SleepOvation Baby Mattress Review: The Best Crib Mattress in 2022

If you’re looking for the best crib mattress, SleepOvation Baby makes the safest and most luxurious option for your new baby. Read my SleepOvation crib mattress review to learn all the details!

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Is a SleepOvation crib mattress worth it?

The SleepOvation crib mattress just won the prestigious National Parenting Product Award for 2022 and I wanted to learn more about what set it apart from the competition. When I first bought a crib mattress, I spent hours comparing models at various price points, reading reviews, and researching different certifications. My main concern was finding a quality mattress for my baby that would limit her exposure to chemical toxins while providing a safe and comfortable sleep surface. I’ll tell you why I think a Sleep Ovation crib mattress is worth the money if you want the very best crib mattress for your newborn during this comprehensive Sleep Ovation crib mattress review.

Product Features

• Excessive Skull Pressure Protection (Plagiocephaly prevention)
• Unique hybrid construction (foam + springs)
• Airflow & Breathability
• Ultimate Spine Support
• 2-Stage Design: 1 side for Infant / 1 side for Toddler
• Removable / Washable Cover
• Greenguard Gold Certified
• OEKO-Tek 100 Certified
• CERTI-Pur safe foam
• 100% Made in the USA | 100% USA Components

A Crib Mattress That Combats Flat Head Syndrome (Plagiocephaly)

The Sleep Ovation mattress was specifically designed to combat plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome) by distributing high pressure over a larger area of the infant’s skull. This results in a 25-25% pressure reduction overall. Plagiocephaly can develop due to repeated pressure on one part of the head, and it’s actually pretty common. According to Sleep Ovation’s researchers, “Up to 1 in 4 babies has noticeable head deformation from positional plagiocephaly.”

This is the only mattress designed to reduce skull pressure in infants. I’ve analyzed many competitors in my research to find the best crib mattress, and skull pressure and plagiocephaly do not come up elsewhere. There are many innovative mattress companies, but no one else is tackling this health issue that affects 25% of babies. This mattress is definitely meeting a real need.

For more info on plagiocephaly, check out this research from Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Unique “Hybrid” Design for Breathability and Spine Support

So how did they design this mattress differently compared to competitors? This is actually really cool sleep technology, and Sleep Ovation uses it for adults too. Basically, they create many tiny mattresses made of multiple layers: hard foam, cushion pockets, and springs. The idea is that these tiny pockets selectively and individually compress under the weight of the child and the air pockets make the mattress fully breathable. So there are “700 little mattresses in 1” with this design. This is a one-of-a-kind design that I had never encountered before in my crib mattress research.

The Most Comfortable Crib Mattress

Sleep Ovation’s full-sized mattresses are used with the same hybrid technology that minimizes pressure. What happens when pressure is relieved is that you feel more comfortable. When your weight is better distributed across the mattress, you feel better supported. The same applies to this baby mattress. Because the mattress is uniquely designed to minimize pressure on your baby’s skull and spine, that means your baby will likely be much more comfortable, even if she can’t tell you that yet.

2-Stage Design Grows with Your Baby

The crib mattresses that are the best value transition well into the toddler years. I like it when the design is a true two-stage design, where the toddler side of the mattress is noticeably less firm than the infant side. Usually, these two different sides are clearly marked with labels or tags so you know which side you should be using during each stage. You can typically switch over to the “toddler” side at 12 months. Check with your doctor before switching sides just to be safe. This is a mattress that your child can use for at least a few years. And your next baby can use it too!

SleepOvation Crib Mattress Safety Testing and Certifications

Sleep Ovation went above and beyond to meet or exceed safety standards for the key components used in the manufacturing of their non-toxic crib mattress. I’ll go over multiple certifications below to explain why each certification contributes to the overall safety of the mattress.

GreenGuard Gold Certified Crib Mattress

The safest crib mattresses are all GreenGuard Gold certified and I would not settle for less. The SleepOvation crib mattress has earned this certification among several others that I will cover later in this crib mattress review. Having this certification sounds nice, but what does it actually mean? GreenGuard assesses VOC levels in products that can affect indoor air quality. GreenGuard Gold allows for the lowest number of total VOCs. GreenGuard levels keep these VOC limits below limits that would affect our health based on current data. GreenGuard measures what the product emits. What does all of this translate to? With the SleepOvation crib mattress, you don’t need to worry about any off-gassing in your nursery. This was a very big deal to me as a new parent and I sacrificed to buy a GreenGuard Gold mattress despite the higher price point.

