Olympic Athletes Are Sleeping on Cardboard Beds. Should You? | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Rose Maura Lorre

Rose Maura Lorre is a writer who has reported on turkey fryers, composters, body pillows, and more.

More than 10,000 athletes from around the globe are in Paris to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games. But before each athlete gets their shot at gold, silver, or bronze, they will rest their head on a bed made of a decidedly less prized material: cardboard.

For the second Summer Games in a row, Olympic Village is outfitted with real bedding and mattresses atop custom-made cardboard bed frames.

“These sustainable beds are 100% made in France and will be fully recycled in France after the Games,” an Olympic spokesperson explained in a recent video showcasing the platform-style frames.

Back when the beds were unveiled at the previous Olympic Games, in Tokyo, rumor had it that they were “anti-sex” beds designed to discourage athlete hookups. That wasn’t true, and in fact, several Olympians shared on social media that the beds were actually rather rugged. On TikTok, for example, members of the US women’s rugby team tested one bed’s mettle by doing yoga on it, skipping across it, and even falling on it with a pro-wrestling “elbow drop” move.

A few days before the 2024 Games, British diver Tom Daley similarly took to TikTok while bouncing on his Olympic bed, illustrating that the frames are sturdy enough to accommodate extracurricular athletic pursuits. He also showed that the beds come with a couple of nice-to-have features, including a headboard and underbed storage space.

So if a cardboard bed is suitable for the world’s most fine-tuned physiques in need of a restful night’s sleep, is it a good choice for everybody else? Since the Olympic beds are not currently available for sale, Wirecutter tested two cardboard beds that are—the Room in a Box Bett 2.0 ($220 for a queen) and the Yona Cardboard Bed ($180 for a queen)—to find out.

We purchased a Yona bed, which I gave to a friend who had recently moved into a new home she had yet to fully furnish. She slept on the frame, with a new innerspring mattress on top, for one week, and then I interviewed her about her experience. Room in a Box sent a Bett 2.0 to Wirecutter’s office in Long Island City, New York, where we tested its assembly, comfort, and durability with a panel of paid testers of various ages and abilities. I also took a nap on the RIAB Bett 2.0 (with a new innerspring mattress on top) and spent time getting in and out of both the Yona and RIAB beds while reading, working on my laptop, and so on.

Both beds are made from corrugated, recycled cardboard, but they boast a design very different from that of the Olympic furniture (more on that below). However, just as the Olympic organizers are pushing for a more eco-friendly event, Yona and RIAB tout cardboard’s sustainability as a key reason that they use the material in their products.

After testing these beds for comfort, sturdiness, and ease of use, we found that cardboard beds aren’t as flimsy as one might assume—but the reasons to buy a cardboard bed largely are. Here’s what these beds are like, and what we think most people are better off with instead.

The Olympic Village beds resemble a typical platform bed, with cardboard slats running perpendicular to the bed’s two cardboard side rails. Such a design is presumably sturdy enough to support a sleeping athlete through the Olympics (about two to three weeks), but the Yona and Room in a Box beds instead opt for a latticed, honeycomb-like build that echoes the open-coil design of many innerspring mattresses. According to our testers, both beds felt pleasantly supportive.

“It felt like I was in a normal bed—supportive and comfortable, not stiff at all,” said my friend who slept on a Yona bed for several nights. A paid tester who tried out the RIAB Bett 2.0 at our office claimed, “I tried to find spots where the bed felt like it was sagging and couldn’t. There’s equal support all around.”

On the RIAB website, the company claims that a full-, queen-, or king-size Bett 2.0 can support up to 600 pounds of body weight. Yona’s website states, “Our Yona beds are so strong, it’ll hold you, your partner and up to 33 other people (7040lbs in total).”

Although we did not attempt to verify that last claim, corrugated cardboard can be remarkably robust. Depending on factors such as the cardboard’s thickness and how it’s fluted, every linear inch of even a cheap cardboard can withstand several dozen pounds of pressure. We spent a few minutes jumping on each of these beds and found that both of them easily dealt with the stress without any visible damage.

