When you get a new mattress, it’s natural to want to sink into it straight away. But there are a few things you need to do before you sleep on your new mattress: you need to allow it to breathe and decompress to give it the best possible start.

At Zinus, we pride ourselves on our carefully developed compression packing technology, which means we’re able to flatten, roll, and pack your mattress into a single, wonder-filled box that can sustain its long journey to your door.

And we understand that waiting the 48-72 hours (the recommended memory foam mattress decompress time) for your mattress to puff back up to its original shape can make a person feel, well, restless. Fortunately, after many years of perfecting our craft, we have a couple of tricks up our sleeve to help mattress decompression happen a little faster, so we’ve outlined below what to do when you get a new mattress.

Can You Sleep On A New Mattress Straight Away?

Before you start sleeping on your new mattress every night, you need to let it decompress and breathe a little. But as part of this process, we recommend that you sleep on it the first night it’s with you to get the air flowing throughout the mattress.

However, the following night, you should sleep on your old mattress - if it’s safe to do so! - or elsewhere to give your mattress a little more time to complete the decompression process before you begin sleeping on it permanently.

Why Does A Mattress Need To Decompress?

Whichever way your mattress is packaged before it gets to you, it will be compressed in some way; at Zinus, we compress our mattresses by flattening and rolling them, which naturally leads to a little bit of squashing - but don’t be alarmed when you unwrap a mattress that’s flatter than you expect.

A flattened mattress simply needs a little time to decompress - essentially plump back up to its intended shape and comfort levels. To decompress a mattress, you’ll need to largely leave it alone for a couple of days, but you will need to make sure it’s at the right temperature and you might need to steam it too - more on this below.

5 Ways To Get The Most From Your New Mattress

Before you start sleeping on your new mattress every night, we recommend following these five steps:

1. Open The Box Within 72 Hours

Once your new mattress arrives in a box on your doorstep, it’s out of its element, and subject to a new climate and atmosphere. Because of this, we strongly encourage you to open it within 72 hours of receipt to start the decompression process.

Leaving your new mattress cooped up for much longer than that could result in extended recovery time; not to mention, more time spent in the box means less time for you to try out your new mattress risk-free for 100 nights - the urge to sink into a brand new mattress straight away is real, so get started ASAP.

Do yourself and your new investment a favour, and break into that box as soon as you’re able to and get that decompress time going.

2. Encourage Air Flow Through Your Mattress

Once your new mattress has been removed from its packaging, help air to flow through it by rolling or walking on it. This is important because your mattress will have been vacuum-packed before reaching you, and encouraging air flow will help it to plump back up to its original status.

You can help to facilitate this air flow by sleeping on your mattress the first night it arrives with you. If you’re the kind of sleeper who moves around a lot during the night, this will be especially beneficial, with the movement encouraging tiny pockets of air to open up and expand.

3. Keep Your New Mattress Warm

You may recall this one from your high school science lessons. By keeping your bedroom heated at 21°C or warmer, the molecules in your new mattress will be encouraged to move around, undergoing what’s known as thermal expansion. This can help to expand your mattress, encouraging it to plump up to a nice, firm level.

If your home isn’t quite this warm or if you live in a colder climate, you could use a portable heater - at a safe distance from your new mattress - to bring a little warmth to your room, and the mattress.

4. Steam Your Mattress

Steam can work wonders for helping the edges and corners of your new mattress to recover after they’ve been flattened or vacuum-packed in transit.

To steam your mattress, use a steamer to concentrate heat over certain areas to encourage your mattress to complete its growth spurt and decompress faster.

5. Be Patient

Although the tips above are designed to speed things up, sometimes good old-fashioned patience and waiting it out is what you need most. If your mattress doesn’t seem to be plumping up after a couple of days, give it a little bit longer and wait and see - it might have had a tricky journey and spent longer packed up than you realise!

Remember that good things come to those who wait. Give your mattress the time it needs to decompress, and you’ll enjoy a better sleeping experience in the long run.

Find The Right Bed Frame For Your New Mattress

If you’re looking for ways to pass the time while you wait for your new mattress to decompress, might we be so bold to suggest browsing our selection of Zinus bed frames to complete your new bedroom furniture?

Our platform bed frames are designed to support your Zinus mattress perfectly, and there are so many stylish, easy-to-assemble designs to choose from for every home, including metal and wooden frames. Our bed frames arrive in one handy box, with all the tools you need to start building your bed frame right away - sometimes, they’re even stored inside the headboard to save on extra packaging! Browse our full collection of bed frames.

If you have any further questions about how long it takes a mattress to decompress, please feel free to contact us. Our expert Zinus agents are standing by to make sure you’re well on your way to better sleep, sweeter dreams, and a bed you’ll never want to leave.