of those nights:
| Mean | 0.360690564 |
| Standard Error | 0.013281482 |
| Median | 0.33254902 |
| Mode | #N/A |
| Standard Deviation | 0.111120852 |
| Sample Variance | 0.012347844 |
| Kurtosis | 0.092335712 |
| Skewness | 0.183814619 |
| Range | 0.563477031 |
| Minimum | 0.075163399 |
| Maximum | 0.638640429 |
| Sum | 25.24833945 |
| Count | 70 |
| Confidence Level(95.0%) | 0.026495832 |
Results from t-test follow
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances
| Purple | Old | |
|---|---|---|
| Mean | 0.458401988 | 0.360690564 |
| Variance | 0.016454805 | 0.012347844 |
| Observations | 82 | 70 |
| Pooled Variance | 0.014565603 | |
| Hypothesized Mean Difference | 0 | |
| df | 150 | |
| t Stat | 4.975254085 | |
| P(T<=t) one-tail | 8.82333E-07 | |
| t Critical one-tail | 1.6550755 | |
| P(T<=t) two-tail | 1.76467E-06 | |
| t Critical two-tail | 1.975905331 | |
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances
| Purple | Old | |
|---|---|---|
| Mean | 0.458401988 | 0.360690564 |
| Variance | 0.016454805 | 0.012347844 |
| Observations | 82 | 70 |
| Hypothesized Mean Difference | 0 | |
| df | 150 | |
| t Stat | 5.031953133 | |
| P(T<=t) one-tail | 6.85737E-07 | |
| t Critical one-tail | 1.6550755 | |
| P(T<=t) two-tail | 1.37147E-06 | |
| t Critical two-tail | 1.975905331 | |
The t-stat passes the test for significance, indicating a statistically significant difference between the average sleep quality that I experienced sleeping on my old mattress and the Purple mattress.
Noteworthy Nights with My Purple Mattress
9/10 – First night: So excited to try out the new mattress that I wish I had fewer tasks to work on. Didn’t sleep too well, mostly because my mind was so active.
9/11 – Second night: I slept for twelve hours. Misfit showed light sleep vs. restful sleep to be almost 50:50, which I don’t think I’ve ever gotten before
9/12 – Third night: No data from Misfit, but woke up feeling good
9/18 – Had difficulty falling asleep (mind in overdrive) – ended up sleeping on my side as opposed to my back
9/21 – First time falling asleep while it was dark out since the launch of Destiny: Rise of Iron. Before bedtime, I set an alarm to wake me in a couple of hours. Misfit Shine failed to capture that brief moment that I woke up and disabled the alarm before returning to sleep. Otherwise, noteworthy because I surpassed 50% restful sleep to total sleep.
Results & Closing Remarks
The difference in means is 0.097711, giving us a 27.1% improvement in sleep quality from my old mattress! I was able to experience the best sleep of the past few months thanks to the Purple mattress.
My personal thoughts on the mattress: I wish I could keep it, but it’s simply not the right time for me. I’ve got to come out of retirement, first. Consider this a step in the right direction.
That being said, quality sleep is priceless, and the Purple mattress may be an improvement over your existing mattress. With a generous 100 night trial and return period, you owe it to yourself to give it a try! Use this link to navigate straight to the mattresses section of Purple’s website 🙂
The Purple mattress provided me with measurably higher quality sleep than my old mattress, and I’m going to miss it.
