The Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers

Side sleepers may look toward softer mattresses, just to give their pressure points a break. The trade-off is that softer beds aren’t always able to maintain spinal alignment. Medium-firm is a wise choice for maintaining both pressure relief and lumbar support, but some sleepers may just want a straight-up firm bed. Several teammates have tested the Bear Elite Hybrid, but for WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell, the Bear in Firm was a noteworthy experience.

Nena is a side sleeper who suffers from spondylosis and scoliosis—firm mattresses are nonnegotiable for her, as they ensure that she gets enough spine support to sleep well. In her words, the Bear Elite Hybrid was “insanely firm” for the first few nights. However, it didn’t prove challenging to her hips and shoulders, and she woke up without any aches or pains during testing. The top quilted pillowtop was essential for this, as it’s meant to cradle these sensitive areas without allowing unnecessary sinkage around your midsection. There is also copper-infused foam for cooling, and zoned coils for dedicated, firmer lumbar support. —Julia Forbes

Bear Elite Hybrid ranges from $1,998 for a twin mattress to $2,855 for a California king.

The Sapira Chill has an attractive European-style quilted top with nice deep divots from the stitching, which also seems to help hot air escape. The cooling cover is made from polyethylene and polyester with a dash of Lycra, and while it's not icy to the touch, it did keep me comfortable during two weeks of testing. What I really liked, though, was the way two layers of springs separated by one of three layers of foam added up to a medium-firm feel, with my hips sinking deep but not too deep. It was the best at cooling among the side-sleeper mattresses I've tested. —Martin Cizmar

Leesa Sapira Chill ranges from $1,499 for a twin mattress to $2,589 for a California king.

The EOS is an organic hybrid that puts the latex layer on top of 8-inch encased coils and below a cover made from organic cotton with wool batting. This bed is extremely comfortable for me as a side sleeper, with the springs helping dissipate body heat in a way an all-latex mattress does not, and the only real downside is that because the parts of this bed need to be zipped together, its edges can get a little wonky unless you're very careful about how you arrange the parts. —Martin Cizmar

Naturepedic EOC Classic ranges from $2,399 for a twin mattress to $4,699 for a California king.

The Contour5 is quite similar to its predecessor and the Saatva Classic I've tested. There are now two firmness options instead of one, and it stands a half-inch taller than its predecessor. It also has updated cooling tech that utilizes airflow channels in the gel foam layer, and that gel foam is a half-inch thinner than the old version, which means less mass to retain heat. In my two weeks of testing, I found it was very good at remaining cool through summer nights when my power company kept hijacking my Ecobee, which is impressive given that it uses extra-dense 5-pound-weight memory foam (that's the 5 in the name).

The Contour5 performs very much like the other two Saatva mattresses I've tested. It's soft enough for side sleeping without feeling like a saggy hammock. It has excellent build quality and a very sturdy, solid feel. That's especially impressive on the Contour5 given that it's an all-foam mattress without a layer or two of springs. I prefer a hybrid with microcoils, but Saatva is popular for a reason, and as all-foam mattresses go, it has a true luxury feel. —Martin Cizmar

Saatva Contour5 ranges from $1,899 for a twin mattress to $3,649 for a California king.

Casper's Dream Hybrid might be the epitome of what I would recommend for a side sleeper—the memory foam within this hybrid hits the mark for pressure relief without overdoing it. Side sleepers typically do well with softer mattresses, provided there are enough back-support materials involved to ensure lumbar support. But softer mattresses can feel downright gelatinous to many, with overly squishy layers you have to fight to settle into.

That was not the case for me with the Casper Dream Hybrid, which did a wonderful job delivering gentle pushback and keeping my body feeling lifted and weightless. What stood out to me was how well the foam and coils kept the bed from jostling too much as I moved around. This level of motion isolation can be really helpful for couples who don't want disruptions from their partner getting comfy in the wee hours.

I also enjoyed how the foam layers contoured around my hip and shoulder when I was on my side. The foam’s zoned design kept firmer support around my lower back. This is actually a key feature of the mattress. Pocketed coils can adjust to varying degrees of body weight across the mattress’s surface, putting firmer support on high-weight areas and softer pushback elsewhere. The zoned foam only furthers this design feature, ensuring that support stays at the forefront. —Julia Forbes

Casper Dream Hybrid ranges from $1,495 for a twin mattress to $3,190 for a split king.

