Sleepopolis is supported by readers. Product links on Sleepopolis are referral links. If you use one of these and buy something Sleepopolis makes a little bit of money. See how it all works here. For many people, sleeping on their stomach is considered the best sleeping position, despite the fact that it can also be the most harmful. For this guide we’re not going to debate the pros and cons of stomach sleeping (we’ll save that for another time), but instead we’ll focus on helping to ensure you get the very best sleep possible on your stomach. So without any further adieu let’s dive into the best mattresses for stomach sleepers! Want to see the full list of recommendations for stomach sleepers? Click here to jump down to the summary. Stomach sleepers go to bed night after night in one of the worst sleeping positions for your body. That being said, the proper mattress and pillow can help to overcome the negative effects of stomach sleeping. Proper support for your back, a medium to slight firmer feel, and choosing the right pillow are essential to getting a good night’s rest on your belly.
A mattress with these traits will provide your body with the support it needs to sleep through the night and wake feeling refreshed and pain free. When sleeping on your stomach, getting the proper support helps to promote a restful night’s sleep and is critical due to the amount of pressure that is localized at your body’s midsection. Be sure to consider the following key characteristics when shopping for your new mattress. For stomach sleepers, support may be the number one concern. Whether you realize it or not, your mid-section carries an intense amount of pressure and weight throughout the day. When you sleep on your stomach, that pressure continues to build up in your torso and that pressure can not only lead to a restless night’s sleep, but also prolonged back pain. In order to prevent that discomfort, look for a mattress that has great support. Foam mattresses are well known for their consistent support through layers of responsive and pressure relieving foam that conform to the natural curves of your body.
Spring or hybrid mattresses can also a good fit provided they have adequate support, contouring hug, and an appropriate level of firmness (see below). Stomach sleepers keep a very flat profile which results in fewer gaps between your body and the mattress. The best mattress for stomach sleepers should be on the medium to slightly firmer side, around a 4-7 on the firmness scale (where 10 is the most firm). A medium to slightly firm mattress keeps your back from arching and causing stiffness. By comparison, a mattress that is too soft will cause your pelvis to sink down, resulting in the misalignment of your spine. This may cause you to wake with lower back pain or pain elsewhere. This pain can be nagging and reoccurring if you don’t have an appropriate firmness level to help keep your body in alignment. In the population of stomach sleepers, there are many that prefer soft mattresses. If you find yourself in this category, look for a mattress that has either 1) highly advanced foam or other materials that provide both softness and support (some advanced foams do this) or 2) a mattress that has a thin, but soft foam or pillow-top type layer (mattresses with traditional padded covers can provide this, while still offering the support needed).
The right level of firmness is perhaps the most critical factor for stomach sleepers. With the right firmness level you’ll eliminate and prevent many back issues. However, even a firmness level that is just slightly wrong can cause significant pains. I’m a stomach sleeper and my body tends to prefer a firmness of 4-6 out of 10. I’ve tested numerous mattresses that are slightly softer (3-3.5 out of 10) and slightly firmer (7 out of 10). In both of these scenarios I awake with back pain. It’s common for shoppers to put a lot of effort into selecting the right mattress, so why not put the same about of attention into choosing the right pillow? While there are many different styles and densities of pillows, stomach sleepers do best with flatter pillows. Unlike back and side sleepers, which need more and a different type of support, stomach sleepers require pillows that help keep the body as flat as possible. Because your body lays so flat against the mattress, it’s important to use a pillow that continues that position from your head to your feet.