More
My post on the Purple company
A little history on mattress materials:
Stateside, spring mattresses have been the standard
In Europe, foam core mattresses gained wider adoption
Foam materials
Visco elastic (memory foam) – its development stems from NASA
Purple uses CertiPUR-US certified foams in its mattresses
Raw Data
| Date | Total Sleep | Restful Sleep | Restful / Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/16/2017 | 7:14:00 | 3:10:00 | 43.78% |
| 1/15/2017 | 6:03:00 | 2:56:00 | 48.48% |
| 1/14/2017 | 7:20:00 | 2:27:00 | 33.41% |
| 1/13/2017 | 9:00:00 | 3:15:00 | 36.11% |
| 1/12/2017 | 6:32:00 | 2:15:00 | 34.44% |
| 1/7/2017 | 8:34:00 | 4:34:00 | 53.31% |
| 1/6/2017 | 5:37:00 | 3:57:00 | 70.33% |
| 1/5/2017 | 7:46:00 | 3:17:00 | 42.27% |
| 1/4/2017 | 6:27:00 | 4:04:00 | 63.05% |
| 1/3/2017 | 7:37:00 | 3:18:00 | 43.33% |
| 1/2/2017 | 5:21:00 | 2:48:00 | 52.34% |
| 1/1/2017 | 7:51:00 | 3:04:00 | 39.07% |
| 12/31/2016 | 4:35:00 | 2:00:00 | 43.64% |
| 12/30/2016 | 10:08:00 | 8:50:00 | 87.17% |
| 12/29/2016 | 6:10:00 | 3:43:00 | 60.27% |
| 12/20/2016 | 5:48:00 | 3:02:00 | 52.30% |
| 12/19/2016 | 3:43:00 | 2:28:00 | 66.37% |
| 12/17/2016 | 5:53:00 | 3:19:00 | 56.37% |
| 12/16/2016 | 4:43:00 | 2:02:00 | 43.11% |
| 12/15/2016 | 5:20:00 | 2:26:00 | 45.63% |
| 12/14/2016 | 7:36:00 | 5:13:00 | 68.64% |
| 12/9/2016 | 8:57:00 | 5:04:00 | 56.61% |
| 12/7/2016 | 11:00:00 | 5:19:00 | 48.33% |
| 12/6/2016 | 5:22:00 | 3:21:00 | 62.42% |
| 12/3/2016 | 10:00:00 | 5:12:00 | 52.00% |
| 12/2/2016 | 6:17:00 | 2:42:00 | 42.97% |
| 12/1/2016 | 8:07:00 | 5:38:00 | 69.40% |
| 11/30/2016 | 5:00:00 | 1:41:00 | 33.67% |
| 11/27/2016 | 8:55:00 | 4:52:00 | 54.58% |
| 11/26/2016 | 6:41:00 | 4:14:00 | 63.34% |
| 11/25/2016 | 5:27:00 | 3:10:00 | 58.10% |
| 11/24/2016 | 10:35:00 | 6:14:00 | 58.90% |
| 11/22/2016 | 7:36:00 | 3:30:00 | 46.05% |
| 11/21/2016 | 6:19:00 | 3:50:00 | 60.69% |
| 11/20/2016 | 7:59:00 | 4:17:00 | 53.65% |
| 11/19/2016 | 7:24:00 | 3:52:00 | 52.25% |
| 11/18/2016 | 8:35:00 | 3:12:00 | 37.28% |
| 11/17/2016 | 9:05:00 | 2:57:00 | 32.48% |
| 11/16/2016 | 9:02:00 | 2:44:00 | 30.26% |
| 11/15/2016 | 7:01:00 | 2:40:00 | 38.00% |
| 11/14/2016 | 6:08:00 | 2:53:00 | 47.01% |
| 11/13/2016 | 8:56:00 | 4:24:00 | 49.25% |
| 11/10/2016 | 9:25:00 | 4:41:00 | 49.73% |
| 11/9/2016 | 5:35:00 | 2:28:00 | 44.18% |
| 11/5/2016 | 5:34:00 | 2:50:00 | 50.90% |
| 11/4/2016 | 5:50:00 | 2:13:00 | 38.00% |
