Review: Tiami Mattress

It’s always an exciting day when I get to try out a new mattress brand. Tiami comes from the founder of Leesa, bringing some serious credentials—Leesa’s Sapira Chill is our favorite hybrid mattress. Will Tiami be able to live up to its famous sibling? I’m a certified sleep science coach with more than five and a half years of mattress testing experience, and here are my thoughts after a week of sleeping on this bed.

What Makes Tiami Tick

Photograph: Julia Forbes

Tiami’s raison d'être is its special features meant to promote better pressure relief and full-body support. However, Tiami is not the first to make this claim. When I initially chatted with Leesa founder and Tiami cofounder David Wolfe, he explained that Tiami’s going after ultra-luxury brands like Hästens, Kluft, and Vispring, which Wolfe says are “great mattresses, but extraordinarily expensive.” (For reference, Hästens' Vividus model costs $350,000. I've never tested a bed of this caliber, but I did once try to visit a Hästens storefront, where I was promptly asked to leave since I didn't have an appointment.)

Tiami’s hybrid design starts with a 90 percent organic, Oeko-Tex certified organic cotton cover for natural breathability and softness. The brand really hypes up its “Mediterranean-inspired wave design,” a sort of embossed texture on the surface, as a luxury feature. However, I don't think this matters. You’re going to be throwing a mattress protector and sheets over the bed; you won’t be able to appreciate the Santorini vibes.

The initial memory foam layer underneath uses a proprietary, temperature-responsive foam called Energex, which is supposed to react better to body heat than the usual foams out there to provide pressure relief and bounciness for when you move. Candidly, all memory foam is supposed to absorb heat to do this, but I found the Energex did a good job with these performance aspects—more on that in a minute.

Photograph: Julia Forbes

As for the rest of the mattress construction, another memory foam layer underneath helps supplement the Energex. Wolfe told me that instead of using glue, the foam layers are fused and then zoned and ventilated, so you can enjoy the trifecta of softness for pressure points, lumbar support, and airflow. After the foam, we then get to what I consider the star of this particular mattress’s show: the coils. In the Tiami, pocketed coils get an upgrade, too. Each has an Energex foam “cap” to really max out the pressure relief capabilities of this bed.

Wolfe told me this is “industry-leading” stuff, and while I don’t disagree, Tiami’s not the only one out there doing it. Foam coil encapsulation is a newer feature I’m seeing among other specialty mattresses, especially in cases where sleepers really need pressure relief above all else, given medical conditions or sore joints. A similar bed we've tested with this feature is the Saatva Rx, also made for people dealing with severe joint pain issues.

Sleep Experience

Photograph: Julia Forbes

The first thing that stood out to me when the Tiami arrived was its hefty weight. Energex is supposed to act like latex, and that’s pretty spot-on with this bed for weight and overall responsiveness. If you're looking for this mattress to help alleviate issues like back pain and joint discomfort, you may want to adopt a luxury mindset and opt for the white-glove delivery. It's a $299 fee that handles the delivery and installation, and the removal of your old bed. I did the standard bed-in-a-box setup solo, because I’m stubborn.

One thing I take pride in as a professional mattress reviewer is that I strive to thoroughly scrutinize every aspect of a mattress I’m evaluating. In Tiami’s case, if the brand is aiming to contend with “big-league” luxury brands, I will indeed hold it to that standard. First night, the bed felt pretty firm, which is typical for a new mattress. While that may not seem productive for those with joint issues, I did feel like there wasn't any excess pressure around my hips and shoulders while side sleeping.

As I spent more nights on the Tiami, I appreciated how the overall firmness provided lumbar support, ensuring that no part of the body sank in more than the others. This helps keep the upper and lower portions of the spine from bending out of alignment. However, I wished that the foam was a little bit more supportive under the lumbar zone when back sleeping. Since the spine has a natural curve to it, memory foam can help fill in the space. I wanted more of that here, but didn't get it. Stomach sleeping can also be tricky. This is because if the bed is too soft, the spine can bend into slight angles, which isn't the healthiest to be in for hours on end. But with Tiami and the overall firmness it lent, I actually opted to forgo my pillow while stomach sleeping to get the most pressure relief and lumbar support. In other words, it did a good job with stomach sleeping.

As for Tiami's flagship specialty coils, there was no doubt that I was able to get pressure relief from the mattress each night I tested it, and areas that can get aggravated from tension felt just fine. But that's just it—fine, not great. I was expecting something a bit more buoyant, given the supposed latexlike performance of Energex. While it was responsive like latex, letting me move around with no issues, I'm not sure that it fully translated to the feeling of full-on weightlessness. If you're dealing with pretty severe pain from arthritis or osteoporosis, for example, I think you'd be better off with a memory foam from Tempur-Pedic to avoid any pain points.

Edge support is something I also pay careful attention to, because you need to be able to get in and out of bed without tumbling. In my case, I regularly sleep on the edge, where support is of the utmost importance. Tiami's “double-pocketed support system” is a big marketing draw of this bed, but it's really just reinforced coils along the edges. These coils did a good job, and helped with the overall durability of the mattress in the long run. I have zero complaints about the edge support performance of the Tiami during my time with it. I will say, though, that pocketed coils are a pretty standard feature of hybrids nowadays.

To Tiami, or Not to Tiami

Photograph: Julia Forbes

Here's my verdict: The Tiami is a really solid mattress, and there was a lot of thought and care that went into its design. That much is clear based on its performance and how well I slept (which was pretty deeply each night, based on my sleep tracker). My concern more so lies in the fact that I have had very similar performances from less expensive mattresses—ones also made with luxury in mind, and often made to order.

If you're a fan of the luxury furniture store Design Within Reach, Tiami is available at storefront locations so you can feel it in person. But if you opt to get one online, there is also a 100-night sleep trial. This mattress aims for “luxury” in the fullest sense, and it succeeds. I'm just on the fence about justifying the price. But, if it checks all your boxes and fits the mattress description you're looking for, you can be the judge.