As with mattresses, different degrees of hardness are specified for box spring beds, which are intended to provide information about the suitability of a bed in terms of body weight. In the following article we explain important details and background information on the degree of hardness in box spring beds and provide you with further information on this topic.
Basic knowledge of degree of hardness
For mattresses and box spring beds, degrees of firmness are marked with the letter “H” in connection with a number (1-5). The hardness information can be found accordingly: H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5. With box spring beds, the degree of hardness of the top mattress / mattress usually determines the degree of hardness for the entire bed. If the mattress is designed with a degree of hardness H2, it is also referred to as a box spring bed in H2.
What is a degree of hardness?
According to the definition, the mattress degree of hardness H is the measure that indicates the hardness of a mattress. The number behind the H should be used to read how hard or soft a mattress is. The degree of hardness is measured at the center of the mattress.
Are there standards for the degrees of hardness?
It can often be read that the degree of hardness H1 is soft, the degree of hardness H2 is medium, the degree of hardness H3 is hard and the degree of hardness H4 is very hard. However, this classification can quickly be misleading. Above all, it is not suitable for making a mattress or box spring bed selection based on personal reclining preferences. Conversely, “I like to sleep softly” does not mean that purchasing an H1 mattress is the best choice. The desire for a very firm mattress can have an equally unfavorable effect if an H4 or H5 model is chosen for people with a low body weight.
Choice of mattress / choice of box spring bed
Regardless of how the firmness of a mattress or a box spring bed is defined by the manufacturer or provider, the only decisive factor is that the mattress fits you, your individual requirements and your personal sleeping habits and preferences:
The box spring bed / mattress you have chosen is “right” if your body is carried in such a way that you can lie and stand up in a relaxed and natural position without pain. The weight should be evenly distributed, which is the case when the mattress (of the box spring bed) gives way in the areas where the pressure is highest – the shoulders and hips / buttocks. At the same time, the rest of the body (trunk, legs) must be given adequate support. If the body lying on the side of the ergonomically correct mattress is viewed, a straight line can be drawn from the head to the tailbone. There are no clear spaces between the body and the base due to insufficient sinking behavior.
The mattress is too firm or too hard when it is no longer possible to sink in. This is usually the case if the degree of hardness chosen is too high for your own body weight. In this constellation, the body only rests on the sleeping pad, which leads to an unnatural upward curvature of the spine.
If the mattress is too soft, all parts of the body will sink into the mattress and receive little or no support. Since the hip / buttock area exerts the most pressure, this is where the body sinks the deepest. The spine cannot maintain its natural double S shape and sags downwards.
When choosing a box spring bed or mattress, the degree of firmness is not very important, as individual physical requirements such as body length or different body parts (wide pelvis, wide shoulders, narrow hips) are not taken into account. If in doubt, it is always advisable to seek professional advice on the selection.
What are the meanings of the manufacturer’s hardness specifications?
The degrees of firmness of mattresses and box spring beds are by no means standardized and are defined very differently from manufacturer to manufacturer and from provider to provider. For this reason, it is not possible to make a simple comparison between two H2 box spring beds or two H2 mattresses.
As a concrete decision-making aid, the degree of hardness defined by the manufacturer is therefore only of little use.
Degree of hardness information
At Betten.de, we personally test all box spring beds on offer and then evaluate the degree of hardness according to our own, tried-and-tested scheme – regardless of the manufacturer’s information. As a result, we establish standard recommendations for a specific body weight for each sleep system, which always means the weight of an individual.
For the user of a bed, the perceived firmness is primarily important. In principle, it does not matter whether a mattress or a box spring bed is defined as H1, H2, H3, H4 or even H5 if the properties of the sleeping pad suit the user and their expectations with regard to the actually imparted hardness are met.
For this reason, in the configurators on the product pages in the Betten.de online shop, you can choose from different degrees of firmness for your individual body weight for many beds. In addition, we usually provide you with a tabular overview of the lying sensation of the individual mattresses in combination with the available toppers, so that you can quickly get an overview.
