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Loom & Leaf are one of the biggest names in the mattress industry right now. They’ve been providing high-quality mattresses that use cutting-edge design technologies for several years. Over that time, they’ve amassed a cult-like following with thousands of happy customers singing their praises wherever they go.
DreamCloud isn’t exactly a small unknown company, but they’re nowhere near the size of Loom & Leaf. Despite this, they’re rapidly gaining traction in the mattress world and their excellent value super thick luxurious products have started to give the big boys like Loom & Leaf a run for their money.
Today we’re going to compare the DreamCloud and the Loom & Leaf to see what we like (and what we don’t like) about them. We’ll assess each individual layer in both products before giving your opinion on value, cooling, and sleeping positions. We’ll finally provide you with an overall recommendation for which one we think you should choose.
Let’s get started.
Similarities
- Both have cooling gel memory foam
- They are similarly priced
- Both brands have an excellent reputation
Differences
- The DreamCloud is much thicker
- The Loom & Leaf has an innovative memory foam design pattern
- The DreamCloud has a zoned support coil section
Construction Comparison
To start off we’re going to look at what’s inside both of these products layer by layer as both mattresses use a hybrid design pattern (like almost all good products do these days).
This means that they combine multiple materials in different layers to create products that can benefit from all of their strengths without succumbing to their weaknesses.
Loom & Leaf Construction
Let’s take a look at the Loom & Leaf first. It’s got 4 layers which is a little on the low side for a hybrid product – but these guys focus on quality, not quantity.
Cotton Covering
The covering of the Loom & Leaf is a high-quality cotton that’s quilted slightly. It gives a little luxurious padding to the top of the mattress and has been treated with natural thistle flame retardants for safety.
Cooling Spinal Gel Memory Foam
This is where the magic happens in the Loom & Leaf and to fully understand how impressive it is we need to take a quick science class.
Traditionally memory foam is a very warm material that absorbs heat. Unfortunately the reason it stores heat is also the reason why it can contour in the almost magical ways that it does.
On the microscopic level, memory foam is formed from lots of little pockets of air that squash when put under pressure. Throughout the night your body heat will enter the mattress and start to make its way inside these cells. As the cells are completely enclosed – the air inside them cannot escape. This means that hotspots form underneath the sleeper and the mattress gets too hot to be comfortable.
There are two main ways this can be solved, one is through a design called “open cell”, the other is through cooling gel.
Cooling gel memory foam does not work by cooling down the mattress, it works by spreading the heat out. The gel is added to the foam mix when it is being made and is designed to absorb the heat before it makes its way into the cells. As the cooling gel is a brilliant thermal conductor, it then transfers the heat among the rest of the cooling gel in the mattress – eliminating hotspots.
The same amount of heat is in the mattress, but it’s just spread out much more.
Now while it sounds simple enough to just dump a bunch of cooling gel in with the foam and give it a stir to mix it in – it’s actually much more complicated than that. Getting an even distribution of the gel throughout the foam is a difficult, yet essential task.
One of the biggest factors in the quality of a cooling gel memory foam in terms of heat distribution is how effective this mixing process is. Lower quality foams will have parts of the foam with loads of cooling gel, and other parts with much less.
Uneven distribution of cooling gel means that not only will some parts still be prone to hotspots, it also means that there’s “blockages” on the way to the potential places that the heat can be transferred to. This reduces the effectiveness of the material significantly.
Loom & Leaf have developed a secret technique that they call “gel swirl” that they use to create their cooling gel infusions. We don’t know what it is, or how it works, but we do know that it works exceptionally well – it’s one of the most evenly distributed gels we’ve ever seen.
This would already be enough to put this memory foam ahead of the rest in terms of thermal regulation – but Loom & Leaf go one step further…
The underside of this layer contains grooves and channels that kind of resembles the underside of an egg carton (the top side is flat). This means that there are countless reasonably large interconnected ventilation channels underneath the layer that create huge amounts of airflow.
It’s a super cool mattress (figuratively and literally).
Transition Layer
This layer is terribly boring compared to the technology above. It’s a standard layer of medium density comfort foam that adds a little bit of support and depth to the product. It’s also used to smooth out the gradient between the top layer and the support layer below.
High-Density Support Foam
The base of the Loom & Leaf is even more boring than the layer above. It’s a stable block of high-density support foam that’s durable and of a high quality. Its job is to ensure that the two layers above have a strong and stable base to rest on.
DreamCloud Construction
While the Loom & Leaf only has 4 layers, this product has a whopping 8 layers of technology inside of it (and it’s a massive 15 inches thick too).
Cashmere Wool Eurotop
The top layer of this product is designed to add a little luxury in the same way as the top layer in the Loom & Leaf. It’s a eurotop design, which means it’s essentially a pocket that’s stuffed full of a soft material – in this case, it’s a quality cashmere wool blend. It adds a little bit of additional softness to an already luxurious product.
