Our Methodology

Curated Sleep aggregates mattress reviews from trusted, editorially independent sources, normalizes their scores to a common scale, and calculates a weighted composite score. We prioritize sources with financial independence from mattress brands to limit the influence of pay-to-play reviewers on our ratings.

Who Built This & Why

This is an experimental review aggregator site built by David Wolfe, CEO of Tiami Sleep and former founder and CEO of Leesa Sleep.

I want to be completely clear: I did not build Curated Sleep to knock other mattresses. In fact, I think Leesa in particular makes amazing mattresses and I'm proud of the company we built and how well it's doing under new ownership for 3 years now.

But I know how pay-to-play review sites work. I've seen it from the inside. And I know how good the Tiami mattress is. So I was genuinely curious: what would happen if scores from pure editorial content were weighted higher than pay-to-play scores?

This is a quick site built in a day. I find it interesting and think you may find it interesting too. None of the mattress companies pay Curated Sleep for links from this site.

Email me at david@tiami.com with comments, questions, or to request a score for another mattress. I can run it and send you the score without publishing it. If you then want it published, I can do that too.

Score Normalization

Different review sources use different rating scales. Some use a 5-star system, others use a 10-point scale, and some even use a 100-point scale. To fairly compare ratings across sources, we normalize all scores to a unified 0-10 scale.

Normalization Formulas:

5-Star Scale: normalized = raw x 2 (e.g., 4.5 stars = 9.0)
10-Point Scale: normalized = raw (e.g., 8.7 = 8.7)
100-Point Scale: normalized = raw / 10 (e.g., 85 = 8.5)
Other Scales: normalized = (raw / max) x 10

Source Credibility Weighting

Not all review sources are created equal. We assign each source a credibility weight based on several factors:

Methodology Transparency: Does the source explain how they test?
Editorial Independence: Is the source free from brand influence?
Track Record: How long has the source been reviewing mattresses?
Depth of Testing: Do they perform hands-on, extended testing?

Weights range from 0.5 (lower credibility) to 1.0 (highest credibility).

Editorial Authority & Independence

The mattress review industry has an affiliate bias problem. Many popular review sites earn substantial affiliate commissions from mattress companies, creating an inherent conflict of interest.

We address this by assigning each source an independence score (0-1 scale):

Independent (0.9-1.0): Non-profit organizations or publications that accept no affiliate revenue
Editorial (0.75-0.89): Publications with strong editorial standards
Affiliate (0.6-0.74): Sites that earn affiliate commissions but maintain some standards
Pay-to-Play (below 0.6): Heavy affiliate models where relationships may influence coverage

Composite Score Calculation

The Curated Score is a weighted average of all normalized scores:

Composite = Sum(normalizedScore x credibilityWeight) / Sum(credibilityWeight)

Confidence Score

The confidence score (0-100%) indicates how reliable the composite score is, based on:

Base Score: Starts at 25%
Source Count Bonus: +15% per additional source (up to 5 sources)
Recency Bonus: +0% to +20% based on how recent the reviews are
Agreement Penalty: -0% to -20% based on standard deviation of scores

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you normalize scores?

Without normalization, comparing a 4.5/5 star rating to an 8.5/10 score would be meaningless. Normalization ensures all scores are on the same 0-10 scale.

Do you accept payment from mattress brands?

No. Curated Sleep does not receive any payments from any mattress companies. Our composite scores are calculated algorithmically based on third-party review data.

How often are scores updated?

We aim to check source reviews at least quarterly. When a source updates their review of a mattress, we update our data accordingly.