Depends the type, but between 4-10 years is when you should replace your mattress.
When using about any product, the old saying “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” normally is true. Sometimes, we just can’t leave well enough alone. Yet, when it comes to a mattress, it is a whole different ball game.
For one, many people don’t even know when they bought their mattress or think about changing it until it doesn’t serve it’s purpose any longer. That purpose, is of course getting a good night’s sleep.
So, the question is not necessarily how long should you keep a mattress before replacing it, but rather, how do you know when it is time to change your mattress?
If you want the quick answer on the average longevity of a mattress, 7 to 10 years is the norm for a good mattress (ones you have to spend a lot of money on). For cheaper mattresses, they normally need to be changed every 4-5 years.
Anyway, hopefully you are here for the more legitimate answer to the last question, which is in short, how can you tell it is time?
How Long Should You Keep A Mattress Before Replacing It?
1. The number 1 sign, hence the no.1, is you are not getting the proper rest like you used to. You may wake up aching in some area that you normally do not or have stiffness, numbness etc. You may wake up many times in the night having to get comfortable.
If this is the case, don’t go buy a new mattress just yet. Make sure it isn’t something else (sore from walking to the mailbox and back……lol) and sleep on it a few more nights and see if the symptoms continue.
If they do, hope you got some money! You need a new mattress.
2. You are still waking up tired every morning even though you “thought” you slept well. You may not remember tossing and turning all night, if you are a hard sleeper, and if you were tossing and turning, it could mean your mattress has seen better days.
3. Your mattress looks rough. If it looks bent out of shape then it more than likely is! Most of us don’t wear torn up shirts to our day jobs because they are just that, torn up.
If your mattress looks warped, sunken in the middle, etc. then it probably needs to go to the dump.
4. You went on vacation and you slept better in the hotel/condo bed than you could remember in months. Sometimes we just don’t know.
We are human and get caught up in life and just don’t think about our sleeping habits or how well we slept etc. until that light bulb moment goes off. 
The light bulb moment is “wow, I slept so good last night in this bed that who knows has slept in….hmmmm”.
If this happens, it is either your mattress is old or you don’t have a good one.
How Dirty and Nasty a Mattress Gets
You may be sleeping like the sandman on a 10 yr. old mattress and that is great! Yet, do you know how nasty a mattress starts becoming after around the 7-year mark?
It is estimated that an amazing 10 lbs. of dead skin, sweat, body matter, or whatever you want to call it, accumulates and soaks into your mattress after 7 or 8 years. Yuck!
This number of course is less if you use a cover on your mattress, but even then your skin, etc. still seeps into your mattress over time. So, in final, no matter how good you are sleeping, you may be sleeping in a nasty, disgusting bed.
And if it is nasty, it probably is fairly old and needs replaced.
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