Earlier this year we were impressed with the Casper mattress, but you are about to learn more about our experience testing the Nest Bedding Alexander Signature Select mattress.

We unpacked the Nest Alexander, which inflated to its full size almost instantly. Nest Bedding makes the mattress in the US and uses non-toxic materials in the production process. We did not smell any of the unpleasant chemical odors that common foam mattresses tend to emit for weeks. Fully inflated and with no bad odors, within a few minutes the Alexander was ready to sleep on.

Unlike the 10” height of the Casper, the Alexander mattress is almost 14” high. In addition to the 2″ of gel foam, 2″ of visco foam and an 8″ density convoluted support layer, the Alexander has a 1.5″ top layer of soft foam in a quilted cover. The top layer adds a great feel to the mattress whether you sit down or lay on it.

Unlike the Casper, the Alexander can be ordered in three levels of firmness, which Nest Bedding refers to as “feel”. You can choose between soft, medium and firm. Most people will likely select the medium feel, but it is great to have the option to choose the level of firmness of your mattress. We tested the Alexander with the medium feel and we were pleased with the sleeping comfort in all positions.

The Alexander offers a better edge support than the Casper, in fact it’s easier to sit on the edge of the bed.

The only issue we have with the Alexander is the price. Their Twin size mattress at $999 is almost double the price of the Casper Twin at $500. The Full, Queen and King mattresses are a better value; for example the Alexander King is $1,399, still almost 50% more than the Casper King at $950.

We found the Alexander to be a comfortable mattress to sleep on. We did not run into any of the issues that other mattresses in the space suffer from. With the Alexander we did not sink into the mattress, we did not suffer from overheating while sleeping and we did not experience any nasty chemical odors. In our sleeping comfort tests, the Nest Alexander ranked better than the Casper mattress.

Overall the Nest Alexander is a great mattress that delivers a good night sleep. The only drawback is pricing. While for a Twin size mattress we definitely recommend the Casper, for all other sizes the Alexander might be worth the extra money.

A quick survey of our readers shows that for people on a budget, they usually purchase a king size foam mattress online for around $600, while our more affluent readers tend to spend over $3,000 for Tempur-Pedic style mattress. How about a mattress that’s nearly as comfortable as a Tempur-Pedic, yet it costs not much more than a standard foam mattress? We recently found out that such option exists, the Casper mattress.

Internet startup Casper fills that perfect mattress sweet spot. A comfortable mattress delivered to your home in a box, for less than $1,000 (for a king size.)

We had a few of our editors experience sleeping for several weeks on a popular foam mattress sold on Amazon, a Casper mattress as well as a premium mattress.

The Casper mattress arrives in a box within a few days of your order. Unlike foam mattresses that require 2-3 days to air out the chemical smells and inflate to full height, the Casper mattress was ready in less than 20 minutes and it didn’t have any of the unpleasant chemical smells.

One of the main differences of a Casper mattress is that its top layer is 1.5” of latex foam, then a 1.5” layer of memory foam, with a 7” layer of base foam. Most regular memory foam mattresses don’t have a layer of latex, and if they do, it’s usually beneath a layer of memory foam. That’s one of Casper’s main differences.

Sleeping on a Casper mattress is very comfortable, its layers of foam and latex allow for a comfortable sleep without overheating. For some of our editors sleeping on a regular foam mattress was unbearable, causing them to wake up in the morning in a pool of sweat.

The Casper mattress is not too soft nor too hard, it’s somewhere in between. Unlike the foam mattress, it’s easy to flip around on and it’s comfortable for night activities. We must admit though, that we liked better to sleep on our premium mattress, but the Casper’s comfort was not far off.

One of the main drawbacks for the Casper is the lack of edge support. If you like to sit on the edge of your bed while getting dressed, you won’t like to do it on your Casper mattress. Its slick cover design gives the impression of a sturdy edge, but the mattress lacks any real edge support.

Even the cheaper foam mattress we tested offered a better edge support.

Overall we feel that the Casper mattress is a great choice for the price. You get a slick and comfortable mattress made in the USA delivered to your home for less than a $1,000, you don’t have to worry about

sweating at night and it’s almost as comfortable as a premium mattress that runs three times the price.