Around the halls of GQ, editors have our go-tos that we know are crowdpleasers: Patagonia Baggies come summer, a Needles mohair cardigan for the fall, Our Legacy Camion boots in the winter, and Arc’teryx Beta jackets for the spring rain. And when it comes to pancaking on a mattress—no matter the season—it’s always midnight: Our team continually crowns the Helix Midnight Luxe and the Helix Midnight Elite winners of our Sleep Awards, thanks to squishy memory foam pillow top coupled with support-bearing innersprings.
Having read and edited the praises of others in our roundup of best mattresses, I was ready to test how the Midnight Luxe stacked up with my old (but incredibly beloved) Saatva mattress. What I found was that it certainly does not compromise on pressure relief, contouring, or motion transfer—and as a side sleeper, I always felt like I was supported and had solid spinal alignment. As for what else to know? Let’s dive into my Helix Midnight Luxe Mattress review.
Delivery and Unboxing the Helix Midnight Luxe Mattress
When you order a new mattress from Helix, FedEx delivers it straight to your doorstep. On your delivery date, your 100-night sleep trial begins, during which you can get a full refund during the trial period if you decide that you don’t jibe with the mattress. The mattress arrives in a box on your doorstep, and then it’s incumbent upon you to get it onto your bed. This is great if you’re not feeling like making small talk with delivery drivers on a given day, but it’s a bit of a drag if you’ve been slacking on your power rack routine. Mattresses are heavy: For Luxe models, twin mattresses ring in at 83 pounds while the California king and king mattresses go all the way up to 145 pounds.
The mattress slides out of the box, compressed in a plastic. When you get it up onto your bed frame, you can gingerly slice that plastic open and watch it puff up. FYI—the brand says that you have four weeks from the time that it’s dropped at your doorstep to open it up without the risk that it won’t properly inflate. Sometimes mattresses have slightly chemically smells out of the plastic—commonly known as “offgassing”—and I noticed that slightly with mine. Yet, it went away within a few days.
First Impressions of the Helix Midnight Luxe Mattress
The Helix Midnight Luxe is a medium-firm mattress that’s known for its zoned lumbar support, which is meant to help relieve pressure in areas like your hips and lower back. In some cases, testers who have tried the Midnight Luxe for GQ have reported that it can help ease back pain, thanks to the comfortable layers. And while plenty of folks love the medium-firm feel all on its own, combination sleepers (who toggle between side sleeping, back sleeping, and stomach sleeping) will take extra heart in the Luxe’s cushioning, responsive foam, and zoned coils.
I’ve been sleeping on a traditional innerspring mattress for ages, so the hybrid mattress construction had me slightly nervous as I don’t love the body-molding, “bed-in” feel that memory foam can have. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised that the pocketed coils, paired with the memory foam layers and a plush pillow top, gave this mattress just enough springiness to feel like I was on top of the bed. It also lapped my old mattress in terms of motion isolation, keeping my partner’s side of the bed still when I needed to change positions.
