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- Excellent pressure relief
- Good temperature regulation
- Pillowtop provides plenty of cushioning comfort
- Edge support isn’t great
- Exchange-only trial period
With 80 years of experience, you’d expect Silentnight to know a thing or two about mattress design. It’s one of the most recognisable sleep brands in the UK, particularly when it comes to bedding on a budget, and manufactures mattresses that we – at Expert Reviews – consider among the best you can buy. I reviewed the Silentnight UltraGel Miracoil Pillowtop mattress during a recent heatwave in the UK, and I was impressed with its overall comfort.
You’ll get plenty of cushioning from the pillowtop design, while the zoned coils underneath provide plenty of support. Best of all, it managed to stay cool throughout the night, which particularly impressed my hot-sleeping husband. Is it the right pick for you? Read on before you decide.
Silentnight UltraGel Miracoil Pillowtop mattress: What you need to know
Design
The UltraGel Miracoil is quite a chunky mattress at 29cm deep, and it feels quite grandiose thanks to its attractive pillowtop and dimpled top. There are five size options covering the standard range of UK sizes, from a single to a super king.
The mattress’ pillowtop contains layers of foam, including the brand’s “UltraGel” – which is designed to keep sleepers cool, provide pressure relief and bounce back quickly once you roll off it – as well as a “reflex foam” for support that moulds to the body. In the main body of the mattress, Silentnight’s “Miracoil” open coil springs are divided into separate support zones to target different areas of the body, and to distribute your weight across the surface of the mattress. Soft synthetic fibres fill in the gaps and are designed to maintain their shape over time.
With respect to its commitment to sustainability, Silentnight has been a registered B Corporation since 2025. Its mattresses are made in the UK and, according to the brand, it is committed to using recycled content and sustainably sourced materials. It also uses CertiPUR-certified foams, meaning they’re free of any nasty toxins.
Delivery
The Silentnight UltraGel Miracoil PIllowtop mattress is delivered flat, unlike bed-in-a-box mattresses that are rolled up and vacuum sealed. As such, there was no off-gassing smell that you get with many vacuum-sealed foam mattresses, and it was ready to sleep on right away.
I was sent a size single to review, which was efficiently delivered to our bedroom by a two-man team.
Price and competition
Prices for the UltraGel Miracoil start at £459 for a single, rising to £599 for both a small double and double. A king size will set you back £719 and a super king is £879. In the mattress world, this is in the mid-range bracket, though I’ve become used to seeing spring-and-foam hybrid mattresses well exceed the four-figure mark.
These prices put the mattress in line with rivals such as the Zoma Hybrid, which starts at £499 for a single and the Happy Beds Annabel mattress, which is £419 for the same size. It’s also slightly cheaper than the Panda Hybrid Bamboo mattress at £649 for a single (although, at the time of writing, Panda’s summer sale brings this down to £487). It also makes sense to compare the UltraGel Miracoil mattress to another Silentnight pillowtop mattress: the Premier Inn 2.0. At full price, this costs £649 in a single, rising to £799 (double), £849 (king) and finally £1,019 (super king). This pricing is comparable, but it’s a good bit more expensive than the UltraGel Miracoil.
The mattress comes with a five-year guarantee, and you get a 60-night trial during which you can try out the mattress. But this trial is exchange-only: while you can exchange the mattress for another Silentnight one, you can’t get a refund. In comparison to other online mattress brands, many of which offer trials of 200-plus nights and money-back guarantees, this seems like a bit of a raw deal.
How I tested the Silentnight UltraGel Miracoil Pillowtop mattress
There’s no greater test for a mattress than actually sleeping on it, which allows me to look at factors such as comfort and support, edge support, temperature regulation and motion isolation. I also determine value for money, by comparing the mattress’ price to those of its closest competitors.
As anecdotal testing isn’t sufficient on its own, I also run standardised tests to obtain objective data that can be compared across all mattresses we test at Expert Reviews. I gradually place four 2.5kg weights on the bed, measuring the sinkage as I add more weight. I do this at shoulder height and at 3 inches from the edge of the bed to assess edge support. I also measure how much the total 10kg of weights causes the edge of the bed to tilt.
