Best Sofa Beds for Everyday Use

It’s all too easy to be snooty about a sofa bed, but that isn’t right. For many years, sofa beds have been secret heroes of many family homes. They don’t get nearly enough respect. After all, a sofa bed works hard for you and your family. It serves as a sofa when you have guests over and you need extra seating, and then it unfolds into a bed to provide overnight guests a place to sleep. It’s a dependable daily seat that becomes a hero whenever an extra sleep surface is needed. It’s time that we all got down on our knees and thanked sofa beds for all of the help that they’ve offered over the years.

Sofa beds haven’t gotten a bad wrap for far too long. Oh sure, perhaps they don’t offers the same elite level comfort that one might expect from a several thousand dollar mattress. However, it’s a mistake to suggest that they are universally uncomfortable. There have been so many advances in sofa bed technology since you slept on that pullout couch in Grandma’s basement. In fact, it’s gotten to the point that we might even consider asking the question, “Is there anything about a sofa bed that isn’t great for everyday use?”

The trick is finding a sofa bed that’s comfortable to sit and sleep on. A magical combo that’s out there if you look hard enough and just might change your life (and your den) you find one. Fortunately, you’ve come to The Sleep Judge and our experts have all ready taken the time to dig through all of the sofa beds on the market to separate the best from the rest. You’ll find all of our favorites are listed here.

You may want to read: Best Couch Covers

Best Sofa Beds for Everyday Use

What is a Sofa Bed? Is it a Bed or a Sofa?

Well, why not both? That’s really what it is. Why do we need to be so binary a sofa normative about this? A sofa bed is exactly what it sounds like. It’s like the mullet of the furniture world, except it’s a sofa by day, and a bed at night. It can be the most valuable and versatile piece of furniture in your home and once of the best investments that you can possibly make while decorating, whether you stick it in a guest room or your living room. You will get a great deal of use out of this sofa. That’s guaranteed.

In fact, if you have both a guest bedroom and a living area, you might want to stick to a bed in the guest room, and put a sofa bed in the living room, which means you’d be able to host up to four guests in one night. Think of the possibilities! Unless, of course, you don’t like having any overnight company, in which case a list of phone numbers to nearby hotels might be nice.

In any case, a sofa bed comes in handy for other reasons. If your kids decide to have a sleepover, what better place to let them camp out overnight than the living room? Just unfold the sofa bed and let the little ones sprawl out while they watch movies and litter the floor you just vacuumed? What could possibly go wrong?! But I digress.

That’s the thing about sofa beds, though. They need to be durable, comfortable, and, well, livable. They need to fit into your lifestyle and be the workhorses you required of them. You must choose your sofa bed wisely. One of the best places to start when you’re looking for a sofa bed is to decide on the size you need. They usually come in three varieties. Which three varieties, you ask? Why don’t we explore those now.

— Loveseat

This is one of the most common and popular types of sofa beds. They’re just big enough to seat a couple more people in your living room, and they secretly hide a small bed inside as a special bonus. Some of them require you to remove the cushions and pull out the bed frame with a folded mattress on top. Others are like futons and unfold into beds, but the cushion you were sitting on is also the cushion you sleep on.

The biggest pros of these types of sofa beds are they’re affordable, easy to fit in almost any living space, and quite convenient. Unfortunately, they usually only include twin-sized mattresses, so they’re only suitable for one adult sleeper. If you’re using it just for sleepovers, you could probably squeeze a few kids onto one of these beds for a night. They can be quite useful and surprisingly compact when the bed isn’t fully unfolded.

— Sofa

The typical sofa you’re probably thinking of has enough room for three people to sit on it. These are the larger couches that look just like a normal sofa, but they have a secret bed hiding inside. It’s rare to find one of these larger sofas in a futon-style for sleeping. Most are the traditional types that fold out into a bed.

The good news about these is that they’re larger, so the mattress tucked away inside is also likely to be larger. In some cases, the beds are full-sized or even just slightly smaller than a queen-sized bed. You can find many that are true queen-sized beds though, which mean you can accommodate two adults on your hideaway bed.

— Sectional

When you need way more seating than a loveseat or regular sofa can provide, you might look for a sectional sofa. These are usually L- or U-shaped, and they’re great in larger rooms where you want seating for four to seven people. They’re usually quite comfortable to sit on or stretch out on, but most of them don’t include sofa beds.

Those that do have hidden mattresses, though, are more convenient than the loveseats and sofas out there with fold out beds. You won’t be buying a piece separate from your typical living room furniture just to make more room for overnight guests. This can be your only seating piece in your living area, and it can sleep your company. The mattress of these beds is usually queen size. These tend to be the best and most comfortable sleeping options, so that’s worth keeping in mind if you sofa bed will be put through plenty of use.

Does the Mattress Matter?

Well, yes. Obviously, but it’s more complex than that. Ideally, the mattress that comes with your sofa bed should be durable, comfortable, and will mask any hard bars that try to poke through from the bed frame when you unfold your sofa bed. Everyone’s preferences differ, so it’s difficult to find one mattress that will truly fit all. It’s a safer bet to find a sofa bed with a memory foam mattress because they fold easily, bounce back into shape after being folded and unfolded, and they have a firmer feel which can make bars a non-issue.

However, memory foam isn’t comfortable for everyone, and spring mattresses have a history of being easy to fold up, comfortable enough, and inexpensive. The best thing to do is sift through reviews of the best sofa beds for everyday use to find out which ones are great for sitting on and sleeping on, and then make your informed decision. You can start with these reviews of the best sofa beds on the market now.

Verdict

There’s plenty of options out there for you to pick a sofa bed that’s right for your home and family. The best ones are durable, comfortable, and designed to be used every day whether you’re just sitting on them or need to pull out the bed for an overnight guest. Taking all of these factors into account, the best sofa bed for daily use has to be the Benchcraft Kirwin Sleeper Sectional. It is a bit more expensive than some other models featured, but this is a larger quality sofa that is super comfortable for lounging, sitting, and sleeping on. It’s also durable, and it should look great in anyone’s living room.