The Yona Cardboard Bed and the RIAB Bett 2.0 may rival standard bed frames in how much support they can offer, but when it comes to style, they don’t resemble standard bed frames at all. What you see poking out from underneath your mattress is a zigzag line of cardboard. It’s a look that you may find delightful but also challenging to incorporate into your decor. (Whereas the Bett 2.0 comes only in cardboard brown, the Yona bed is available in four colors: black, white, forest green, and “natural”—aka cardboard brown.)

“I think they’re sort of fun-looking, actually,” says staff writer Dorie Chevlen, who co-wrote our platform bed guide. “They’re cool in an architectural way, and there’s something playful about the shape and the texture. But it’s definitely not going to mesh with a lot of bedrooms. Depending on how you’ve styled your space, it might stick out—it could look absolutely ridiculous next to certain furniture pieces.”

Although Yona suggests on its FAQ page that a bed skirt or valance could hide the frame, it might be tricky to find one that adequately conceals the obtrusive cardboard frames.

The RIAB Bett 2.0 is a no-assembly-required, no-tools-needed piece of furniture. To use it, you just grab one end of the cardboard frame and drag it out of the box, opening it up like an accordion along the floor. Once you’ve unfolded it to match your mattress’s dimensions, you place the mattress on top. We tested this process three times and found that the bed can be ready for use in under 10 minutes.

The Yona bed also doesn’t require any tools, but its setup takes more work. On its two longer sides, you must hand-connect each zig and zag by inserting tabs into slots, which in our experience proved to be a tedious task. The instructions were a little confusing; on our first attempt at putting it together, we realized after the fact that we had connected the flaps inside out, making all those slots and tabs visible instead of tucked in. We put the Yona bed together twice and found that it took about 20 to 30 minutes to fully assemble.

Both beds, however, proved difficult to get just right. Opening each frame to precisely match a mattress’s dimensions required a lot of back and forth—measuring the mattress with a measuring tape, then measuring the frame, then adjusting the frame to match the mattress’s size, then remeasuring it, and so on. Once everything seemed to be lined up correctly, the task of hoisting the mattress atop the accordioned frame—which, by its nature, tended to slide along with the mattress instead of staying put—necessitated even more annoying tweaking.

On Instagram, both companies give the impression that these beds can easily be set up by just one person. After testing, we believe that assembly really ought to be a two-person job to cut down on time and frustration. (Plus, many people may not be able to lift and properly position a heavy mattress all by themselves.)

Anyone who has lived in cramped quarters knows that the real estate under one’s bed is often precious and essential. However, both the Yona Cardboard Bed and the RIAB Bett 2.0 take away that storage option.

Small-space dwellers also know how difficult it is to carve out sleeping space for overnight guests. And while both of the cardboard bed frames we tested easily fold up and store away in a relatively small space, such as under another bed or in the back of a closet, the same can’t necessarily be said for the mattresses that need to go on top of them—making it hard for us to recommend these as temporary guest-bed setups.

RIAB notes on its FAQ page that “all mattress types except futons are compatible with Bett 2.0” and to “make sure that the mattress is at least 6 inches high,” which largely means that a fold-up mattress won’t work. We did not see a similar claim on Yona’s website, but when we messaged the company’s customer service about using a futon mattress, the representative replied, “Please note that the futon has to be at least 4 inches thick to be comfortable.”

If you’re okay with a thick mattress leaning up against a wall in your living space when not in use (or if you can figure out a different storage solution for such a large item), a cardboard frame can possibly serve as a guest bed. For folks short on space, though, we think a quality air mattress that stows away more compactly is an easier option.

Corrugated cardboard can be a cat’s best friend. (For proof, see our cat scratcher guide.) If you’re a cat owner, and you’re considering a cardboard bed, the good news is that the corrugation on these frames is largely hidden underneath the mattress, which should lessen their appeal among your purry, furry companions. The bad news is, as we saw when our tester slept on the Yona bed for a week, sometimes the frames shift out of position—leaving a tempting glimpse of corrugation exposed.