An overstuffed pillow can elevate the head too much and cause pressure points or spinal misalignment in your neck. As a stomach sleeper myself I know the importance of a proper pillow. Pillows for me tend to be very good or very bad (not much middle ground). The vast majority of the time the attribute that makes them a bad pillow for a stomach sleeper is simply the height. Other important pillow factors for stomach sleepers include: moldability, huggability, and cooling. If you’re on the hunt for a new pillow I would highly recommend the Nest Easy Breather pillow. It is leaps and bounds better than any other pillow I have tested to date in terms of meeting the needs of stomach sleepers. It’s a type of shredded foam pillow (noodled foam) that comes in latex and memory foam version (they feel basically the same). Additionally, it’s fully adjustable, so you can make it the exact height you need. Balanced feel, good bounce / hug, great support. Simple design, but great feel.
Slightly firm feel at a 7 out of 10 firmness.$799 Great support, balanced hug, very good cooling. Best in the medium for stomach sleepers (available in 3 firmness levels). Gel polymer + polyfoam. Instant response, good bounce, great cooling. Pronounced sinkage / hug, great bounce. Nice softness, but backed with excellent zoned support. Good bounce, response, edges, and cooling. Available in two firmnesses (medium and luxury firm).$999 Fully customizable / personalized mattress. Can split for two different feels.$945 Coil-on-coil pillow top design. Excellent bounce, edge support, response, and cooling. Available in soft, medium, and firm.$999You spend a third of your life sleeping, give or take, and sometimes the way you sleep can lead to chronic back pain. The cure for that pain could be getting rid of an old, worn-out mattress, doubling (or tripling) down on pillows, or getting off the couch and walking around the block. Those are a few of the potential cures recommended by Dr. David E. Fish, a medical doctor on staff with the UCLA Spine Center with a master's degree in public health, who's partnered with mattress retailer Sit 'n Sleep -- you know, the "We'll beat any advertised price or your mattress is FREEEEEEEE!!!"
/"You're KILLING me Larry!!!" people -- to spread the word about not just buying new beds but doing all you can for a healthy, pain-free back. Dr. Fish, whose calls himself a "physiatrist," agreed to answer any question we threw at him, but we stuck to back pain and its relief, given that he's an expert in that very field. Once we agreed on the spelling of physiatrist, we went on with the interview: Q: What does a Physiatrist do? A: We're doctors that deal in functional restoration for people with either a disability or a functional deficit. The classic example is Christopher Reeve. In the prime of his life he has a spinal cord injury. He needs to functionally return. Someone had to put him in that chair, someone had to teach him how to use the chair. Someone had to deal with the medical issues. Another example would be someone with a disc herniation in their back. After the surgeon potentially removes the disc, they have ongoing pain issues, they've got issues with functional deficits -- they're not able to use their leg, or if they have weakness in their foot they may need a brace or something like that.
The physiatrist is the one who coordinates all of that. Q: So you deal with a lot of serious issues -- it's not just patients saying, "I have a little pain in my back"? A: I deal with that, too. I deal with everything. Let's say someone says, "I have a little pain in my back. I'm not able to do the job I'm supposed to do, I can't sit at my desk because my back hurts." They're not functional because of the symptoms. So while we do have some serious things, we also have some things that are not so serious, but they all have functional deficits, that cause them to have an "interplay," or a deficit in their daily activity and what they're doing. Q: Is back pain often the result of how you sleep, and can the bed you sleep on make it worse? A: I think it's both. I think that's the hard part -- you know, there haven't been great studies done that say "this mattress is better than that mattress." We all toss and turn and roll in bed. The most important part is to try to find a position that is 1) comfortable but functionally in a good position and then, 2) is to try to get a good night's sleep in terms of the number of hours because I think a lot of patients who have pain seem to get better after a good night's sleep, too, so I think that's part of it as well.
Q: Do a lot of patients say they're not sleeping enough? "I've got pain, I can't sleep." But I would say it's 50-50. I've got some patients who say, "I've got pain when I'm up -- the first thing, I get up in the morning, I have pain," and I'm like, "How's your sleep?" (and they say), "Oh, I sleep great." But I think, in general, it's better to get a good night's sleep because usually you'll feel better the next day when you have a restorative sleep. Q: If somebody says to you, "I sleep on my back," "I sleep on my side," or "I sleep on my stomach," do you recommend a different kind of mattress for each of them? A: If you sleep on your stomach and you have a mattress that is not firm, you're going to put a lot of arch in your back, and that's going to be a problem. So I think it would make more sense to get a firm mattress if you're on your stomach. But I think part of it is, do you have the proper pillows underneath your hips, are you not twisting your neck too difficultly to one side when you're sleeping.
