Say you’re a petite 5 feet tall, and your partner is a robust 6 feet 2 inches. You sleep on your side, and your partner is a back sleeper. Now, thanks to our newly expanded mattress ratings, you can drill down past the overall score and zero in on only those mattresses that suit you both. The key to comfort in a mattress is support. A mattress for people who sleep on their sides should keep the alignment of the spine fairly parallel to the bed. For back sleepers, we measure how well it maintains the natural curvature of the spine in that position. But, as you may already know from painful years of experience, the same mattress doesn’t necessarily offer the same level of support for people of different statures. So we use test subjects that represent the lower and upper 5 percent of the population by size. Our petite women range from 4 ft 11 1/2" to 5 ft 1 1/2" and 110 to 127.5 pounds, and our large men range from 6 ft 2" to 6 ft 4" and 220 to 242 pounds. For each of them, we measure support while on their sides and on their backs, then average those scores to get the result for a midsized person.
That’s how we came up with six columns for support: petite, medium, and large/tall side sleepers; and petite, medium, and large/tall back sleepers. The petite side sleeper will find only one mattress that scores excellent for his or her stature, the Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid Trust Cushion, a $1,275 innerspring. For all the other body sizes, it scores very good but not excellent. If you prioritize the large/tall back sleeper’s comfort, the Charles P. Rogers Powercore Estate 5000 has excellent back support and very good side support. It scores one point higher overall and costs $1,500. (Online subscribers can sort the ratings by columns, making this exercise even easier.) Support isn’t the only factor for couples. A healthy person shifts positions 40 to 60 times per night. Double that for a couple, and that’s a lot of tossing and turning for any mattress to cope with. That’s why we also test for stabilization, which is essentially a gauge of bounciness. It provides a very good indicator of whether your movements will disturb your partner, or vice versa.
Only four of our 74 rated mattresses aced the stabilization test. Of those, the highest-rated overall is the Sleep Number c2, $800, one of two adjustable air mattresses we tested. The other three stability stalwarts are innerspring models, the best of which is the Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid Elite Kelburn, $1,350. None of the memory foam mattresses earned excellent scores for stabilization, so steer clear of that type if this is a big concern for you and your partner. That said, plenty of foam mattresses have very good stability, so it becomes a matter of priorities. And while you may have to make a few compromises when shopping for a mattress for you and your partner, we hope our new ratings will bring you that much closer to somnolent bliss.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. Buying a mattress as a couple can be quite the task.
What if you and your partner enjoy two different firmness levels? How do you know which mattresses will perform well for amorous activities? What about motion transfer, materials, budget, and other factors? These are just a few of the questions that you’ll want to consider when buying a mattress as a couple. Not to worry, Sleepopolis has highlighted all of the main topics that make a mattress good for couples as well as specific mattresses that are designed to serve the needs of couples best. Continue reading below to find out which mattress is best for you and your partner! Just want to find out which mattresses are best for couples? Click here to jump on down to the full list of mattresses! Motion transfer plays a big role with regards to purchasing a mattress as a couple. Nobody wants to roll over and wake their partner, or be woken by their partner’s movements. A mattress with very little motion transfer is a huge benefit for most couples. A mattress that has the ability to dissipate movement can be the difference between sleeping well and not sleeping at all.
If you or your partner tend to be lighter sleepers, motion transfer is even more important. Memory foam mattresses are usually the best choice when trying to avoid motion transfer. The memory foam construction helps to absorb motion and / or dissipate any energy that tries to make its way across the mattress. That said, memory foam has a very distinct feel that isn’t great for everyone. For these types of couples a latex, hybrid, or polymer mattress can be a great compromise. These types of mattresses offer a significant improvement over traditional coil mattresses, but still have more response, bounce, and less of a sinking / stuck feeling. In terms of general support, a good mattress should evenly support your body in a variety of sleeping positions, helping to maintain a neutral spinal alignment. Any quality mattress should meet this basic requirement. However, for couples, support sometimes needs to go a step further. A couple collectively places more pressure on a mattress, which requires better support.