“Cats are gonna cat,” says staff writer Mel Plaut, who covers pets for Wirecutter. “If your cat is a rascal, these things could be a risk.”

Yona states on its website that its beds are “predominantly made from recycled cardboard (diverted from landfill) as well as original paper fibers from sustainable forestry.” Room in a Box says that the Bett 2.0 is made of “70 % post consumer recycled material with the remainder being virgin fibers sustainably and ethically sourced via methods certified by The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).” Both companies also claim that their beds are “100% recyclable.”

Recycled, recyclable cardboard may have a leg up on, say, virgin wood when it comes to sustainability. As with many eco-minded claims, though, context is important.

“Super broadly, the sustainability question might come down to how long someone can use these for,” notes Wirecutter sustainability editor Katie Okamoto. “The longer you use something, the more mileage you get out of its environmental impact. So the question is, how long are you planning to keep this bed, and how long will the material hold up for?”

Yona offers a five-year warranty on its bed, while RIAB states that the “Bett 2.0 was engineered to have a useful life of 10 years.” On our first attempt at setting up the Bett 2.0, however, we inadvertently tore a small portion of the cardboard. As part of our testing, we also intentionally kicked the bed a few times, which produced a series of noticeable dents and notches.

These imperfections did not compromise the bed’s structural integrity, but they left us concerned about how quickly it might start to look dilapidated and worn. Plus, both frames shifted out of place over the course of our testing; this was particularly obvious with the Yona bed, which looked misshapen after a week of use. (RIAB suggests “placing an anti-slip mat or rug under the bed to prevent slipping” on smooth floors, which we did not try.)

Combine all of that with how easily these beds can be relegated to the recycling bin, and it starts to seem unlikely that many cardboard beds are destined for years and years of use. Landfill-bound “fast furniture” may be a growing concern for anyone looking to reduce their environmental impact, and perhaps even a reason that cardboard beds are marketed as an Earth-friendlier alternative. But considering how convenient a cardboard bed is to toss, our fear is that they’re not really a solution to that problem.

You may assume (as many of our testers did) that an obvious plus to a cardboard bed is that it’s cheap. Both the Yona and RIAB beds, however, are priced comparably to our two wooden platform bed picks, which is just one reason we think most people are better off choosing a “real” bed instead.

The street price of a queen-size Yona Cardboard Bed is $180, while a queen-size RIAB Bett 2.0 costs $220.

In comparison, the KD Frames Nomad Platform Bed we recommend costs $290 for a queen, while a queen size of our more budget-friendly pick, the Zinus Moiz Wood Platform Bed Frame, has a street price of about $190 to $200.

Both picks sport a minimalist design that blends well with different kinds of decor. (You can also stain or paint the KD Frames model’s raw wood for a more customized look.) The Zinus Moiz frame is rated to hold up to 500 pounds, while the KD Frames model can hold up to 600 pounds. We’ve been especially impressed over the years by the KD Frames model’s strength and firmness, which come from its beefy, tightly spaced hardwood slats. Although both of those beds require a lengthier assembly process than a Yona or RIAB cardboard bed frame, the needed tools and instructions did not give us fits the way that some other flat-pack furniture can (building the Zinus Moiz bed, for example, took us about 40 minutes).

When there’s a need to set up and then dismantle thousands of beds quickly—for example, when people are furnishing an entire Olympic Village—a cardboard bed makes loads of sense. But for your bedroom or guest room, we don’t think a cardboard bed offers enough compelling advantages to make it a worthwhile purchase. Maybe save your Olympic dreams for the treadmill.

This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Megan Beauchamp.

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Rose Maura Lorre

Rose Maura Lorre is a senior staff writer. Her byline has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Salon, Business Insider, HGTV Magazine, and many more. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, and lots and lots of houseplants.