And the old myth that a harder mattress is better for you is exactly that – a myth. ‘It’s absolutely not the case that a harder mattress is better for you,’ says Tasker. ‘This piece of marketing has been very successfully propagated. I blame the Victorians and their belief that if something’s hurting you, it must be doing you good. If you sleep on too hard a bed, you won’t have a proper night’s sleep – it’s as simple as that.’
What you really need is support, and the best way to see if you’ve got that is to lie on the bed and test it properly. ‘Being English, we’re very reticent about climbing onto beds in the shop, but it’s the only way you can tell if it’s going to offer good support,’ he says. One way to test whether you’ve got the right degree of firmness is to lie on the bed and place your hand under the small of your back. ‘If it’s too firm you’ll have a gap,’ says Tasker. ‘And if it’s too soft, you’ll not be able to get your hand in.’
Other factors will affect the comfort of your bed – such as whether it has built-in storage. Wanting cupboard space in the divan is, apparently, a very British thing. ‘We’re making inroads into Asia where they’d never contemplate storage,’ he says. ‘From a feng shui point of view, you don’t want to be sleeping on your own junk.’
But the good news is that a quality bed will last, making it extremely good value for money. ‘The National Bed Federation says that people should be replacing their bed every seven years,’ says Tasker. ‘Yes, if you’re spending £400. But with a Vi-Spring you’ll get much more than 10 years. It’s not unheard of for people to have them for 40 years. That’s why we offer a lifetime guarantee.’
See more Vi-Spring beds on their website www.vispring.co.uk