Nolah is known for making mattresses that keep you cool while also relieving pressure. It now offers an impressive lineup of several different beds (including the luxurious Nolah Evolution Hybrid), but the Nolah Original 10 was the brand’s very first mattress. This Original 10 uses a classic, three-layer, all-foam design that competes with other popular brands like Casper and Leesa.
Video: Nolah Original 10
In my six years of testing mattresses, I’ve unboxed three different versions of the Nolah Original 10. The foam layers have remained the same in all three models, but the cover design has changed significantly.
This new version of the cover is by far my favorite, as it gives the mattress a more premium look that matches the Nolah Original Hybrid, which was released in 2023.
Upon unboxing this latest version, I wasn’t sure if the fundamentals of previous versions had changed at all, but while the bed did firm up after about 6 hours, based on its firmness and feel, it was clear that the Nolah Original 10 hasn’t changed under the hood.
It still has an interesting, hard-to-pin-down feel and is slightly softer than the medium firmness profile.
Free Shipping
The Nolah Original 10 mattress is shipped to your door in the United States inside a box at no additional cost. Unboxing the mattress is a quick and easy process; we’ve done it hundreds of times at CNET and it’s actually fun — especially for a mattress like this that isn’t all that heavy.
I recommend opening it with two people because opening it alone can be challenging, especially for larger sizes like queen and king.
120-Night Trial
Nolah gives customers a 120-night in-home trial period. The trial begins once the mattress is delivered, so make sure you unwrap it as soon as possible. Nolah asks customers to try out any mattress for at least 30 nights before returning it because it can take time for your body to adjust to a new bed, no matter how well it fits you and your sleep preferences.
Plus, if you’re confident you’ll love a Nolah mattress, you have the option to skip the trial period altogether and save an additional $75 on your purchase.
I wouldn’t recommend this option because the trial period is important to make sure the bed really works for you, but it’s something we haven’t seen from any other brand.
Return Policy
During the trial period, you can return the Nolah Original 10 and get a refund, but unlike most brands, Nolah will charge you a $99 fee to return the mattress.
The return value is not paid upfront, but will be deducted from your refund. For example, if you spent $950 on a queen-size Nolah Original 10″ mattress, you’d get $851 back. This is unusual, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more brands start implementing a similar policy. This is to help offset the cost of the mattress pickup process, which you can learn more about here.
Warranty
Nolah goes beyond the usual 10-year warranty and opts for a “lifetime” warranty. Like almost any warranty that lasts longer than 10 years, this warranty is stratified and offers more protection in the first 10 years than in later years, but the lifetime warranty means that Nolah is confident in its mattresses.
Construction and Feel
The Nolah Original 10 is about 10 inches thick, which is where the “10” in the name comes from. It’s made from three different layers of foam. The support layer is a 7-inch layer of dense foam, which is a solid layer of foam that’s placed between the two layers. This is common for mattresses that don’t use coil support.
Above the support foam is a 1-inch layer of “CoreComfort” support foam, which acts as a transition layer between the dense support below and the primary comfort layer above, which is a two-inch thick layer of Nolah’s proprietary “AirFoam.” The top layer of AirFoam is similar to classic memory foam: When you lie on it, you sink into it, and it conforms to the shape of your body. It’s also much more responsive than most memory foams, so when you remove pressure from it, the foam returns to its original shape. You shouldn’t get any of the “stuck in the mud” feeling some people experience when sleeping on memory foam.
The feel of the AirFoam, combined with the transition layer below, gives the Nolah Original 10 mattress what we call a blended or mixed foam feel. Personally, I find this mattress to be very comfortable, and I think people who like the idea of memory foam but have had negative experiences with memory foam beds will enjoy the feel of this mattress.
The one thing the Nolah Original 10 lacks is the “hybrid” version. (Not to be confused with the Nolah Original Hybrid, which is a completely different bed that uses pocketed coils for support.) This is a version of the Nolah Original 10 that uses separate foam layers for support, designed to mimic the extra bouncy feel provided by mattresses with coils.