The Sex Files: What kind of bed is best for sex?

Most bed manufacturers forget what else happens on top of their product, aside from sleep. Photo / 123RF

If you have (or want!) an active sex life, when choosing a bed there are several things to take into account, writes Lee Suckling.

• Warning: This article contains explicit sexual content

More happens on your mattress than just sleep. You relax, you watch TV, and of course, you have sex.

Yet when it comes to beds, they're not all equal during sexual activity. Many mattresses are advertised to give you your best night's sleep ever, but bed manufacturers never seem to focus on the other major activity that will happen on top of their product.

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If you have (or want!) an active sex life, when choosing a bed there are several things to take into account.

Stability is obvious. Most beds can handle just over 200 kilograms of weight, which is more than enough for most couples. Simply being able to take your combined weight doesn't mean you can't literally break the bed with vigorous sex, however. Slat beds, for example, must have a steel frame and be of quite high quality to withstand all of the impact that sex brings with it. When lower in quality, these will be the first to break.

Typically, an inner-sprung mattress with a strong base – one filled with polyester and structured in a wooden frame, and covered in fabric – will give you the lease problematic sexy times in the bedroom. These make no noise, and are responsive (meaning they bounce back when pressure is applied, which is ideal for sex).

A medium-firm coil mattress is what you should seek out for the best sex. It will manage position changes easily, allow good control, and prevent slipping.

According to the mattress review website Sleep Like The Dead, 40 percent of people who own a memory foam mattress agree it's "bad for sex".

This is disappointing considering the popularity of memory foam mattresses and their other health benefits (e.g. alleviation of back pain). The reason memory foam doesn't really work for sex is that it's unresponsive and unlike its inner-sprung cousin, won't bounce back. This often means a couple will feel like they are fighting with their mattress while having sex, because it has a sinking, almost quicksand-like effect when moving around it.

If you'd prefer a more ornamental bed frame than a bed base, you have some further considerations to make. Whether made out of wood, metal, or upholstered fabric, these often create noise with friction because of the joins in the structure. They can be squeaky, and the headboards can be unstable – this means they aren't able to provide good balance support for your hands during sex.

If you share a house with others, you should consider all the different ways your sex life could bother them if you have a bed frame. It could hit the wall when people are in motion on the mattress, or if the frame's legs aren't grippy, the whole bed could easily end up on the other side of the room.

If you often end up getting quite sweaty during sex (or are a "hot sleeper" in general), this is something a mattress can help you with too. There are lots of different types of bed technology out there that have a cooling effect (including gel materials, copper-infused foam, etc.), but in general, coil mattresses are the best way to go because there's less space to trap heat. The worst offending mattresses that end up helping you overheat

during sex include basic/cheap memory foam beds, and those with foam toppers.

The best advice these days is to take advantage of the bedmakers (e.g. Napp, Ecosa, and MyBed) that have 100-night guarantees. While these are meant to ensure peace-of-mind for the best night's sleep ever, there's no reason you shouldn't utilise such an offer for your best sex ever as well.