When is the best time to buy a mattress? When you need one, of course... although if you want to get the best bargain, it pays to be strategic about when you shop. Sales happen year-round, but not all offers are created equal.
The upcoming Black Friday mattress deals are poised to feature the lowest prices of the year once again. However, you can find plenty of savings during any major holiday. Memorial Day is flush with markdowns on older mattresses, while July 4th is a high point during an otherwise sleepy season. (By the way, don't count on Prime Day to deliver a bevy of eye-watering discounts on the best mattresses.)
If you care about striking at the right moment, I've called upon my years of deal-hunting experience to put together a comprehensive guide of the best times to buy a mattress, ranked according to the strength of their discounts. Use it to help you gauge whether you should click 'buy now' or 'add to cart' and wait for a better price. Here's my ranking of the best times to buy a new mattress, if you want to score the lowest price.
1. Black Friday
The best time to buy a mattress is Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving. That's when most brands host their lowest prices of the year. Some companies like to get a head start and drop their sales in late October or early November, but these early-bird deals are weaker than what you'll find later in the month. One notable exception is Nectar, which in the past has run its standard Nectar mattress sale over Black Friday after dropping a much stronger flash sale weeks prior.
The one advantage of shopping early Black Friday mattress sales is faster shipping times. Popular mattresses often sell out or go on backorder due to high demand during Black Friday weekend, especially if they're not usually discounted.
2. Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday immediately follows Black Friday and features a lot of the same deals from the previous weekend. Most brands will kick off their Cyber Monday mattress sales a day in advance and extend these promotions through the rest of the week.
If you slept on Black Friday mattress deals, Cyber Monday presents another opportunity to take advantage of some of the lowest prices of the year. However, stock will be even harder to come by at this point so you might have to wait a bit if the mattress you want is on backorder.
3. Presidents' Day
Presidents' Day is the first major holiday of the year, falling on the third Monday in February. After a brief lull, mattress brands are eager to entice shoppers with prices that are almost on par with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Presidents' Day mattress sales start up to a week before the holiday but a majority of brands will launch specials that weekend and possibly extend them through the following week.
4. Labor Day
Labor Day takes place on the first Monday in September. It follows what's historically known as the worst time of year to buy a new bed (summer). Labor Day mattress deals tend to act as a Black Friday preview, even if prices won't always drop as low as they will in November. Pre-Labor Day sales typically go live as soon as late August and last throughout the holiday, if not a few days beyond that.
5. Memorial Day
Memorial Day is the last Monday in May. It's a prime holiday for discounts on older mattresses as brands tend to roll out new products in late spring and want to make room for that stock. Memorial Day mattress deals usually begin to crop up in mid-May but the strongest offers surface over the holiday weekend. It's the last major sale event before summer, when mattress prices hit their highest points.
6. 4th of July
Independence Day on July 4th is a bright spot during what's otherwise a low point for mattress deals since MSRPs start to trend upward in the summer. That means prices won't be as low as what you'll see on Black Friday or Labor Day. However, July 4th mattress sales will still help you keep some cash in your wallet.
Is Prime Day a good time to buy a mattress?
Amazon Prime Day is a Prime member-exclusive sale that takes place in mid-July, but for the last two years, the retailer has hosted a second event in mid-October. Amazon's focus during Prime Day is mainly on small appliances and tech, especially its Alexa devices.
Still, you could get lucky and land an incredible deal – for instance, we spotted some all-time lows on select Casper mattresses during the latest round of Prime Day deals. Otherwise, it's not as competitive as Black Friday or other holidays since mattress brands just offer their standard offers in response.
