Soft beds have a loyal following, and I understand why. After a long day some people want a mattress that lets them sink in, and the Sealy Posturepedic Sorrento Plush is built for exactly that person. Sealy makes it for Dreams, where it sits beside the four Posturepedic Elevate beds Sealy builds on the same coil. Those four run from Medium Firm up to Very Firm, and a light side sleeper stays perched on top of every one of them, so this is the gap the Sorrento fills.
Its closest relation is the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Merivale, and the two are built alike: the same 33cm depth, the same coil, the same border and base. The one difference is a layer of Sealy's InfiniLux foam where the Merivale has a firm foam, and that swap takes the Sorrento from Medium Firm all the way to Soft. Lie on your side and your shoulder goes down through a quilted fibre top and a deep run of foam before the springs give anything back. If you tried the Merivale and found it too firm on your side, this is the version you were hoping for.
What stays the same is the part I'd change. AlignSupport is an uncounted Sealy coil unit, every spring tempered twice for strength, and it gives the bed a steady, even base. It's Sealy's own system rather than pocket springs, so the coil answers as one piece. Under all that foam you'll still feel a partner turning over more than you would on a pocket-sprung bed. The sink is lovely, and for what this costs I'd want each spring under it moving on its own.
Made for a lighter side sleeper who sleeps alone
When I match someone to a mattress, weight comes first and position second. Under about nine stone, a side sleeper needs softer than any chart suggests, and that's where the Sorrento makes sense: the foam lets a light shoulder and hip down far enough for your spine to lie level, with the coil underneath to stop you going further. If your hip aches after a night on a firmer bed, a soft comfort layer over a supportive base is where I'd start you, and that's the build here. My own guest bed is a Sealy Posturepedic Pearl Memory, now sold as the Sealy Advantage Memory Essential, and when I'm on my side it's firm at the shoulder. The Sorrento answers exactly that complaint.
Skip it if you're heavy, if you sleep on your front, or if you're an average-weight back sleeper who likes to feel held flat. Under a heavier body a Soft grade lets the hips sink lower than the shoulders, and eight hours like that leaves your lower back doing the work the mattress should. Front sleepers are the ones I'd talk out of soft beds altogether, since the hips drop and the back arches. Pass too if you wake easily and share the bed with someone restless. The coil carries their every turn across to you, and the deep foam makes rolling over slower work for both of you.
Five foams sit between you and the springs
Start at the surface and work down. A quilted euro top of soft fibre comes first, under a cool-touch cover fabric with an anti-allergy treatment, and the foam begins straight after it: a contour foam, then memory foam with graphite in it, then the InfiniLux. Below those are a plant-based foam that eases pressure across your hips and lower back, and a double layer of medium foam. The coil comes only after all of that, inside Sealy's UniCased border, on a base board Sealy calls BasePlank. Every soft thing in it is fibre or foam. There's no wool or latex anywhere in the build.
That stack is what gives you the sink, and it's also where the warmth comes from. Memory foam keeps body heat close whatever goes into it. Graphite takes a little of the warmth out, which I'm happy to have and wouldn't choose a mattress on, and I'm less convinced by cooling cover fabrics than by anything inside the bed. If you run hot, look for springs under natural fillings, because a soft bed with this much foam is going to feel warm by the small hours.
Every step is foam, and the springs never change
Line the Sorrento up with the four Elevate beds and the coil, the border, the base board and the cover stay the same from the Very Firm end to this one. The Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Gladesville and the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Denison are Very Firm, the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Sandridge is Firm and the Merivale is Medium Firm. Each step softens or adds foam above that one unit. The Sorrento is the softest of the five, the only one with InfiniLux, and at 35kg in a double the heaviest.
So moving to this one gets you softness, and over the Gladesville, Denison and Sandridge, depth as well. If Soft is your grade, that's worth having, because nothing else in the family gives it to you. What it doesn't change is the Posturepedic spring system and how it carries a partner's movement, and that's the part of the whole family I'm not sold on.
The edge and the finish are what this family does well
I'll own that Sealy has never been a brand I warm to, and this family still earns its credit in two places. The first is the edge. Owners of the firmer beds on this coil single out how steady it stays when they sit on it, and I rate the components that go into all five. The Sorrento has the same UniCased border round the same coil, and on a bed this soft that matters, because a firm side is what lets you sit up and swing your feet out without sliding off. Sit right on its edge in the shop before you decide anything else. The second is the finish: the quilted top and the cool-touch cover make it a properly dressed bed, on the shop floor and in your bedroom.
A quilted euro top gives it that plush first minute
The Sorrento is finished with a deep quilted euro top, and I'll say so plainly, because it's a good part of what you're paying for. It's why the first minute feels so plush: your shoulder lands in soft fibre before it reaches the foam, and that cushioning is what makes the sink feel lovely rather than hollow. To my mind a euro top is a far better thing than a sewn-on pillow top, and I've come round to the value one can add. The one thing to know is that a quilted top softens over time, and on a one-sided bed you can't flip to rest it, so expect it a touch softer in a year than on the night it arrives.
33cm deep, delivered flat, rotated and never turned
Each one is made to order and comes to you flat. Sealy won't have it rolled or bent at any point, including the day you move house, so check it will go up your stairs and round the landing first. A double weighs 35kg, so it's a two-person carry and a two-person rotate. At 33cm (13 inches) it's deeper than ordinary fitted sheets reach, so buy deep-pocket sheets with it.
There's one sleeping side, and Sealy's guarantee says you must never sleep on the underside. Spin it head to toe twice a month through its first year, then monthly. That's Sealy's own schedule, and following it keeps you inside its guarantee terms. To my mind a turnable bed lasts longer, and this routine is the price of a soft one that isn't.
Check your base as well. Sealy wants the slats around 10cm wide and never more than 7.5cm apart. I'd say much the same, since a gappy base is my first suspect whenever a bed starts to dip. Sealy treats anything under 32mm of settling as normal, so a dip has to pass that before it counts as a fault. Lay a ruler across it if you're worried, and take any claim to Dreams first, because Sealy deals with claims through the shop.
Ten minutes on a showroom bed is good for ruling things out and not much more, so know your way back before you commit. The 100-Night Comfort Guarantee lets you exchange it once for another Dreams mattress, from a month in and for a fee, and it's an exchange, never a refund. Dreams can turn the swap down if the bed hasn't had a protector on since day one, so fit one before the first night.
What to buy instead
For a soft bed at Dreams, buy the Dream Team Ashbourne 2000 Pocket Wool Mattress. It's graded Soft too and costs far less, and it gives you what the Sorrento can't: pocket springs, each moving on its own, so a partner's turning stays on their side. It's tufted flat with British wool under both faces, and you can turn it over, which I always prefer.
It's a different kind of soft. You settle into springy wool and lie on the springs, where the Sorrento lets you sink into foam, and the Ashbourne arrives firmer than the one in the shop, so give it a few weeks before you judge it. Plush lovers are entitled to want a bed they sink into, and if that's you and you sleep alone, the Sorrento gives you that sink properly. For couples, and for most people buying soft at Dreams, the Ashbourne is the one I'd take home.