Oeko-Tek Standard 100 Label

While the SleepOvation mattress is not an organic crib mattress, it does meet or exceed many of the standards that popular organic crib mattresses meet or exceed and seems to provide many of the same health benefits. The OEKO-TEK Standard 100 label stands for high product safety in textiles. This means that the fabric components of the SleepOvation crib mattress were tested for harmful substances. This accounts for many regulated and non-regulated substances. If you’re comparing a certified organic mattress, you’d want to look into GOTS certification which has more to do with how the fabric was produced as well as chemical inputs. OEKO-Tek Standard 100 certification can help you feel good about the safety of this mattress’s fabric components.

CertiPur Foam Certification

The idea behind CertiPur Foam certification is that these are foam products you can feel good about. They meet high standards for emissions, content, and durability. These foams have undergone extensive testing. Basically, this is a health checkup for foam. So, the foam in a SleepOvation crib mattress is made without ozone depleters, PBDEs, TDCPP or TCEP flame retardants, mercury, lead, and heavy metals, formaldehyde, phthalates regulated by the CPSC, and are considered low for VOC emissions. You can learn more at the Certipur website.

When I see the long list of all of the certifications SleepOvation secured with this mattress, I truly am impressed. But also, as a parent I’m relieved. I never want to worry about off-gassing in my children’s bedrooms.

100% Made in the USA/USA Components

Sleep Ovation proudly sources all of its components in the United States and the mattress is also 100% made in the USA.

How does this crib mattress compare to other mattresses?

If you’re reading this Sleep Ovation Baby mattress review, it’s probably because you’re expecting a baby and doing a deep dive into crib mattress research. I get it. Before making a crib mattress purchase, I read many reviews and spent hours combing through different websites. I want to save you all that time and give you a brief overview of how this mattress compares to other safe, popular crib mattresses that are on the market right now.

Newton Baby Crib Mattress vs. Sleep Ovation Baby

The Newton crib mattress is 100% breathable and also boasts the Green Guard Gold certification. There are very big differences in the construction of these two crib mattresses. Newton uses Wovenaire, which is 10% food-grade polymer and the rest is air, bolstering Newton’s claim about their mattress’s ultra-breathability. They encourage parents not to use a crib sheet or a mattress cover for the first twelve months. The mattress comes with a washable mattress cover, but this is certainly an aesthetic sacrifice if you care about your nursery’s design. They claim they’re better than organic because of their breathability, but this really depends on which features are most important to your family.

Like the Sleep Ovation, the Newton crib mattress is also a two-stage mattress, but it is not intended to be flipped. I personally don’t love the idea of using the same firmness of mattress for my baby and my toddler. I’d imagine either that the baby’s sleep surface may be a bit too soft or (more likely IMO) the toddler could use something a bit more comfortable. That said, the Newton mattress is still in the premium crib mattress category.

Big Difference: Newton boasts breathability while SleepOvation is made from breathable materials but also prevents plagiocephaly. Both companies use innovative designs that prioritize safety.

Delta Children vs. SleepOvation Baby

Delta offers a more budget-friendly crib mattress that receives many happy reviews. The Delta Children mattress will give you GreenGuard Gold and CertiPUR-US certifications at a lower price point. This mattress uses a plant-based foam core. It’s super easy to set up, as this is a mattress-in-a-box that you unroll after delivery and then it expands. Like the Newton mattress, it claims to be dual-sided but I couldn’t immediately discern what would distinguish the infant side from the toddler side. This appears to me to be a basic baby mattress that will do the job. With SleepOvation, you’re paying for more innovation and technology.

Big Differences: Delta offers an affordable plant-based core, while SleepOvation provides more sophisticated mattress technology. Delta is a budget pick if you’re looking to save some money.

SleepOvation vs. Naturepedic Classic 150 Coil Organic Mattress

These two mattresses share some certifications but distinguish themselves differently. Naturepedic offers a high-quality organic mattress that is GreenGuard Gold certified. They use 100% certified GOTS organic cotton that is naturally flame retardant. It also has a thin waterproof coating that is 100% derived from sugarcane. This is, to my knowledge, the only 100% natural waterproof crib surface and it’s so pure that it actually meets food contact standards. While for this review I’m focusing on the 150-coil, Naturepedic also makes all-foam options. Like the SleepOvation, this Naturepedic is a 2-in-1 and the sides are slightly different, with the infant side being firmer. This model of the Naturepedic is not a breathable mattress, because instead of prioritizing air flow they’ve prioritized waterproofing. However, they have another higher-end model (the Breathable 2 Stage) that addresses this. SleepOvation is designed for breathability. Naturepedic offers a healthy, non-toxic design. To me, each of these mattresses represents innovative companies that really appeal to modern parents. Either brand could be a great choice for your baby and both are safe options for your baby. Though both of these brands are pricey, they’re worth the expense.

