There’s more to testing beds than simply sleeping on them. Here’s how I put top-rated mattresses through their paces to pick the best for a peaceful slumber

• The best mattresses: sleep better with our six rigorously tested picks

Testing mattresses may not sound like an actual job, but if you want to do it properly, you have to put in the work. That means turning your living room into a trial lab, enlisting your nearest and dearest as guinea pigs and, yes, sleeping.

When I set out to assess mattresses for the Filter, the number one rule was to kip on them for long enough to judge their impact on sleep quality. Lying on a showroom bed for 20 seconds won’t tell you much at all, and fancy lab-based tests will tell you precious little about what a mattress is like to actually sleep on.