The Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers
Featured in this article
If you are looking for the best side-sleeper mattresses, welcome. You’re in good company, as many of the WIRED Reviews team are also side sleepers. So are most Americans. The numbers vary across studies and depend on how rigidly you define “side sleeper,” but between half and three-quarters of people sleep on their side for at least part of the night.
If you're a side sleeper, you know how crucial it is that your bed keeps your back aligned while the hips and shoulders get some cushioning. Otherwise, it's a disaster. Without enough lumbar support, your middle is sinking in way farther than the rest of your body. Meanwhile, the hips and shoulders get that much more strain placed on them, especially if the bed is not forthcoming with pressure relief. It doesn't paint a cozy picture, which is why we side sleepers want something that accomplishes the lumbar support, pressure relief, and comfortability trifecta.
Many of our testers side-sleep and can speak to the necessity of these mattress performance factors firsthand, including Reviews team director Martin Cizmar and sleep writer Julia Forbes, a certified sleep science coach. It's never so simple as just lying down on a bed and saying “Eureka!” That's why we spend at least a week with each bed to monitor our daily sleep and feelings toward each one. We as a team have collectively spent years testing hundreds of beds. Of those hundreds of options, we whittled it down to our 10 that we wholeheartedly can say are the best mattresses for side sleepers.
Be sure to check out our other sleep guides, including Best Mattresses, Best Organic Mattresses, and the Best Body Pillows for Side Sleepers.
Updated August 2025: We added The WinkBed as our pick for the best mattress for heavy side sleepers and the Wolf Memory Foam Hybrid Premium Firm mattress as our best hybrid mattress pick. We've also added links to stories that explain mattress certifications, research terms to know, and how to clean your mattress.
Jump to Section
- Compare Our Top Picks
- How We Test Mattresses
- Is Sleeping on Your Side Good for You?
- How Firm Should a Mattress Be for Side Sleepers?
- What Kind of Mattress Is Best for Side Sleepers: Memory Foam or Hybrid?
- What About a Mattress Topper?
- How Did WIRED Select Mattresses to Be Reviewed?
- How Does WIRED Acquire the Mattresses?
- What Does WIRED Do With the Mattresses After Testing Them?
- What Do “Pressure Relief” and Other Testing Terms Mean?
- What Certifications Do I Need to Look for With My New Mattress?
Compare Our Top Picks
| Mattress | Mattress Type | Materials | Sizes Available | Add-ons Available | Shipping Costs | Delivery Options | Trial Period | Warranty | Financing | Compatible With Adjustable Frames? |
| Nolah Evolution | Hybrid | Organic cotton or GlacioTex cover, AirFoam Luxe memory foams, gel memory foam, AirBreath border gusset, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Plush, luxury firm, firm | GlacioTex cooling cover | Free for customers in the contiguous US | Arrives in a box as part of standard shipping; white-glove delivery available (mattress setup and old bed removal) for $225 | 100 nights; 30-day break in period required before initiating return ($99 shipping fee) | Limited lifetime | Financing available with Affirm |
| Bear Elite Hybrid | Hybrid | Phase change material (PCM) cooling cover, copper-infused memory foam, dynamic memory foam, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Soft, medium, firm | Celliant-infused cooling cover | Free for customers in the contiguous US | Arrives in a box within three to seven business days; white-glove delivery service available. Setup is $100, setup and old bed removal is $200 | 120 nights; 30-day break-in period required before initiating return | Limited lifetime | Financing available with Affirm |
| Helix Midnight Luxe | Hybrid | Tencel cover, memory foams, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, short queen, RV king | Medium | GlacioTex cooling cover, CoolForce Layer, ErgoAlign Contour Layer | Free for customers in the contiguous US | Delivered in six to 10 days in a box; setup handled by customer | 100 nights; 30-day break-in period required before initiating return | Limited lifetime | Financing available with Affirm |
| Leesa Sapira Chill | Hybrid | Phase change cooling cover, cooling memory foams, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king | Plush, medium firm, firm | GlacioTex cooling cover | Free for customers in the contiguous US | -Arrives in a box in three to seven business days; white glove delivery available within contiguous US (mattress setup and old bed removal) for $199 | 100 nights; 30-day break in period required before initiating return. Customers in Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada will have $100 return fees | Limited lifetime | Financing available with Affirm or PayPal Credit |
| Naturepedic EOS Classic | Hybrid | Organic cotton cover, plant-based PLA layer, organic wool batting, organic latex, organic cotton batting, organic cotton fill and fabric, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king | Plush, medium, cushion firm, firm, extra firm (each side can have different firmnesses) | N/A | Free for customers in the contiguous US | Arrives in a box as part of standard shipping. For contiguous US shoppers, mattress setup for $299, or mattress setup, old bed removal for $349 | 100 nights; 30 day break-in period required before initiating return | 25 year limited | Financing available with Affirm |
| Saatva Contour5 | Memory foam | Cotton cover, memory foam | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Medium, firm | N/A | Free for customers in the contiguous US | White glove delivery included with purchase | Year long sleep trial; $99 return fee | Lifetime | Financing available with Affirm |
| Birch Luxe Natural | Hybrid | Organic cotton cover, wool, organic latex, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king | Medium | Birch CoolForce Layer | Free via FedEx | Arrives in a box as part of standard shipping; white-glove delivery available for $199 | 100 nights; 30 day break in period required before initiating return that incurs $99 shipping fee | Limited lifetime | Financing available with Affirm |
| Casper One | All-foam | Knit cover, memory foam | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Medium-firm | N/A | Free shipping | Arrives in box as part of standard shipping; Alaska and Hawaii involves separate shipping fee | 100 nights; 30-day break in period required before initiating return ($99 shipping fee) | 10 year limited | Financing available with Affirm |