If I had to pick one, I would say a firm mattress makes more sense if you sleep on your stomach, but I'm sure there's going to be people out there who say, "I've got a soft mattress, and I feel great." Q: So what about the back sleeper or the side sleeper? A: If you have an older mattress, one that sags in the center, that's going to cause more pain than a soft mattress that's new and fresh. A firm mattress that's fresh is probably better than a sagging mattress that has no life in it -- you're sleeping in a hole, basically. But there's no hard and fast rule that says you have to have a soft mattress for when you sleep on your side vs. your back. Q: You mentioned pillows before. What is the role of pillows in relieving back pain? A: I think pillows are important. Let's say you sleep on your back. We say that the best relief for back pain is when your knees are up toward your chest -- what we call a 90-90 position, where you have your hips bent at 90 degrees, and your knees are at 90 degrees.
When you're lying on your back, that puts the least pressure on your spine. Q: So you put the pillow under your legs? If you put pillows under your legs, you'll relieve a lot of the stress on your back. Q: What about sleeping on your side? A: If you sleep on your side, what happens a lot of the time is your knees are together, and you kind of lean one knee over the top of the other knee and you kind of twist your back a little bit. Put a pillow between your knees and keep them somewhat apart, and you'll find that the pelvis is more stable that way. I always recommend a pillow between the knees and the feet as well as one on your chest. You end up having four or five pillows, right? You have one on your chest that you can grab so that your shoulders are not falling down. A lot of people sleep pretty good on their side that way. Q: You talk about exercise -- aerobic exercise, yoga and Pilates. How helpful are these kinds of activities for people who want a healthy, pain-free back? A: If I don't get any exercise for four or five days, I notice that my back gets a lot more stiff, and I have a lot more pain.
I'm only one person, but I do feel that the more active you are, the more you walk -- to be active is better. The American Heart Association recommends that you exercise six or seven times a week for 30 minutes. It's good for your heart, but it's also good for your back, for your pain and everything else. A lot of times patients say, "I can't walk that far, I can't go that far -- I have so much back pain." Well, that's when you do cycling, that's when you do swimming, that's when you do upper-extremities excercises. Something that gets your heart rate up is the key. Q: While this seems like an obvious question, I'm going to ask it anyway: Do older people have more back pain than younger people? A: People always say that when you get older, you get "gray hair of the spine," which is degenerative disc disease. And people always say, "Well, if my spine becomes degenerative, I'm going to have pain," and that's not always true, because there are plenty of patients who walk around with degenerative spine conditions who have no pain at all.
And a lot of times what happens is that when we get older, our posture gets worse. And since our posture's worse, and we're not exercising as much, we can have degeneration. But it may not be the degeneration that gives you pain -- it's the posture and the lack of activity and the fact that you're sitting on a couch that has no support. Q: Do you see patients who are overweight or obese, and their back-pain issues are resolved when they lose weight? A: I see that. I recommend (weight loss) all the time. Not only is it good for your body, it's good for your back. You're carrying less weight on your spine. But I see very skinny people with back pain, too, and it always perplexes me. So what did we learn? Pillows are your friend -- and not just to lift up your head. Sagging beds can be bad news. Exercise and weight loss can help you sleep better and with less pain in the back (and presumably neck, shoulders, legs, feet and more). Sit 'n Sleep and veterans: I took the opportunity while setting up this interview to ask the mattress retailer to update us on a February 2012 L.A. Daily News story about the company's effort to hire veterans of our armed forces.