SleepOvation vs. Colgate EcoClassica III

I liked the Colgate EcoClassica III so much that when I had my first baby, that’s what I bought for her. I was worried about off-gassing in the nursery and knew I wanted something non-toxic. This is another GreenGuard Gold-certified mattress. The plant-based foam in this mattress meets CertiPUR standards and the cotton cover is organic with food-grade waterproof backing. It’s also the winner of the 2021 Eco Excellence Award for Best Nursery: Mattresses and Accessories. I used it through the newborn and toddler stages for my first two children to great satisfaction. This is an eco-friendly dual-firmness option. Colgate also conducts rigorous testing of durability, longevity, quality of the main support system, quality of the cushioning layers, and resistance to “coil feel” and lumps.

The real question here for me has to do with technology. I think Colgate offers a great eco-friendly mattress, and eco-friendliness was a top priority for me. SleepOvation Baby offers many of the same non-toxic safety features but adds in breathability and pressure reduction. There’s a difference between an OEKO-TEK certified cover (SleepOvation) and an organic mattress cover (Colgate) but both are high standards for a crib mattress.

Big Difference: With Colgate, you’re choosing an established eco-friendly foam mattress. SleepOvation’s product is newer and uses a combination of foam and coils. In this way, you’re comparing an eco-friendly foam mattress to an eco-friendly foam hybrid mattress. The foam hybrid is much more comfortable and if I could go back in time, I’d choose the SleepOvation Baby over Colgate.

My Honest SleepOvation Crib Mattress Review

I’ve given you a ton of technical details about this mattress. But I also want to address what my impressions were as I unboxed the mattress to set it up in the nursery.

1. The mattress is light and easy to move for changing crib sheets.

The SleepOvation Baby mattress comes in a large cardboard box. It is then wrapped in a single layer of sealed plastic and comes with instructions on assembly and care. My first thought as I carried it in from the porch was that this mattress felt pretty light. and I rejoiced thinking that this would make changing crib sheets easier. It is definitely easy to move than our first crib mattress.

2. This mattress does not have nasty chemical smells.

The second thing I noticed was that after I unwrapped it, there weren’t any gross off-gassing smells. This aligns with everything I read about the various certifications that SleepOvation Baby obtained to make their mattress super safe.

3. The outside cover is very plush and soft.

The SleepOvation Baby mattress comes with a washable cover. It is much nicer than any mattress cover I’d previously tested. The quilted fabric is thick and soft. It has a nice heavy-duty plastic zipper and there are labels on each side to help you identify the toddler side vs. the infant side.

4. The SleepOvation crib mattress is luxuriously soft.

SleepOvation’s internal marketing really focuses on how they’ve made a very safe mattress with big benefits for spine health and plagiocephaly prevention. But what struck me when testing the mattress was that this was by far the softest and most luxurious crib mattress I had ever encountered. To me, crib mattresses always feel extremely firm and uncomfortable. This mattress is an exception to that. I was truly sold on the mattress when I realized how soft it was while still meeting and exceeding safety standards. I believe a safe and comfortable crib mattress is exactly what the market needs.

My favorite thing about researching this crib mattress was learning about all of the ways it was designed to meet the highest safety standards for your baby. If I was looking at safety certifications alone, I’d be impressed with this mattress and I’d feel good about buying it based on those criteria. I also appreciate that it’s a true 2-in-1 mattress that extends its use into the toddler years, which makes the cost feel much more reasonable. But what’s really impressive is that they are using technology that is really different from their competitors in the space. This isn’t just a standard foam mattress. It isn’t just a mattress touting claims about airflow and breathability. It’s a mattress leveraging innovative construction to create better spine alignment and reduce skull pressure. I never liked how rock-hard safe mattresses seemed for babies, even though I understood the importance of a firm sleep surface for safety reasons. This is where I’m being completely non-scientific (just a mom here!) but taking away all of that pressure from the baby’s skull and body sounds so much more comfortable, while still maintaining the important features of a firm, safe sleep surface. When I was able to test the mattress in person, I was very impressed by how soft and comfortable it was.

Bottom Line: This is a great crib mattress using new technology to help babies sleep safely while giving parents the sense that they chose the best crib mattress available for their little one.

Who Should Get the SleepOvation Crib Mattress?

• Parents with a high budget.
• Parents looking for the best and highest safety standards.
• Parents looking for the most comfortable crib mattress.
• Parents who are worried about plagiocephaly which affects 1 in 4 babies.
• Parents who want a more comfortable crib mattress for their baby.

Choose Another Safe Mattress If:

• The SleepOvation is out of your price range.
• You want an organic crib mattress with GOTS certifications.
• You want a basic option that will do the job.

Final Thoughts

If you can afford this super comfortable crib mattress, I highly recommend it. For me, it checks all the boxes I am looking for when providing my child with a safe crib mattress that I won’t have to think twice about. Thank you for reading my SleepOvation Baby mattress review!

For more posts on my favorite products for infant sleep, check out this and this.