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Best Mattresses Buying Guide
When purchasing a new mattress, it can be useful to ask yourself a few key questions to help you evaluate your mattress options, and choose the best mattress for you. For example, do you prefer a softer or firmer feel? Is pressure relief a primary concern, or are you more focused on sleeping cool through the night? How much would you like to spend?
Below, we walk you through these questions and more. Our five-step buyer’s guide helps you navigate everything you need to consider when buying a new mattress, from your personal sleep preferences and health needs to mattress construction and price.
Step 1: What’s Your Preferred Sleep Position?
Want to enjoy a good night’s sleep? We’ll let you in on a secret. The best mattress for you depends on one key element: how well it keeps your spine aligned while you sleep. Among other things, your body uses sleep as a time for recovery. To do that effectively, your spine needs to stay aligned, so your body can focus on repairing your muscles and tissues — instead of dealing with aches and pains from spinal misalignment.
Depending on your sleep position, you’ll need different levels of conforming from your mattress to enjoy healthy spinal alignment. Take a look at the images below to see what we mean.
In reality, most people are combination sleepers. We change positions throughout the night to stay comfortable. But, it’s likely you have a preference for one position over another. This is the position you initially fall asleep in, and it’s the one you can use as a guide when choosing a new mattress.
Side sleepers require a softer mattress that allows their hips and shoulders to sink deeper into the mattress surface. Mattresses with highly conforming comfort layers, like those found in memory foam and hybrid mattresses, can provide great support.
Back sleepers don’t require quite as much conforming as side sleepers. They need a mattress with a nice, middle-of-the-road level of conforming. Their hips and shoulders need to be able to sink deeper into the mattress, but not so deeply as to cause an uncomfortable curvature in their spine. Zoned support systems, such as those found in hybrids, can be ideal for this sleep position. Firmer all-foam beds, airbeds, and innersprings with plush comfort layers can also be comfortable.
Stomach sleepers require the least amount of conforming. Stomach sleepers typically find firmer mattresses to be the most comfortable, as these prevent their pelvis from sinking too deeply and out of alignment. Firmer hybrid mattresses and innerspring beds can be good choices.
Step 2: Determine Your Ideal Firmness Level
One easy way to think of mattress firmness is with a 1-to-10 scale, with 1 being the softest and 10 being the firmest. Most mattresses today fall between a 3 (‘Soft’) and an 8 (‘Firm’).
We alluded to this in the previous section, but your ideal mattress firmness depends partly on your sleep position. It also depends on your body weight.
A person of average weight (between 130 to 230 pounds) typically finds a mattress right in the middle of the firmness range, such as a 5 or 6, to be most comfortable. Whether they prefer a true Medium, or something slightly firmer or softer, depends on personal preference and their sleep position. For example, an average-weight side sleeper may lean toward a ‘Medium’ (5) while an average-weight stomach sleeper may prefer a ‘Medium-Firm’ (6).
People of above-average weight (230 pounds or more) generally find firmer mattresses to be more supportive, such as a ‘Firm’ (7) or firmer. Firmer mattresses do a better job preventing their body from sinking too deeply into the bed, while being built well enough to resist sagging or body indentations.
People of below-average weight (130 pounds or less) usually enjoy the most comfort from softer mattresses, with ratings of ‘Medium Soft’ (4) or lower. These beds allow them to sink sufficiently into the mattress surface to experience pressure relief and proper spinal alignment.
Below, we share the commonly preferred firmness ratings for each sleep position and weight group. However, your mileage may vary. What’s important is finding a mattress that feels comfortable for you to sleep on, whether or not it fits within the “normal” firmness range.