A mattress you sink into slowly, with a thick, soft top between you and anything firm, is what plenty of lighter side sleepers come looking for. The Salus Sequoia 12000 is built for exactly that. Breasley builds the Salus beds at its factory in Ilkeston, three models in all, and this is the one at the top. At Mattress Online it's a soft-to-medium pocket hybrid with a buttoned-on box top, and at 42cm (16.5in) it's the deepest of the three. Lie down and you go through a wool-quilted top into gel memory foam that gives way gradually under your shoulder and hip, and only further down does anything springy start pushing back. It's a cosy bed to get into, and I can see exactly who it's for.
The rung below, the Salus Daintree 10000, has one too. What the Sequoia adds is another 3cm of depth and, right at the bottom, a layer of 1,000 full-size pocket springs. That base is the part I'd question. Every other spring behind the 12000 on the label is a mini, and a thousand full-size pockets is on the light side for a double, to my mind. On the top Salus I'd want a bigger support layer under all that comfort. Front sleepers and anyone past about eighteen stone should pass on it, and so should you if memory foam's slow sink leaves you feeling stuck.
Under about nine stone and on your side, though, this is a kind bed. Your shoulder goes down through the wool and the gel until the pressure comes off it, while the minis under the foam keep pushing up at your waist, so your spine stays level from neck to hip. It's a good bed for two, as well. I'm a light sleeper and I wake easily, so how a bed copes with someone turning over next to me counts for a lot, and here three layers of memory foam over pocketed springs keep that movement on their side of the bed.
Three layers of gel foam give the Sequoia 12000 its slow, deep sink
From the top down, the box top is quilted with British wool and carries a layer of Breasley's GelFlex gel memory foam and a double layer of mini springs inside it. Beneath that come two more gel foam layers, then two layers of minis with a responsive support layer between them, then the 1,000 full-size pockets. The cover is a quilted wool blend. A border of firm foam surrounds the springs, so you can perch on the side of the bed to get dressed and it won't sag away under you.
So the sink comes in stages. The wool gives first, then the foam takes your shape slowly, the way memory foam does, and the minis underneath stop it turning into quicksand. How far you go comes down to your weight. Heavier side sleepers, up to about fourteen stone, go deeper and still stay supported. Average-weight back sleepers end up with their hips a touch lower than their shoulders by morning, which is the hammock I'd rather you avoided. Past about eighteen stone, your weight goes straight through the foam and the minis to 1,000 full-size springs, and that is too few to hold you.
I'm all for gel in memory foam. It takes a little warmth out of the foam, and the wool in the top and the cover breathes and draws moisture away from you. Three layers of memory foam still hold your body heat, whatever is mixed into them. If you run hot, sleep on springs under fibre fillings with no foam in them, which is how both of the Harrison Spinks beds I'd point you to are made.
Breasley's Salus flagship rests on 1,000 full-size pocket springs
Credit first, because the minis are built properly. Each one has its own fabric pocket, and Breasley stacks them in several layers, so the surface beneath the foam gives in hundreds of small spots wherever you press, and air moves through the gaps in the middle of a very deep bed. That's where the Sequoia gets its lift once the foam has done its sinking.
My problem is the name. A full layer of around 3,000 full-height pocket springs is the count I'd call sensible, and the Sequoia's support layer is a third of that. Once a king goes past about 1,500 springs, the extras are nearly always minis, and here they account for almost all of the 12000. I've nothing against minis on their own. What I won't do is let a flagship price ride on them, so judge the Sequoia on its foam and how it feels, and read the number in its name as a count of comfort springs, not of support.
The Sequoia's box top is a separate layer you can lift away
This is a box top, with straight, upright sides, and that counts for a lot with me. Pillow tops I steer people away from, because the soft top softens further and you can't turn the bed to rest it. Box tops stay square for longer in my experience, and this one fastens with buttons onto a no-slip base, so it doesn't creep about in the night and lifts clear when you want it off.
The mattress under it is one-sided, with all the comfort on top, so you can't flip it, but it is made to be turned end to end, with handles sewn into its sides for the job. Turn it every season, since that's the one bit of upkeep that spreads the wear on a single-sided bed, and those handles make it a job you'll actually do.
At 42cm the Sequoia 12000 is a tall climb, so plan the sheets and the frame
Most standard fitted sheets stop at around 30cm of depth. The Sequoia is 42cm, with a couple of centimetres either way, so get deep-pocket sheets in before delivery day. On an ordinary bed frame the top of the mattress ends up a long way off the floor. Before you order, add 42cm to the height of your frame and check your feet will still rest flat on the floor when you sit on the edge; on a tall frame they won't. If you're on the short side, or climbing into bed has started to feel like effort, put it on a low base.
It comes on a two-person delivery and is built after you order it. Should it be wrong for you, the shop's 100-Night Comfort Trial lets you exchange it for a different mattress, provided you bought Mattress Online's protector in the same order. I'm no fan of protectors, but here it's the price of the swap, so add one at the checkout.
What to buy instead
Buy the Harrison Spinks Quilted Fusion 12000, which costs a good deal less at the same shop. It's graded soft to medium too, and underneath it has the same number of full-size pockets, 1,000, with layers of minis above and below them, so you give up nothing in support. What changes is the top. It's flat and inner-tufted, with soft fibres where the Sequoia has foam, and at 28cm it takes standard fitted sheets and sits at a normal height. You trade the slow memory-foam sink for a springier feel that doesn't trap your heat. I respect how Harrison Spinks builds, and in your place this is the one I'd buy.
If you'd like a mattress you can flip, the Harrison Spinks Saltaire 10750 is also cheaper here and also soft to medium, with wool, silk and mohair over springs on both faces and no foam at all. Lighter side sleepers who run warm will like it most.
Keep the Sequoia for a light side sleeper who loves memory foam's slow hold and a British-made bed, and who has a low frame and deep sheets ready for it.
