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If you’re a side sleeper on the hunt for a new mattress, finding the right brand, feel, and level of support can be really tricky. It can be enough to make you wish for a standard-issue bed that somehow magically suits all manner of side sleepers (which, sadly, science has yet to provide). “There is no one type of mattress that’s best for everyone,” Naimish Baxi, MD, a physiatrist at Hospital for Special Surgery in Paramus, New Jersey, tells SELF. He adds that it may take some trial and error to find the right mattress for your needs as a side sleeper, but there are a few features that you can look for that’ll make your search easier—and your nights much more restful.
What firmness level should side sleepers look for in a mattress?
Unlike stomach sleepers and back sleepers, side sleepers usually benefit from a mattress that will accommodate the added weight placed on their shoulders, hips, and knees. “For side sleepers, mattresses with some amount of give can be optimal to alleviate pressure through the hip and shoulder,” Dr. Baxi says.
“The right mattress should make you feel like you are floating on air,” Steve Zhou, MD, previously told SELF. In other words, you don’t want to sink, but you don’t want to feel like your body is pushing against the mattress either. Finding a bed that strikes that balance will come down to personal preference, but as Gerard Girasole, MD, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, previously told SELF, a medium-firm mattress is a good place to start for side sleepers.
A too-firm mattress that doesn’t conform to your body can create uncomfortable pressure points, and a too-soft mattress can affect spinal alignment and put pressure on your lower back, hips, and shoulders. In case you’re upgrading all of your bedding in addition to getting a new mattress, the right pillow can also enable healthy spine alignment and prevent shoulder pain, as SELF previously reported. The best pillows for side sleepers are firmer and taller, and they provide space for their head and neck to stay aligned over their shoulder.
What materials are best for mattresses for side sleepers?
Dr. Baxi says either an all-foam or hybrid mattress can work well for side sleepers, providing that its firmness suits you. The former solely consists of layers of memory foam, and the latter features both foam and a system of innerspring coils. Naturally, they’ll each have a different feel. Memory foam mattresses are usually softer than mattresses with springs. They help with motion isolation, which is great if you share your bed with someone, but they also tend to trap body heat, which is not so great if you share your bed with someone (hot sleepers who love foam, look for a mattress made with cooling-gel memory foam).
Hybrid mattresses, particularly ones with pocketed coils, contour to your body weight without letting you sink into the bed, which is great if you’re looking for a balance of cushioning and responsiveness. They also have a little more to offer in the way of temperature regulation.
With these general recommendations in mind, we’ve highlighted some of the best mattresses for side sleepers on the market right now, from luxurious retailers like Saatva and beloved bed-in-a-box mattress brands like Casper, Nolah, and DreamCloud (many of which come with generous, risk-free trial periods). Read on to find the best side-sleeper mattresses that can help you get a good night’s sleep with dramatically less joint and lower-back pain.
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Another comfy—yet supportive—option from DreamCloud, this foam and innerspring mattress features cooling-gel foam layers and a coil system that work in tandem to encourage airflow and release body heat. Meanwhile, the extra-plush Euro mattress topper keeps things satisfyingly cozy. In her SELF review, our associate wellness director, Cathryne Keller, wrote that the DreamCloud Premier Mattress has a “slight springiness” that made it easy for her to roll from one side to the other.
Looking for an all-foam bed that won’t swallow you whole and accommodates your sleeping position? Check out this Nectar mattress, which has a gel-infused memory foam layer to keep you cool and an adaptive layer that should provide responsiveness and bounce.
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The Casper Wave is a SELF Certified mattress with zoned support and a wonderfully contoured feel. In her mattress review, our fitness and food director, Christa Sgobba, noted how “it didn’t leave [her] joints hanging.” And she pointed out how much it improved her partner’s sleep quality too: “He’s a side sleeper, and his right shoulder would just sink right into the old mattress, leading to pain during the night and upon awakening. This just doesn’t happen with this mattress—his shoulders remain supported, though the mattress is still soft enough that he can comfortably burrow when sleeping on his side.”