| The WinkBed | Hybrid | Tencel cover, gel memory foam, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California | Softer, luxury firm, firm, Plus | N/A | Free shipping via UPS ground for contiguous U.S. | Arrives in box as part of standard shipping | 120 nights; 30-day break in period required before initialing return | Lifetime | Financing available through Bread Pay and Katapult |
| Wolf Memory Foam Hybrid Premium Firm Mattress | Hybrid | Cooling cover, gel memory foam, support foam, pocketed coils | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Medium firm | N/A | Free for customers in the contiguous US but does not ship to Hawaii or Alaska | Arrives in a box as part of standard shipping | 101 nights; 30-day break in period required before initiating return | Limited lifetime | Financing available with Affirm |
Is Sleeping on Your Side Good for You?
If you've ever tried to consciously change your sleeping position because of something like a medical procedure, you know how hard it is to fight your natural inclinations. The good news for side sleepers is most experts agree that sleeping on your side is at least as good as any other position.
Sleep experts at Houston Methodist say side sleeping has “the least negative impact on health." Things worse for you include not sleeping enough or sleeping in any other position—namely, back sleeping. Sleeping on your back is the “worst position” according to the Mayo Clinic, which calls side sleeping “a good way to sleep.”
How We Test Mattresses
Testing mattresses isn't a one-and-done situation, where we sleep on it once before giving a full evaluation. Good things take time, after all, which is why we spend a week or more on each mattress we test. We track our sleep patterns with sleep trackers and record that data to see how we fared with each mattress.
How Firm Should a Mattress Be for Side Sleepers?
The short answer is: the firmest you can go while remaining comfortable.
The long answer is that many side sleepers gravitate toward a soft mattresses, which usually means medium-soft memory foam. But it's important to be sure you have a mattress with enough support or even extra support in key areas like the lumbar zone. Pay close attention to the firmness level the company advertises and take your body type into account, as the more body weight you have, the firmer the mattress you’ll want.
One other thing worth considering is that it's easier to make a mattress softer with a topper. If you're spending a lot of money on a high-quality mattress made with good materials and you feel it's too firm, it's relatively cheap and easy to add a mattress topper, since almost every topper has the effect of softening your sleeping surface. However, you can't make a mattress firmer—if you found a firm mattress topper and put it on a soft foam bed it would still have a squishy base, which would lead to sinkage and likely pull your back out of alignment. So our advice as a mattress testers is to always error toward too firm.
What Will a Mattress Topper Do for Side Sleepers?
Mattress toppers often give you that “new bed” feel at a fraction of the price and can help correct issues with a mattress you generally like.
For side sleepers, pairing a very supportive firm mattress with a cushy topper is often just the right blend of softness and support. If you only take one piece of advice from this article, it's that you should always buy the firmest mattress you think you can tolerate and then soften it up with a topper if you have issues.
What Kind of Mattress Is Best for Side Sleepers: Memory Foam or Hybrid?
Side sleepers should stick with hybrids in most cases. Given that you're putting more weight on a smaller surface area you might think that memory foam is nicer than a hybrid mattress that has a layer of springs (often called coils), imagining that memory foam allows you to sink into a fluffy little cloud.
The problem is that when you’re sleeping well and not moving much, over the course of a night, that foam will slowly compress under you. If it’s just one layer of foam, after a while it will feel like you're sleeping on a yoga mat. That's why mattresses with multiple layers of foam of various weights are better, and it’s why we like hybrids better yet. That layer of springs means the foam doesn't compact nearly as much, in our experience.
A good hybrid gives you a chance to sleep for a solid six hours without needing to change position, which isn't necessarily the case for most sleepers on an all-foam mattress. Hybrids also tend to sleep cooler because there's less mass of solid foam absorbing heat throughout the night.
How Did WIRED Select Mattresses to Be Reviewed?
We work with many mattress brands, which are constantly dreaming up new models to meet consumer needs. The bed-in-a-box mattress business has exploded since the pandemic, and there are always new brands to test. We are always researching the landscape and looking for new mattress companies to investigate.
How Does WIRED Acquire the Mattresses?
Typically, brands will send our team samples so that we can test them. We will then give them away while securing no personal benefit from their rehoming. (No, you can't even buy us a beer.) When a mattress company declines to send us a sample or doesn't respond but we believe readers want our unbiased opinion of the product, we will purchase and expense the bed.
What Does WIRED Do With the Mattresses After Testing Them?
Everyone needs to sleep. So when testing is complete and we have everything we need to give a comprehensive report, we give back to our local communities. Students, families, young couples—whoever needs a mattress, we do our best to get it to them. We do this through the grapevine, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Buy Nothing groups, and even Nextdoor listings.
What Do “Pressure Relief” and Other Testing Terms Mean?
It may seem like a bunch of gibberish, but there are important terms to keep in mind while mattress shopping. Pressure relief describes whether a bed is able to keep tension off of more sensitive areas of the body, like the hips or shoulders. These areas are also known as pressure points and require heightened softness. Durability is another term that refers to how well materials hold up. Edge support determines how well a bed supports you on the outer edges, whether you're sitting or lying on them.
What Certifications Do I Need to Look for With My New Mattress?
CertiPur-US is the most important one when it comes to memory foam. It's third-party verification that your mattress isn't holding potentially harmful chemicals. Other certifications authenticate whether a product was tested by a third-party lab, is truly organic, or passes a certain test for health and safety standards.


.jpg)
.jpg)

.jpg)
.jpg)

.jpg)









