Two pillows, an awkward elbow and a strip of masking tape can reveal more about your sleeping space than the label on your mattress. Here are five simple ways to check whether your bed actually fits your needs.
Two ordinary pillows can be wider than the mattress two adults are expected to share. It is a rather revealing detail, especially for couples who have spent years sleeping in the same bed without giving much thought to the measurements underneath them.
A standard UK double is 135cm wide. Divide that between two people and each gets 67.5cm of space. That might be perfectly adequate for some couples, but it leaves considerably less room for stretching out than the word ‘double’ might suggest.
Yet the double remains Britain’s most popular bed size. Figures from the National Bed Federation put it at 32%, ahead of king-size beds at 27%, singles at 11% and super kings at 10%.
The interesting question is how many people have ever checked if their bed is big enough for the way they actually sleep.
Paul Keenan, store manager at independent UK retailer Linthorpe Beds, recommends five straightforward checks that can help identify whether mattress width, length or the available bedroom space deserves closer attention.
None is a scientific assessment of sleep quality. They are practical ways of seeing what familiar bed-size labels don’t necessarily tell you.
The two-pillow comparison that makes a double look rather small
Start with something already sitting at the head of the bed.
A standard pillow is typically around 71–74cm wide. Place two side by side across a mattress and their combined width is approximately 142–148cm.
That is wider than a standard UK double.
It is an unusually simple way to appreciate how much space two people are sharing. The pillows don’t provide a definitive answer about whether a mattress is suitable, of course. They simply make the available width easier to visualise.
And if you have regularly found yourself negotiating space with the person beside you, those measurements may explain why.
The comparison is particularly useful before considering a larger mattress. Rather than assuming the next size up will solve everything, it gives you a starting point for measuring what you currently have.
Your elbows and sleeping position can tell you more
There are two further checks worth carrying out while you’re actually lying on the mattress.
The first takes about 30 seconds.
If you share a bed, both lie on your backs with your hands behind your heads, allowing your elbows to point naturally outwards.
If your elbows immediately meet or overlap, you may have less personal space than you would find comfortable.
It is a rough guide rather than a strict standard. Nobody is required to sleep with their arms behind their head all night. The point is to see how much freedom of movement the mattress allows once you’re no longer lying neatly within an imaginary boundary.
The second check is even closer to ordinary sleeping behaviour.
Lie in your usual position and roll naturally into another comfortable one. You might turn from your back onto your side, for example.
Don’t deliberately pull your arms and legs in to make the movement easier.
Notice where you finish. Are you suddenly close to the edge? Have you moved into the person next to you? Did you have to adjust your movement because there wasn’t enough space?
Keenan says this can be more revealing than simply lying still and deciding the mattress feels large enough.
“We move around far more in our sleep than we often realise, so whether you can simply lie on a mattress isn’t the only thing to think about.
“If one normal turn takes you straight to the edge or into the person next to you, that can be a useful sign that the amount of usable space is more restricted than it feels when you’re lying still. It isn’t a strict pass or fail test, but it gives you another reason to look at the actual width you have available.”
Taller sleepers should check the length before blaming the width
A mattress can be reasonably generous across its width and still be too short for the person using it.
The National Bed Federation’s bed-size guidance recommends choosing a bed at least 10cm longer than the tallest sleeper.
A standard UK double is approximately 190cm long. For somebody measuring 180cm, or around 5ft 11in, that leaves precisely 10cm beyond their height.
Someone taller would have less clearance.
The check is straightforward: measure your height, measure the mattress length and calculate the difference.
You don’t need to wait until your feet extend beyond the end of the bed to consider whether additional length might be useful.
This is especially relevant for taller people who assume that upgrading is primarily about gaining extra width. Depending on their height and sleeping position, length could be the more important measurement.
The 10cm recommendation is a useful starting point, although individual comfort will still vary.
Before buying a bigger bed, put it on the bedroom floor
A larger mattress may look attractive in a showroom. The same dimensions can feel rather different once a bed frame is occupying most of a bedroom.
That makes the fourth consideration — and fifth practical check overall — an important one before spending any money.
Take masking tape and mark out the complete footprint of the bed you’re considering on the bedroom floor.
Use the outside dimensions of the frame rather than the mattress measurements alone. Bed frames can occupy more space than the mattresses they support.
Once the outline is in place, walk around the room as you normally would.
Can you open the wardrobe properly? Is there sufficient space to pull out drawers? Can you move comfortably around the bed without having to negotiate the furniture?
Keenan recommends marking out both the existing bed and the proposed replacement, then leaving the tape in place for a day or two.
An additional 15cm or 30cm can seem relatively insignificant on a product listing. Seeing that space removed from the bedroom gives a much clearer impression of the practical compromise.
After all, gaining extra sleeping space is less appealing if it makes the rest of the room awkward to use.
A failed test doesn’t automatically mean you need a new mattress
These five checks are intended to highlight potential limitations, not to convince everybody that their existing bed needs replacing.
Two people might be comfortable sharing a double despite having limited elbow room. Somebody else may have ample width but find that their mattress offers little additional length.
And for others, the problem may be less about the bed itself than the space available in the bedroom.
The useful distinction is between the dimensions printed on a product label and the amount of room available for ordinary movement.
Measuring the mattress, considering how you sleep and checking the surrounding floor space offers a more informed basis for choosing a bed.
A larger mattress is one possible answer. Understanding which measurement is causing the difficulty is the sensible place to start.