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If you want maximum contoured support with a true medium level of firmness, the Helix Midnight Luxe mattress is easily one of our top picks—in her SELF Helix review of the mattress, our senior commerce editor, Malia Griggs, called it “a side sleeper’s dream.” One of the best hybrid mattresses for side sleepers, it pairs support layers of gel foam and polyfoam with over 1,000 individually wrapped coils to reduce shoulder, lumbar, and hip pain.
As Brooklyn Bedding’s best-selling mattress, this high-quality hybrid option has won over thousands of customers. For the best sleep on your side, choose either the soft or medium firmness options. The soft will hug you and the medium will give you that previously described feeling of floating. If you’re an active person who sleeps on their side, you may want to check out the brand’s Spartan Hybrid bed, which is designed for athletic recovery (in addition to a comfy night’s sleep).
Partnered side sleepers, this one’s for you. Not only does Layla’s flippable memory foam mattress have one soft side and a firmer side (so you can choose which suits you), but it also dramatically limits motion transfer. Although it’s an all-foam mattress, don’t worry about overheating: It has copper-infused layers to help keep you cool.
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Thanks to its three firmness options, the Saatva Classic mattress has a comfort level for everyone. Side sleepers (and combination sleepers, for that matter) should consider the Luxury Firm option, which balances cushion with support. If you know you like a softer mattress, go with the Plush Soft option, which provides plenty of contouring and an extra-padded pillow top.
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The Winkbed mattress is another option with a firmness scale, and side sleepers who want to feel cradled (not stuck) should opt for the soft version at checkout. This Euro-pillow-top mattress uses both foam and steel coils, so you can enjoy pressure relief, comfort, and airflow in equal measure. If you don’t want a truly soft mattress, select the Luxury Firm option instead.
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The extremely breathable, heat-shedding foam that makes up Nolah’s Signature mattress is actually filled with tiny air bubbles, which helps prevent pressure points from building up through the night and should give the bed a more supportive feel overall.
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With a top layer made of quilted foam and cashmere, comfort layers of foam, and individually wrapped supportive coils, this hybrid mattress from DreamCloud is made to provide the kind of pressure-relieving feel you need as a side sleeper. It’s on the softer side of medium-firm, which the brand describes as a 6.5 out of 10 on its firmness scale, so it’s an excellent choice if you want a bed with a little more give.
With reinforced edge support, motion isolation, and a medium-soft responsive feel, Tuft & Needle’s SELF Certified pressure-relieving Mint mattress feels like a dream for side sleepers—especially if you share your bed with a partner. Our associate art director, Amanda Bailey, reported a delightful lack of motion transfer when she tested it with her husband and wrote that it accommodated her variety of sleep positions: “Whatever form my body decides to take, I can feel myself relaxing into the mattress rather than fighting it.”
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SELF’s former editor in chief, Leta Shy, wrote that Awara’s Natural Hybrid mattress feels luxurious and that “it may be ideal for side sleepers, who require both support and cushioning to help avoid the dreaded dead arm or various aches and pains.” It’s a latex mattress, which wins points from sleep experts not only for its supportive design (which may alleviate back pain) but for its durability too.
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When she tested the Aurora Hybrid Mattress, our senior manager of analytics, Cheryl Carlin, appreciated how its soft layers simultaneously provided enough support to prevent her back from hurting and felt like a hug. She also noted that it’s an extremely effective cooling mattress—it was cold to the touch before she went to sleep, and it kept her from sweating in the middle of the night. “If you’re also a side-sleeping, overheating, back-pain-complaining kind of person, then it’s definitely for you,” she wrote in her review.
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All of Purple’s beds feature the brand’s uniquely responsive FlexGrid Gel top layer, but the Hybrid Premier 4 has the thickest FlexGrid layer of them all. This means it has more give than other Purple mattresses, which is a major plus for side sleepers looking for maximum pressure relief.