I carry out two tests with a digital thermometer – one for body heat and another using a heat pad – to see how much the mattress retains heat. For the former, I sit on the mattress with the thermocouple probe placed underneath me, until the thermometer reaches 30°C. After getting up, I then record the temperature decrease at one minute intervals for ten minutes. The heat pad test follows a similar process. After heating up the pad in boiling water, I place it on the surface of the mattress to heat it up. Once the temperature has stabilised and fallen to 50°C, I remove the heat pad and, again, record the temperature at one minute intervals for ten minutes.
Comfort and performance
Our standardised tests
With 10kg of weights placed on the mattress at shoulder height, I measured sinkage at 22mm. Repeating this three inches from the edge resulted in a marginally increased measurement of 24mm. These results weren’t particularly surprising, as I expected a decent amount of sinkage from the mattress’ pillowtop, and are comparable to the Silentnight Premier Inn 2.0 I mentioned earlier – this sank by 20mm in the centre and 25mm at the edge. By contrast, the memory foam Tempur Pro Plus SmartCool mattress I reviewed previously sank only 13mm both at shoulder height and at the edge of the mattress.
As with several of the mattresses I’ve tested recently, I tested the UltraGel Miracoil during an intensely hot summer heatwave, which would have had an impact on my temperature tests. With an ambient room temperature of 24.7°C, my body temperature test saw the surface temperature of the mattress drop from 30°C to 25.9°C after three minutes, and to 25.7°C after ten minutes.
Meanwhile, my heat pad test saw the temperature drop from 50°C to 26.5°C after three minutes, and to 24.3°C after ten minutes. On paper, these results don’t necessarily compete with some of the best cooling mattresses, but the acid test is obviously how the mattress feels to sleep on – especially to a hot sleeper.
Is it comfortable?
The Silentnight UltraGel Miracoil Pillowtop reminded me in many ways of the Origin LumbarCloud mattress, in that I expected it to be pretty soft thanks to the aforementioned pillowtop. While it provides plenty of contouring around pressure points, the coil system offers plenty of support to balance this out.
The result is a mattress that feels supportive but not overly firm. It’s a nice combination that feels inviting from the minute you lie down on the mattress, and I think both side-, back- and combination sleepers will get on well with it. For side sleepers who appreciate a little more support, it’s one of the best mattresses you can buy. However, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to heavier users or those who sleep on their stomach, as the pillowtop is just too contouring to keep the hips lifted and spine aligned.
I was also impressed with the zoned coil system, which provided support where needed. I would have perhaps liked a fraction more lumbar support but I am aware that I am particularly fussy in this area, and I usually prefer a firm mattress.
Temperature regulation
As mentioned at the start of this article, my hot-sleeping husband decamped to the single UltraGel Miracoil mattress quite willingly during the most recent heatwave. He felt that it was breathable, promoted air flow and did a great job of helping him stay cool throughout the night – perhaps thanks to the mattress’ UltraGel layer.
The mattress didn’t feel cool to the touch but, more importantly, it didn’t heat up excessively as the night wore on. And by contrast, I (the resident reptile in the marriage) found the mattress absolutely fine to sleep on, and not unpleasantly cool.
Motion isolation and edge support
This was really the only area of the mattress that let it down a little. Thanks to the springy coils, I did feel that very light sleepers might be slightly disturbed by a restless partner as there is some motion transfer here.
Edge support was also disappointing when I sat on the bed, with the pillowtop compressing to the extent that I didn’t feel completely secure. In fairness though, this wasn’t an issue when lying in bed, where I felt completely supported.
It’s also true that pillowtop mattresses can suffer when it comes to longevity, because they cannot be flipped in order to more evenly distribute wear. While I’ve not been testing the UltraGel MiraCoil Pillowtop mattress long enough to really make a judgement on its longevity, this is something to bear in mind.
Verdict
The Silentnight UltraGel Miracoil Pillowtop is competitively priced compared to its nearest rivals and offers a fair amount of bang for its buck. I was impressed by the support and comfort offered by it and thought it was a great all-rounder for the vast majority of sleepers.
The zoned support also works really well and temperature regulation was excellent. It’s a shame about the edge support when sitting on the bed, and motion isolation might prove troublesome for restless couples. Considering how well-priced the mattress is, this might be an acceptable trade off. But if you’re looking for mattresses with good edge support and better motion isolation, I’d recommend the aforementioned Happy Beds The Annabel, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo mattress or the DreamCloud Hybrid mattress.
