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Derek Hales

Derek Hales is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of NapLab. He is tasked with overseeing all day-to-day product tests, content creation, and business operations.

Hales is also responsible for maintaining and improving all scoring and rating systems, ensuring the absolute best recommendations possible.

Derek Hales

Featured In

Derek Hales is a respected thought-leader within the mattress, sleep, and home industries. Hales and his insights have been featured in major publications, including:

Experience & Background

Derek Hales has been testing and reviewing mattresses, sleep, and other products for home since 2014. Hales has tested 320+ mattresses and hundreds of other sleep products.

Derek graduated from Kansas State University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Business. From 2011 to 2015 Hales worked for a digital marketing agency.

After a 4 year term in corporate America Derek was ready to direct his skills, experience, and passion elsewhere. In 2014 Hales experienced first hand a critical lack of good mattress reviews as he searched for a new bed.

In September 2014, Derek Hales founded Sleepopolis.com, where he began researching, testing, and reviewing mattresses. While Hales was operating Sleepopolis he tested hundreds of products and received a crash course in all things sleep. Hales later sold Sleepopolis in July 2017.

From 2017 to 2021 Hales pursued other personal and professional interests, including building ModernCastle.com. Modern Castle is a product review platform that tests vacuums, air purifiers, furniture, and other home goods.

Derek Hales launched NapLab.com in August 2021. NapLab has a singular goal, create the best mattress reviews possible. Hales is aiming to build a system of objective performance tests that can showcase what it’s really like to sleep, lie on, and use mattresses and other sleep products.

You can view Derek Hales full professional experience here.

Interviews

Derek Hales has been interviewed by the following publications:

Personal Life

Hales lives with his wife, Samantha, and their 2 children in Scottsdale, Arizona. Derek’s hobbies include PC gaming, table tennis, and super nerdy card & board games.