Nolah Mattress Review: A Value Alternative to Memory Foam?

Are you looking for an all-foam mattress that gives you the benefits of memory foam without the drawbacks? The Nolah Original mattress might be right up your dream bed.

Our unbiased Nolah Original mattress review will take a close look at its construction, firmness, and overall performance. By the end of this Nolah mattress review, you should know if this comfortable mattress is the right fit for you!

Nolah Original Mattress Overview

Nolah is an online, direct-to-consumer retailer of bed-a-box-mattresses that has had great success in the sleep industry. Their flagship bed, the Nolah Original Mattress, makes use of a proprietary foam called AirFoam, which has some very interesting properties.  It’s immediately responsive, good at relieving pressure, and is designed to help you sleep cool.

Also, Nolah Mattress is advertised as selling for a third of the price of in-store memory foam mattresses. As fantastic as that sounds, let’s see who it might be a good match for.

Who Might Like the Nolah Original?

• Side sleepers
• Those who want one of the best mattresses for combination sleepers
• Shoppers who want a great soft mattress
• Anyone who needs one of the best mattresses for back pain and best mattresses for hip pain
• Those who want a durable mattress for a value price

Who Might Not Like the Nolah Original?

• Stomach sleepers might need a firmer mattress
• Heavier people

Nolah Mattress Review: Video Overview

Want to see how the Nolah Original looks in action? Take a gander at our in-depth Nolah mattress video review:

Overall Rating

Our team of Certified Sleep Science Coaches personally test each mattress in categories such as materials, comfort, cooling, and support. Hover over the icons to learn more about these different topics, or scroll down for a more detailed analysis on each one.

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Note: Looking for a mattress with stronger support and durability? Check out our Best Mattresses That Won’t Sag.

Nolah Original Mattress Firmness and Feel

Whenever we review a mattress, we usually begin by looking at its firmness and feel. This gives us an initial idea of who the mattress will be a good fit for.

How Firm is the Nolah Original?

We rated the Nolah Original mattress at around a 6/10, just a bit softer than average. The AirFoam is particularly soft and lets us sink a fair amount into the bed.

Sleeping on the Nolah Original

When we are back-sleeping, the Nolah Original provides us with a good balance of comfort and support. Our hips sink into the top foam layers, but we’re also getting a slight lift.

While we’re side-sleeping, the Nolah Original offers some excellent pressure relief. The AirFoam relieves a good deal of pressure on our shoulders and hips. That’s why you can often find it on our roundup of the best mattresses for side sleepers. However, as we will mention below, people over 230 lbs might have a different experience.

The Nolah Original does not offer us quite enough support when we’re stomach-sleeping. We can feel our hips bow into the mattress, and are getting out of alignment. Stomach sleepers might want to consider the Nolah Signature mattress if they need more support.

What Does the Nolah Original Feel Like?

Overall, the Nolah Original has a balanced foam feel. The AirFoam is soft and pressure-relieving, but also quite responsive. It lets us sink in a bit, and at the same time, we have no trouble moving around.

Average-Weight Sleepers: 130lbs – 230lbs

Average-weight back sleepers should enjoy a good balance of comfort and support on the Nolah. They’re likely to experience some nice contouring from the AirFoam, while also feeling lifted up by the base layer. Side sleepers in this weight range should feel great pressure relief, but average-weight stomach sleepers will need to find a more supportive mattress.

Heavyweight Sleepers: Over 230lbs

In general, the Nolah Original might not be the best mattress for heavy people. They probably won’t get the support they need while back-sleeping or stomach-sleeping. And when side-sleeping, they might press through the comfort layers and feel some more significant pressure on their shoulders and hips.

Lightweight Sleepers: Under 130lbs

Lightweight sleepers should like the Nolah Original when they’re back-sleeping and side-sleeping, getting all the comfort and support that they need. In fact, we find the Nolah Original to be one of the best mattresses for lightweight sleepers.

Nolah Original Mattress Construction

Now, let’s unzip the cover of the Nolah Original mattress and see exactly what’s going on inside. We’ll look at each layer one by one and discuss how it affects the performance of the mattress.

Cover

The Nolah Original features a Botanic Origin Tencel cover. It’s designed to be more eco-friendly, and also helps promote airflow through the top of the mattress.

Comfort Layers

The top comfort layer contains something called AirFoam. This is proprietary to Nolah and is meant to be more responsive and breathable than standard memory foam. Another bonus: it doesn’t contain viscoelastic chemicals usually found in memory foam, which can contribute to overheating.

Below that, there’s a layer of Deep Supportive High-Resilience Foam. This provides some more bounce to the top of the mattress and keeps you from sinking in too far.

Support Layers

On the bottom, the Nolah Original features high-density breathable base foam. This provides the main support in the Nolah Original mattress.

Mattress Height

The Nolah Original measures 10” tall — fairly standard for a memory foam mattress.

RELATED: Best Online Mattress

Nolah Original Mattress Size Options and Price

To see the most up-to-date size and pricing information for the Nolah Original mattress, take a look at the chart below!

Size	Dimensions	Price
Twin	38” x 75”	$999.00
Twin XL	38″ x 80″	$1199.00
Full	54″ x 75″	$1349.00
Queen	60” x 80”	$1149.00
King	76” x 80”	$1749.00
California King	72” x 84”	$1749.00

If you’re looking for a more luxurious option, take a look at our Nolah Evolution Hybrid mattress review. And don’t forget to check out our Nolah mattress coupons to get the best deal, especially around holidays such as President’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Black Friday.