Like the standard Birch, the Luxe has multiple layers of wool plus a layer of individually wrapped coils for support and cushioning. It adds a pillowy Euro top for firmer edges. For side sleepers, the coils offer full lumbar support and are arranged to effectively cradle you after a break-in period of two weeks. —Martin Cizmar

Birch Luxe Natural ranges from $1,624 for a twin mattress to $3,124 for a California king.

The WinkBed mattress has always been a standout option to me as a professional mattress tester. It's not only because they have a Plus setting especially for heavier sleepers, but their luxury firm and firm offerings are quite supportive too. WIRED Reviewer Julian Chokkattu is 6'4" and did some long-term testing (two years, to be exact) of the luxury firm version of The WinkBed. He found that the pillow top hit the mark for pressure relief, but firm support was more than forthcoming. —Julia Forbes

The WinkBed ranges from $1,427 for a twin mattress to $2,856 for a California king.

Nine layers go into this bed, with a lot of cooling and comfort foams stacked on pocketed coils. The cooling cover was something else, maintaining a cool feel that I could detect through my sheets. These components did a fabulous job of not only supporting me but also helping me wake up refreshed each morning. —Julia Forbes

The Wolf Memory Foam Hybrid Premium Firm Mattress ranges from $1,049 for a twin mattress to $1,399 for a king.

Side sleepers’ hips and shoulders are already under pressure by the very nature of how this sleeping position operates. It’s why pressure-relieving materials are so important, but especially in cases where one is also dealing with aches and pains in addition to trying to sleep comfortably. WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell was the person for this testing job, as she regularly deals with joint and back pain as a side sleeper.

The Rx was designed for sleepers who grapple with advanced joint pain issues. It comes in one firmness level—Supportive Plush—which Nena found comfortable while side sleeping. She didn’t notice any tension around her hips and shoulders, just a generally comfortable, cushioned feel. However, the firmness level isn’t the most conducive for supporting severe back pain. Despite features like a firmer lumbar support layer and microcoils, it was still a tad too soft for her as someone who prefers a firmer feel. But in terms of supporting her joints and muscles while sleeping on her side, she thought it did swimmingly. —Julia Forbes

Saatva Rx ranges from $1,999 for a twin mattress to $4,598 for a split king.

Personal Comfort’s Rejuvenate has officially joined the ranks as our favorite smart bed for side sleepers. One of the distinguishing features of a smart bed is adjustable firmness. In the Rejuvenate’s case, there are 45 firmness levels to select from. Even at its firmest level, 45, the Rejuvenate won’t feel as firm as traditional hybrids we’ve tested, such as the Bear Elite Hybrid, Thuma Hybrid, or Plank Firm Luxe. Smart beds are powered by internal air chambers that inflate or deflate to pull this off. Because of this, you can sometimes pick up on an underlying bouncy feel. However, I didn’t experience this with the Rejuvenate. It has a foam-forward feel to it that aids in pressure relief, making it suitable for side sleepers who want that sink-in feeling around their hips and shoulders.

I kept the bed at a medium-firm level—30, to be exact—for the most part during testing to help with spine alignment. While I usually prefer a firmer feel around my midsection for this purpose, I didn’t notice any back pain flare-ups or aches. For those who prioritize spinal alignment, this smart bed’s just going to feel too soft to you. However, if joint pain is the bigger issue you’re aiming to solve, the foams used within the Rejuvenate really helped with a cushioning feel for my easily aggravated joints. Many smart beds use two or three foam layers as a buffer between the air chambers in the center, but you can still feel them when you adjust the firmness. Hence, this is the catalyst behind the bouncy feel. This is something the Rejuvenate also does. The “bounce” from its air chambers is reduced because the foam layers are thicker and more plush.

Another cool offering from the Rejuvenate is the variety of sizes and the corresponding internal air chambers to accommodate co-sleepers. For example, you can get a queen size with one air chamber for yourself, or two on both sides of the bed. The foam helps a lot with motion isolation, too. I move around constantly, and my husband sleeps like a rock—he felt nothing during our time with the Rejuvenate. One big thing to note is that you’ll need to pair this bed with an adjustable base (I had the Power-Flex 4) in order to move the head and foot of the bed. Whether you get a base or just opt for the mattress itself, both can be operated via the Personal Comfort app and include physical remotes for easy adjusting. —Julia Forbes