| 11/3/2016 | 8:55:00 | 3:59:00 | 44.67% |
| 11/1/2016 | 7:55:00 | 1:42:00 | 21.47% |
| 10/30/2016 | 8:29:00 | 3:37:00 | 42.63% |
| 10/29/2016 | 7:07:00 | 2:41:00 | 37.70% |
| 10/27/2016 | 6:21:00 | 2:25:00 | 38.06% |
| 10/26/2016 | 7:09:00 | 2:10:00 | 30.30% |
| 10/25/2016 | 7:25:00 | 3:23:00 | 45.62% |
| 10/21/2016 | 5:32:00 | 2:16:00 | 40.96% |
| 10/20/2016 | 8:29:00 | 3:17:00 | 38.70% |
| 10/19/2016 | 6:56:00 | 3:16:00 | 47.12% |
| 10/18/2016 | 6:51:00 | 2:57:00 | 43.07% |
| 10/17/2016 | 7:24:00 | 3:32:00 | 47.75% |
| 10/16/2016 | 7:47:00 | 3:00:00 | 38.54% |
| 10/15/2016 | 8:44:00 | 3:33:00 | 40.65% |
| 10/13/2016 | 8:41:00 | 3:49:00 | 43.95% |
| 10/12/2016 | 3:55:00 | 3:23:00 | 86.38% |
| 10/11/2016 | 6:31:00 | 2:39:00 | 40.66% |
| 10/10/2016 | 7:02:00 | 2:03:00 | 29.15% |
| 10/9/2016 | 9:50:00 | 3:17:00 | 33.39% |
| 10/8/2016 | 5:16:00 | 2:08:00 | 40.51% |
| 10/7/2016 | 6:32:00 | 2:24:00 | 36.73% |
| 10/6/2016 | 7:59:00 | 3:27:00 | 43.22% |
| 10/5/2016 | 6:04:00 | 1:23:00 | 22.80% |
| 10/2/2016 | 4:05:00 | 2:05:00 | 51.02% |
| 10/1/2016 | 7:24:00 | 1:51:00 | 25.00% |
| 9/30/2016 | 6:20:00 | 2:25:00 | 38.16% |
| 9/29/2016 | 8:11:00 | 3:46:00 | 46.03% |
| 9/28/2016 | 6:38:00 | 2:37:00 | 39.45% |
| 9/25/2016 | 9:15:00 | 4:12:00 | 45.41% |
| 9/24/2016 | 3:51:00 | 2:35:00 | 67.10% |
| 9/23/2016 | 7:14:00 | 2:12:00 | 30.41% |
| 9/22/2016 | 10:18:00 | 3:37:00 | 35.11% |
| 9/21/2016 | 5:15:00 | 3:05:00 | 58.73% |
| 9/18/2016 | 8:20:00 | 2:50:00 | 34.00% |
| 9/17/2016 | 6:40:00 | 3:02:00 | 45.50% |
| 9/16/2016 | 6:54:00 | 3:23:00 | 49.03% |
| 9/14/2016 | 6:26:00 | 1:28:00 | 22.80% |
| 9/13/2016 | 6:03:00 | 2:17:00 | 37.74% |
| 9/11/2016 | 12:44:00 | 6:06:00 | 47.91% |
| 9/10/2016 | 2:41:00 | 0:30:00 | 18.63% |
| 9/9/2016 | 7:32:00 | 2:06:00 | 27.88% |
| 9/8/2016 | 8:38:00 | 3:27:00 | 39.96% |
| 9/7/2016 | 5:36:00 | 1:46:00 | 31.55% |
| 9/4/2016 | 8:49:00 | 3:47:00 | 42.91% |
| 9/3/2016 | 6:24:00 | 1:43:00 | 26.82% |
| 9/2/2016 | 6:49:00 | 1:15:00 | 18.34% |
| 9/1/2016 | 10:54:00 | 1:45:00 | 16.06% |
| 8/31/2016 | 9:30:00 | 2:41:00 | 28.25% |
| 8/30/2016 | 8:14:00 | 4:21:00 | 52.83% |
| 8/29/2016 | 4:23:00 | 1:26:00 | 32.70% |
| 8/27/2016 | 8:52:00 | 2:44:00 | 30.83% |
| 8/24/2016 | 11:01:00 | 3:20:00 | 30.26% |
| 8/23/2016 | 5:12:00 | 1:10:00 | 22.44% |
| 8/22/2016 | 7:42:00 | 3:14:00 | 41.99% |
| 8/21/2016 | 4:01:00 | 0:34:00 | 14.11% |
| 8/20/2016 | 7:10:00 | 3:19:00 | 46.28% |