Nolah Original 10″ Mattress

The Nolah Original 10″ mattress works especially well for side sleepers, and it’s sold at a value price.

Save 35% off sitewide + 2 free pillows with mattress purchase

Check Price

Mattress Clarity Score

4.20 / 5.0

Nolah Original Mattress Performance

We ran the Nolah Original mattress through a number of tests with regard to cooling, motion transfer, and edge support. Let’s see how it performed in these categories!

Sleeping Hot or Cold

In our experience, the Nolah Original does not sleep too hot. The cover is very breathable, and the AirForm is designed not to trap heat the way that memory foam can sometimes do. Overall, we were not overheating when we slept on the Nolah Original.

Motion Transfer

The Nolah is an all-foam mattress, so we expected the Nolah to perform well with motion isolation.

During the tests, the glass barely moved, and we saw little to no motion transfer on the Nolah. If someone sleeps with a partner, they shouldn’t feel them moving around at night. The Nolah Mattress could be a good option for couples who don’t want to be disturbed by their partner’s movements.

Edge Support

We usually don’t expect all-foam mattresses (especially ones as soft as the Nolah) to have the best edge support. So we were pleasantly surprised that this mattress’ edge-support results were pretty solid. The foam layers definitely compressed as we sat near the edge of the mattress, but we didn’t feel like we were going to fall off.

Also, lying near the edge, we didn’t feel like I was going to be ejected from the mattress, which makes the Nolah Original a good option for couples.

Durability

The Nolah Original mattress features some durable, high-density foam that should stand up to many years of use. This of course depends on your weight and how often you use the mattress, but we see the Nolah Original lasting for between 7 and 10 years at least.

Off-Gassing

We did observe some initial off-gassing from the Nolah Original, but this dissipated within 48 hours. For those who don’t know, off-gassing refers to the slightly chemical (yet ultimately harmless) odor that sometimes accompanies bed-in-a-box mattresses when they’re opened.

Noise

Given that it is an all-foam mattress, the Nolah Original makes no real noise when we move around and change positions.

Sex

The Nolah Original is a responsive mattress that makes it easy to move around at night. This is good news for anyone who needs a good mattress for sex.

Company Info

Now, let’s take a quick look at Nolah’s fine print.

Warranty Info

The Nolah Original comes with a Lifetime Warranty. This covers manufacturing defects, but is void if the mattress isn’t paired with the correct support system.

That last bit of wording can get tricky, so let’s dive a little deeper into the warranty. On one hand, Nolah says that you don’t need a proper bed frame for their Original mattress — just a firm, flat surface.

On the other hand, the warranty mentions a bed frame, saying that if you use a standard frame, the foundation must be supported by five or six legs for queen-size mattresses and above. Likewise, for slatted bases, the slats must be 5″ or less apart.

So our recommendation is to use a bed frame as outlined above in order to take full advantage of Nolah’s lifetime warranty.

Sleep Trial

Nolah offers a 120-night sleep trial. If, you don’t think the Nolah Original is a good fit after 30 nights, the company will come and pick up the mattress for you.

Return Policy

Your Nolah Original mattress comes with free shipping and returns. Again, if the Nolah Original isn’t working for you, they will come to your house and take the mattress away.

Common Nolah Original Mattress Complaints

The main Nolah Original mattress complaints have to do with support. Stomach sleepers complain that they do not get enough support. Also, a number of heavier people complain that the mattress is too soft for them.

How Does the Nolah Original Compare to Other Mattresses?

If you’re looking at the Nolah Original mattress, you might want to know how it compares to other relevant mattresses. Keep reading to do a little comparison shopping!

To see how Nolah Original stacks up against even more brands like Helix and Saatva, see our Nolah mattress comparisons.

Nolah Original vs Casper Original

The Nolah and Casper are both all-foam mattresses, but they still have their differences in construction and materials. The main contrast can be found in Casper’s second layer. It features a layer of zoned memory foam that’s firmer toward the center and softer toward the head and foot of the mattress. This makes the bed feel firmer and more supportive when you’re back- and stomach-sleeping, and softer when you’re side-sleeping.

That being said, in general, the Nolah Original is softer than the Casper mattress. With regard to feel, they both have a responsive, balanced foam feel.  This makes it easy to move around on both mattresses.

These mattresses differ a bit when it comes to price: A Queen-size Nolah Original costs $1149.00 at full price, while the same size Casper Original costs $1295.00.

Who Should Get the Nolah Original?

• Side sleepers
• Those who like a softer mattress.

Who Should Get the Casper Original? 

• Back sleepers
• Combo sleepers

Make sure to read the full Nolah vs. Casper mattress review.

Nolah vs Purple Mattress

The Nolah and Purple are both popular bed in a box mattresses, but they are quite different. First off, looking at their construction, they have different materials in their comfort layer. The Nolah features a proprietary AirFoam that is soft and responsive. The Purple features a unique Purple Grid that is made from a hyper-elastic gel polymer.

While they are both responsive mattresses, their feels are also slightly different. The Nolah has more of a balanced foam feel, and the Purple has a squishy, gel-like feel. The Nolah is also slightly softer than the Purple mattress.

The Nolah and Purple are very close in price though the Nolah tends to be cheaper by a few hundred dollars with discounts applied.

Who Should Get the Nolah? 

• Side sleepers
• Fans of softer mattresses
• Lightweight sleepers

Who Should Get the Purple? 

• Heavier people
• Those who need more support
• Hot sleepers

For more information, read our full Nolah vs. Purple mattress comparison.

Nolah Original Mattress FAQs

Still have questions? We’ve put together answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Nolah Original mattress!