Cooling Gel Memory Foam
We’re not going to repeat ourselves here, this cooling gel serves the exact same purpose as the cooling gel in the Loom & Leaf above.
It doesn’t have any of the fancy gel swirl technology inside of it, but it’s still a high-quality foam that has a very even distribution of cooling gel throughout. It’s also not got the innovative egg carton style ventilation channels on the bottom of the layer either.
However, it’s still a very cool sleeping surface that’s more than capable of preventing overheating and hotspots.
Quilted Memory Foam
This is a layer that’s been added to provide a little more luxury to the product. It’s made from a super soft quilted memory foam that provides very little support. It does, however, give the mattress some loft and airiness to it. Alongside the eurotop covering, it’s this layer that gives the mattress a super high-end resort-style luxury.
Latex
One of the biggest problems with pure foam mattresses is that they don’t have that much responsiveness to them. Instead of giving you a little reassuring bounce when you get on the bed – you just kind of sink into them.
Natural latex has a lovely little bounce to it, and it gives this mattress the kind of responsiveness that other pure foam mattresses are missing. Latex is also a great thermal regulator and allows for airflow within the layer to improve the internal ventilation of the mattress too.
Dream Plush Memory Foam
This is a layer of medium firm memory foam that’s of a high quality but is lacking any cooling technology. It’s the first layer that starts to provide some support, but it’s mainly here to soften the gradient between the upper softer stuff and the firmer stuff below (in the same way as the comfort foam in the Loom & Leaf).
Super Soft Super Dense Memory Foam
This layer is identical to the layer above, it just uses a firmer foam. Again it adds a little bit of support, but it’s mainly to soften the gradient between soft and firm materials.
Best Rest Coils
This layer is the most interesting layer in this mattress.
It’s made from several independent coils that are not connected to each other in any way. This means that they’re only going to compress if you’re directly lying on them and they contour to your body shape (instead of creating a general “dip” like old school innerspring mattresses).
What makes this layer interesting is the way that DreamCloud have segmented it into 5 individual zones. Each zone has a different type of coil in it that has a different level of firmness and resistance. This means that they can tailor the mattress to provide different amounts of support at different locations.
It’s an innovative and quite frankly game-changing design pattern that we’re starting to see more and more in the mattress world – but these guys were one of the first to do it.
High-Density Memory Foam
Like most mattresses, this is the most boring layer of the entire product. It’s made from super high-density memory foam and it provides a strong and stable base for the rest of the product to rest on. It’s durable, it does its job well, but there’s not much else to say.
Let’s move on…
Firmness Comparison
The DreamCloud only comes in a single firmness level, 6.5 out of 10 on the firmness scale (medium firm)
The Loom & Leaf is available in two different firmness levels. Their medium firm product rates at 6 out of 10 on the firmness scale and it’s pretty much the same level of firmness as the DreamCloud.
However, their firm product is 8 out of 10 on the firmness scale. This makes it a true firm mattress, and should only be considered if you like your mattresses very firm (not just a little bit firm).
Price Comparison
The Loom & Leaf is more expensive than the DreamCloud in every size, but bigger sizes have a bigger price difference. Check out the price lists below:
Loom & Leaf Prices
- Twin $749
- Twin XL $849
- Full $1,199
- Queen $1,299
- King $1,699
- California King $1,699
DreamCloud Prices
- Twin $599
- Twin XL $799
- Full $799
- Queen $1,199
- King $1,299
- California king $1,299
Which Bed Sleeps Cooler?
The Loom & Leaf is definitely the cooler mattress. The gel swirl technology creates an impeccably even distribution of cooling gel throughout. When this is combined with the innovative egg carton underside to provide ventilation – it’s going to be hard to beat.
However, the DreamCloud is not that far behind the Loom & Leaf in the cooling department. It’s also an exceptionally cool sleeping surface that puts many other products to shame.
Which Bed Would Be Best For A Side Sleeper?
The DreamCloud is better for side sleepers.
This is all down to the zoned support section that has been specifically configured to promote proper spinal alignment when sleeping on your side.
The Loom & Leaf is excellent for side sleepers too – it’s just that the DreamCloud is better.
Should I Buy A DreamCloud Or A Loom & Leaf Bed?
This is a very close call, both of these products are excellent.
To be totally honest, you’d do well if you purchased either – they are both great mattresses that have very similar levels of performance.
We’d probably tell you to choose the DreamCloud if you forced us to make a recommendation. It’s a bit cheaper, and the 15 inches of thickness makes it feel more luxurious.
But we’d totally understand if you chose the Loom & Leaf instead.
Conclusion
So there you have it, that’s what we think about the Loom & Leaf and the DreamCloud.
They are both excellent products, and they are both well priced considering their impressive performance. Either of them are more than worthy of your consideration.
Sweet dreams!
