Casper Sleep Essential Mattress Review

I was a little skeptical of all the hype that the Casper Essential was incredibly comfortable as it’s a little on the thinner side compared to many ‘luxury’ mattresses, but I was so satisfied once I’d actually tried it out.

With the softness and bounce of the two-inch top layer, and the pressure relief in the 1.5-inch transition layer, it’s not difficult to see why so many people love this mattress.

The foam is gentle enough to cradle and conform to your body, while the base levels provide enough stability to keep you from sinking. The soft polyester knit cover also contributes to an all-round plusher sleep experience.

This Casper mattress isn’t just comfortable – it’s also supportive.

With the durable 7.5-inch base layer and the pressure-relieving transition layer, your back, neck, hips, shoulders, and legs are all supported. This helps prevent and relieve aches or pains, so you can wake up refreshed.

In addition to the support, the mattress helps to isolate and deaden any movement — allowing one person to roll around a bit without disturbing a bed-sharing partner.

A mattress that creates a supportive, quiet, and still sleeping environment is super important in my book!

This mattress is also unbelievably easy to clean. Since it has a zip-off cover, you need only remove and toss it in the washing machine, or spot clean if you prefer.

For durability purposes, it’s recommended to lay flat to dry or hang it on your clothes line. After that, simply zip it back onto your mattress and settle down for the night.

The Casper Essential is also extremely easy to set up. It arrives tightly packed in its box, which makes it much easier to maneuver into your house or apartment.

Everyone who has tried to carry a standard mattress up a staircase or around corners will know that having the mattress packed down small makes a big difference.

All you have to do is carry the box (about 76 pounds) into the room where you’re putting this mattress and open the box and the plastic wrapping. It will then expand itself to its full size – sometimes these mattresses expand in just a few hours! Casper recommend giving it around 24-48 hours for full expansion, which is a little quicker than standard for memory foam mattresses.

For extra ease, I recommend putting the mattress directly on the bed frame and letting it expand right where it will stay.

One of the features that separates the Casper from other cheap memory foam mattresses is just how breathable it is. As such, there’s no worry of it growing overly hot or picking up odors from your home over the years.

This is mainly due to the top comfort layer, which has air channels running through its design. Air can move throughout the foam to help it stay cool and dissipate odors.

Memory foam normally runs very hot, but with this build, that’s no longer a concern. Sleeping is cool and comfortable, which is unusual and highly sought after in a memory foam mattress.

I think one of the main reasons that so many people are raving about the Casper is the fact that it really is a broad church and accommodates every sleep position you can think of.

It’s firm enough for back and stomach sleepers to receive the spine and neck support they need, but it’s soft enough for side sleepers, conforming to the curves of their body and supporting their side, back, neck, and shoulders.

It’s a true ‘medium’ (despite the company calling it a medium-soft) that should be acceptable to most sleepers.

It doesn’t matter how you sleep or if you tend to change positions; this mattress will adapt to your needs.

This mattress is also noted to help relieve pressure on any particular body part, which is helpful if you have any injuries or chronic aches and pains.

A really small positive but one worth mentioning is the beautiful charcoal grey cover of the Casper Essential.

Not only does it look nice bare, it’s dark enough that any accidental staining doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb!

Bring on coffee in bed…

As a general note, I’d always recommend using a mattress topper and/or pad if you want to really protect your mattress and extend its longevity.

If you’ve slept on even half the number of memory foam mattresses that I have, you’ll probably be well aware of the off-gassing that happens once you’ve released them from their tight packaging.

This peculiar smell is simply the build-up of odors during the manufacturing and shipping process and it generally dissipates quite quickly.

This is true of the Casper Essential as well, but I was quite surprised at the strength of the odor on first unpacking. Really quite stinky, and I’m well used to it. I’d definitely recommend leaving it in a room with all windows open for at least a few hours, especially if you’re odor-sensitive. I didn’t notice it after 24 hours so this isn’t a major flaw, but worth noting nonetheless.

I mentioned at the start of this review that the mattress is incredibly comfortable and I definitely stand by that statement but it would be misleading to say that it has the same luxury plushness of the Casper Wave, for instance.

Part of this is the psychology of size — at 8.5 inches thick, it’s much thinner than most luxury mattresses and even a lot of cheaper foam ones too, so you expect it to be less luxurious as soon as you see it. As I said though, the comfort level of the Casper Essential does bely its size and will certainly be ranked at the higher end of the comfort scale for others at this low price point.