| 8/17/2016 | 9:28:00 | 2:56:00 | 30.99% |
| 8/16/2016 | 8:35:00 | 1:50:00 | 21.36% |
| 8/15/2016 | 11:07:00 | 3:36:00 | 32.38% |
| 8/13/2016 | 5:08:00 | 1:00:00 | 19.48% |
| 8/12/2016 | 9:06:00 | 3:04:00 | 33.70% |
| 8/10/2016 | 8:51:00 | 3:17:00 | 37.10% |
| 8/9/2016 | 6:20:00 | 2:03:00 | 32.37% |
| 8/8/2016 | 7:16:00 | 3:02:00 | 41.74% |
| 8/7/2016 | 10:02:00 | 2:56:00 | 29.24% |
| 8/6/2016 | 5:37:00 | 1:49:00 | 32.34% |
| 8/5/2016 | 8:27:00 | 2:40:00 | 31.56% |
| 8/4/2016 | 10:07:00 | 2:47:00 | 27.51% |
| 8/2/2016 | 9:51:00 | 3:00:00 | 30.46% |
| 7/31/2016 | 4:47:00 | 2:06:00 | 43.90% |
| 7/30/2016 | 9:42:00 | 5:09:00 | 53.09% |
| 7/29/2016 | 8:03:00 | 3:17:00 | 40.79% |
| 7/27/2016 | 6:38:00 | 2:53:00 | 43.47% |
| 7/26/2016 | 7:26:00 | 3:35:00 | 48.21% |
| 7/24/2016 | 7:22:00 | 2:41:00 | 36.43% |
| 7/23/2016 | 8:24:00 | 4:28:00 | 53.17% |
| 7/22/2016 | 7:03:00 | 2:50:00 | 40.19% |
| 7/21/2016 | 8:54:00 | 2:53:00 | 32.40% |
| 7/19/2016 | 7:20:00 | 1:51:00 | 25.23% |
| 7/18/2016 | 9:40:00 | 3:35:00 | 37.07% |
| 7/16/2016 | 2:58:00 | 0:45:00 | 25.28% |
| 7/14/2016 | 9:19:00 | 5:57:00 | 63.86% |
| 7/13/2016 | 5:05:00 | 2:28:00 | 48.52% |
| 7/12/2016 | 4:21:00 | 2:10:00 | 49.81% |
| 7/10/2016 | 9:31:00 | 5:40:00 | 59.54% |
| 7/7/2016 | 8:42:00 | 3:39:00 | 41.95% |
| 7/5/2016 | 7:57:00 | 2:59:00 | 37.53% |
| 7/4/2016 | 7:34:00 | 3:08:00 | 41.41% |
| 7/3/2016 | 8:55:00 | 3:26:00 | 38.50% |
| 7/2/2016 | 5:16:00 | 2:09:00 | 40.82% |
| 7/1/2016 | 10:18:00 | 3:26:00 | 33.33% |
| 6/30/2016 | 8:51:00 | 2:43:00 | 30.70% |
| 6/29/2016 | 8:24:00 | 2:15:00 | 26.79% |
| 6/27/2016 | 6:18:00 | 1:53:00 | 29.89% |
| 6/25/2016 | 5:06:00 | 0:23:00 | 7.52% |
| 6/21/2016 | 6:39:00 | 2:21:00 | 35.34% |
| 6/20/2016 | 5:00:00 | 1:35:00 | 31.67% |
| 6/19/2016 | 7:07:00 | 2:13:00 | 31.15% |
| 6/18/2016 | 7:10:00 | 3:03:00 | 42.56% |
| 6/15/2016 | 9:24:00 | 2:33:00 | 27.13% |
| 6/14/2016 | 9:32:00 | 3:54:00 | 40.91% |
| 6/13/2016 | 3:56:00 | 2:03:00 | 52.12% |
| 6/12/2016 | 10:13:00 | 3:01:00 | 29.53% |
| 6/11/2016 | 5:57:00 | 2:27:00 | 41.18% |
| 6/10/2016 | 8:15:00 | 3:35:00 | 43.43% |
| 6/9/2016 | 7:21:00 | 4:00:00 | 54.42% |
| 6/8/2016 | 7:05:00 | 2:21:00 | 33.18% |
| 6/7/2016 | 7:10:00 | 2:07:00 | 29.53% |
| 6/5/2016 | 8:25:00 | 2:43:00 | 32.28% |
| 6/4/2016 | 9:18:00 | 5:20:00 | 57.35% |
| 6/3/2016 | 5:16:00 | 2:46:00 | 52.53% |
| 6/1/2016 | 9:04:00 | 2:39:00 | 29.23% |
