The Best Mattress for a Better Night's Sleep Buying a new mattress? Here are tips for finding the right mattress for you. You spend about a third of every day in bed. Whether that time is spent blissfully slumbering -- or tossing and turning -- depends a lot on your mattress. "A mattress can impact a person's sleep," says Michael Decker, PhD, RN, associate professor at Georgia State University and spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. One way that your mattress affects your sleep has to do with the network of fine blood vessels, called capillaries, that runs underneath your skin. "When you lie on any part of your body for an extended period of time, the weight of it reduces the flow of blood through those blood vessels, which deprives the skin of oxygen and nutrients," Decker says. This causes nerve cells and pain sensors in your skin to send a message to your brain for you to roll over. Rolling over restores blood flow to the area, but it also briefly interrupts your sleep.
Ideally, a mattress that reduces the pressure points on your body should give you a better night's sleep, Decker says. Yet the ideal mattress is different for each person. Which Mattress Is Right for You? Finding the right mattress isn't about searching out the highest-tech brand or spending the most money. "A much more expensive mattress doesn't necessarily mean it's better," Decker says. A high price tag is a product of both the materials that go into the mattress, and the marketing that helps sell it. Instead of focusing on price and brand name, think about what you want in a mattress. "Selecting a mattress is very personal," Decker says. Some people prefer a firmer mattress; others favor a softer style. Although there isn't a lot of scientific evidence to prove that one type of mattress will help you sleep better than another, people with certain medical conditions do seem to rest easier on a particular mattress style. Anyone with back or neck pain should take a Goldilocks approach to mattress buying: not too hard, and not too soft.
"If you're on too soft [of] a mattress, you'll start to sink down to the bottom. But on too hard of a mattress you have too much pressure on the sacrum, and on the shoulders, and on the back of the head," says Howard Levy, MD, an Emory University assistant professor of orthopaedics, physical medicine, and rehabilitation. A medium-firm mattress, or a firm mattress with a softer pillow top, will give your spine that "just-right" balance of support and cushioning. An adjustable bed can be a good buy if you need to sleep with your head raised. Doctors sometimes recommend elevating the head to help people with COPD breathe easier, or to prevent nighttime heartburn from GERD. These beds can also allow you to adjust your knees and hips to a 90-degree angle, relieving some of the pressure on sore joints, Levy says. If you have allergies or asthma, you might have considered buying a bed labeled "hypoallergenic." "There are a lot of claims made by mattress manufacturers that their mattresses are hypoallergenic or don't support the growth of dust mites, but I don't know of scientific evidence to support these claims," says Paul V. Williams, MD, a pediatrics professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and an allergist at Northwest Allergy and Asthma Center in Washington state.
Williams says dust mites will live anywhere there's food -- and that food is your dead skin cells. Instead of investing in an allergy-free mattress, slip on a washable mattress encasing. It will form a barrier that prevents dust mites from getting to you. A mattress encasing cuts allergen growth by robbing dust mites of their food supply, Williams says. And what about those space-age memory foam mattresses, which can cost thousands of dollars? There is some evidence they can help with back problems and improve sleep, but their advantage over a regular coil mattress is only slight. Where memory foam mattresses can really help you sleep is if you have an active bed partner who is keeping you awake, Decker says. Foam mattresses reduce motion transfer, letting you lie still while your partner tosses and turns. Test Drive a Mattress Before You Buy "You wouldn't buy a car without test driving it," Decker says. So why would you invest hundreds -- or even thousands of dollars in a mattress without trying it out first?
Take any new mattress you're considering for a test nap. "People should not be embarrassed to go into a store and lay on a mattress for 20 minutes," Decker says. For a more realistic test, sleep in the beds at different hotel chains when you travel. If you get an especially good night's sleep on one of them, ask the desk clerk what brand it is. When you test out a mattress, make sure it feels comfortable in every position, especially the side you favor for sleeping. The mattress should be supportive where you need it, without putting too much pressure on your body, Levy says. Time for a New Mattress If you've been having trouble sleeping, the problem might not be your mattress type, but its age. "It's really important for people to realize that mattresses have a certain lifespan," Decker says. Keep your mattress too long, and the foam and other materials inside it will start to break down, compromising its ability to support your body. Decker recommends keeping your mattress for no more than 10 years.
After that, it's time to go mattress shopping again. 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.