I wasted £800 on a sofa bed that left my guests opting to sleep on the floor – this is what I wish I knew back then

As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, I've learnt a *lot* about sofa beds over the past four years.

During that time, I've tested the best sofa beds on the market, and in doing so, I've been able to compare features and specifications to see what makes for a good sitting and sleeping experience, and what doesn't.

However, when I bought my first sofa bed over ten years ago, I didn't have any of the knowledge I do now, and as a result I made one big mistake in my purchase.

That mistake made my sofa bed a lot less useful than it should have been, and ultimately resulted in a lot of wasted money. This is what I wish I'd known before I invested in a sleeper sofa.

My big mistake

The sofa bed I bought way back when isn't available now, but it was a three-seater sofa bed that offered a really generous amount of sitting space. It was even *comfortable* – something I'd soon discovered definitely isn't guaranteed when it comes to sofa bed hunting.

What's more, when I tested its pull-out mattress in the store, the bed was pretty comfortable too. Certainly a lot more comfortable than the air bed I'd been asking friends and family to camp out on whenever they came to visit. It was this that convinced me to invest nearly £800 in buying it.

And to start with, my guests seemed to love my new sofa bed too. Over the next few weekends, I had a couple of different friends come to stay, and they both gave favourable reviews of their sleeping experience.

However, where things went a little pear-shaped was when I had my first two guests come to stay at the same time. I had tested the sofa bed in the store on my own, and when I lay on the bed in an unfamiliar environment, it *seemed* pretty big, and it was marketed as a sofa bed that slept two.

Add to that the generous size of the sofa, and I made the assumption that the pull-out mattress inside was the equivalent of a double mattress and would easily cater to a couple sharing a bed.

In practice, it soon became very clear that the pull-out mattress was *not* in fact a double, and my guests had a very cramped night's sleep that resulted in one of them opting to abandon ship and sleep on the floor during the night. Not exactly the hosting experience I had planned on delivering!

What I hadn't realised back then is that very few sofa beds offer a true double bed-sized sleeping space, and despite its deceptively generous seating, the sofa bed I'd invested in was particularly short on sleeping space.

This may not be an issue if you tend to host one guest at a time, but if, like me, you occasionally – or regularly – want to host a couple of guests at a time, it's a factor that can make-or-break your guests' comfort.

After four years of testing mattresses for our best mattress guide, I now know a lot more about standard mattress sizes. I've included a quick reference guide below.

Interestingly, you'll notice that you would need a super king-size mattress for each person to get the same individual sleeping space that a single mattress offers – definitely something to bear in mind when you're shopping for your next mattress – but, back to sofa beds.

I now know that despite often generous seating, the average sofa bed tends to offer only a *small* double bed's worth of sleeping space, that's just 120 x 190cm.

Frequently, I come across sofa beds billed as 'doubles' that offer even less sleeping space than that. When you check the measurements, a sleeping area that's the equivalent of somewhere between a single and a small double isn't uncommon.

And unless your guests enjoy getting particularly cosy or are very petite indeed, a couple probably aren't going to get the best night's kip on a sofa bed this size.

Having made that mistake once, I now make sure to check the measurements of the sleeping area on any sofa bed I review – and I highly recommend you do the same with any sofa bed you're considering purchasing.

Often, this isn't as easy as it might sound, and you need to dig into the technical specifications before you can find out those details. But I can attest to it being *well* worth the time and effort if you want a sofa bed that will really suit your needs and doesn't end up being a (big) waste of money.

Or, you could let me do the hard work for you. Of all the sofa beds I've tested over the past four years, these are three of my top recommendations that offer a true double bed sized sleeping area. Some even offer a king-size sleeping area.

Now that's something your guests will *really* thank you for!

Three solutions