This is especially critical for heavier sleepers who sleep together on a Full or Queen size mattress. If the heavier sleeper rolls towards the middle of the mattress and creates somewhat of a downward slope, the lighter sleeper may end up rolling into their partner. This can create additional motion transfer and interfere with the support and feel of the mattress for both sleepers. As a result, couples (especially heavier sleepers) need to select a mattress with excellent support and material design. FAQ: Best mattress for heavy people Sex is an important consideration when purchasing any mattress, but especially for couples. No couple (that I know of) wants to go buy a mattress that falls flat of anything short of a good time. For couples engaging in amorous activities, bounce, response, support, edge support, and comfort all play an important role. For a more complete guide to sex, see our best mattress for sex here. For starters, bounce goes hand-in-hand with response time.
The quicker a mattress is able to respond, the more natural and enjoyable the bounce and push-back feels. Traditionally, only innerspring mattresses were able to provide couples with a high degree of bounce. Today, many all foam mattresses or hybrid designs offer a similar level of response and bounce, opening up new choices. Typically, mattresses with good bounce also have a good response time. For example, latex or latex alternatives, like Avena and Energex, offer nearly instant response and great bounce, but still create a balanced contoured hug for sleepers. Very traditional memory foam mattresses are really what you want to try and avoid. These types of mattresses are very slow to respond and absorb so much energy that it feels like you’re having sex in quick sand. Lastly, good support and good edge support further play into the amorous activity performance. Beyond just support for the purposes of sleeping, the mattress needs to be able to support the weight of two adults located in generally the same place on the mattress.
That’s a lot of weight. Selecting a mattress with robust materials and a good design will ensure the mattress is capable of properly supporting the full weight, while still creating good comfort, bounce, and response. Perhaps the most important factor in selecting a mattress for you and your significant other is simply the firmness and feel. Nothing else really mattress if you aren’t comfortable on the mattress. Fortunately, there are several good options to ensure you and your partner can get the feel and firmness level best suited for you. FAQ: What mattress firmness do I need? First, you can select a mattress designed with a universal and/or adaptive feel. These types of mattresses are usually in the medium firmness range. They are designed to provide an equal level of support and pressure relief regardless of body type, weight, and sleeping position. Leesa, Purple, and the Nest Bedding Alexander Hybrid all fall into this category. If you’re wary about the idea of universal comfort you can go with a split option.
With a split option you’ll generally have a Split Queen or Split King. In this setup you’ll have two separate mattresses side by side. This setup is ideal if you and your partner have very different needs and find a compromise in the middle just isn’t an option. For example, if one partner is very heavy and the other partner is very light, a split mattress may be a good choice. With split mattresses you have a few options. Some companies, like Brooklyn Bedding and Nest Bedding’s Love & Sleep, provide different firmness levels for their mattress. This allows you to get the same general design, but in a soft, medium, or firm option. This also helps you keep a similar aesthetic and size. However, the design and form of many online mattress companies are similar enough that you could also simply purchase two different Split Queen or Split King mattresses and use side by side, provided they are the same thickness. For example, Leesa and Amerisleep’s Americana are both 10″ thick, making them a perfect side-by-side choice.
Last, but certainly not least, we have full customization. While there aren’t many of these mattresses available yet, we do have at least one really good option with the Helix mattress. Helix allows couples to each customize their own side on the mattress. However, the mattress is still one single bed. Helix also has the ability to be as firm or as soft as you need it, in addition to being customized for body type, weight, certain medical conditions, sleeping position, and other factors. This makes it a really strong contender and one of the best mattresses for couples available today. Below is our complete list of the best mattresses for couples. These mattresses meet beautifully at the intersection of great support, comfort, and sex. Many are also available in varying firmness levels, can be customized, or have a universal / adaptive comfort design.Latex + microcoils + polyfoam.$945 Universal / adaptive comfort. Gel polymer + poly foam. Great bounce and response.$999