BEST MATTRESSES FOR SIDE SLEEPERS

The ideal mattress for side sleepers has to offer very good stability and support.

Stability should not be confused with firmness. A soft mattress can offer as much stability as a firm mattress can. Sleeping on an unsuitable mattress with insufficient stability can lead to spine misalignment, which results in back and neck pain. The perfect mattress is neither too firm nor too soft.

The exact sleeping position of a side sleeper can change every night. For example, sometimes your legs will be bent and sometimes they’ll be straight. Sometimes only one leg will be bent. The right mattress must be able to support you well in every position, offering good support and ensuring that your spine remains in a healthy alignment at all times.

It is also important to allow for sinkage in some areas, while offering more support in others. To achieve this, a mattress with contour zones may be helpful. Contour zones ensure that certain areas, like the head, are better supported, while providing for more sinkage in other areas, such as the shoulder and neck areas. This helps keep your spine in its normal shape.

In addition, the ideal mattress for side sleepers should have high point elasticity and offer a good relief of pressure points, which means that pressure is distributed evenly across the mattress and not contained at certain points. This ensures that you can get a good night’s rest without suffering from any tension or pain.

Side sleepers may suffer from the effects of pelvic rotation. This results from the displacement of the back muscles and the lumbar spine. A rotation happens when you turn the upper body in the opposite direction of the lower body. It can be quite painful.

You can prevent this by clamping a pillow between your legs while you sleep. Choosing the right mattress with the proper support structure can also help.

In addition to choosing the right mattress, side sleepers will also need to pay attention to their choice of pillow. Even the best and most expensive mattress will be useless if your head isn’t properly supported. A bad pillow can easily result in severe neck pain.

You should look for a pillow that supports your head and neck well. Make sure that it is not too big or too firm, as this will create unnecessary pressure and tension.

Pillows made of latex or memory foam are particularly suitable. These materials ensure that the pillow adapts well to the shape of your head and that the pressure on the pillow is distributed well.

Finding a mattress with the right degree of firmness can often be very difficult for side sleepers. This is especially true because modern manufacturers tend to produce universal one-for-all mattresses instead of specifying a degree of firmness.

READ ALL OUR MATTRESS REVIEWS

But even universal mattresses may be perceived as too soft or too firm by some people. That’s why we at Sleep Hero always rate mattresses on a firmness scale, ranging from 1 to 10. You can use this as your guide.

In general, we would recommend a slightly softer mattress to side sleepers, with an average firmness of about 4 - 6 on the Sleep Hero firmness scale. Slightly heavier-weight people can choose a firmer model (6 - 8).

Any mattress, regardless of firmness, should offer good support. This will help relieve pressure on your back and neck. Also, make sure that the mattress adapts well to your body and that the pressure is evenly distributed. You don’t want to sink too deeply into your mattress at any one point.

A firm mattress won’t allow your body to sink in sufficiently. A soft or medium-firm mattress with high point elasticity and high body adaptability will be much better suited to side sleepers, allowing for sufficient sinkage in some parts, more support in others, and even pressure distribution. All of these factors help support your body and keep your spine in a healthy position.

High-quality foam mattresses are particularly suitable to meet these criteria. Side sleepers will particularly enjoy memory foam, latex foam, and gel foam. Their mattress of choice should also have a stable base layer made of cold foam or PUR foam.