Best Mattress For Side Sleepers

There is very little that we don’t like about the Nest Alexander Hybrid mattress. It will be comfortable for people of all shapes and sizes thanks to its mix of pocketed coils, memory foam, and Energex foam. It actually reminds us a lot of the Brentwood Home Oceano, only the Alexander Hybrid is available in more than one firmness profile.

We recommend strict side sleepers stick to the Medium firmness, as it is soft enough to provide ample pressure relief, but still has a decent amount of support. The Luxury Firm isn’t overly firm either, but it’s not necessarily our pick for the best firm mattress for side sleepers.

If you sleep with a partner, this bed is a great choice as well. It features good edge support and will be comfortable for a variety of sleeping positions, so both partners can get comfy. We also like that consumers can sleep easy knowing this bed is backed by a lifetime warranty.

Why It’s A Great Innerspring Mattress For Side Sleepers

It really comes down to pressure relief and support. The bed has a giant, comfy cover that feels like a fluffy pillow, and yet it still has a layer of pocketed coils / springs. You get bi-directional support and the super plush pillow top. All in all, it was just a no-brainer pick as the best hybrid mattress for side sleepers.

In addition to all of that, Nest also now offers split firmness mattresses, meaning they have a soft and firm side. It’s not like Layla where the side are on the top and bottom, however. They actually split the mattress down the center to make one side firmer than the other. As such, Nest is definitely a great king mattress for side and back sleepers, and more. As someone that sleeps on a king mattress, I highly recommend it, and the split firmness just takes things to another level. In terms of our best rated mattresses, Nest Alexander is darn near off the charts, all things considered.

Purple is one of the most unique, top rated mattresses on the market right now. The top of the mattress is covered with a pressure relieving, proprietary material called Hyper-Elastic Polymer. The material looks like a grid and allows for good airflow. This is great for people who tend to sleep hot and need a bed that does a great job of dissipating body heat.

Technically, there are four versions of the Purple mattress—the Purple Original and 2/3/4—and we think all of them will work for side sleepers, although, if we had all of the money in the world Purple 3 or 4 would be our favorite. Although it’s on a case-by-case basis, given how unique Purple beds are, we could see them being a great solution for side sleepers with back pain. They’re just so unique that we can almost guarantee that you’ve not tried a bed like this before. 

Regardless, however, all of the beds offer pressure relief and are a wonderful solution for hotter sleepers. It really comes down to your budget and whether or not you’re open to a new style of mattress. The original Purple is their most affordable model and the new models do climb in price. If you’re under 230 lb, you might want to start with the original model, as it will save you some money.

Purple Gets The Mattress Firmness Right

The interesting thing about Purple is that you can’t rate it by the same mattress firmness that you do many of the other beds. It’s around a medium on our firmness scale, but that depends in large part on your body type and weight. We just think that for the average American, the mattress firmness of Purple is ideal for side sleepers.

Highly Supportive For Side Sleepers With Back Pain

If you’re dealing with back pain, the support level of your mattress is of great importance. We discuss this point in more detail later in the post, but the reason we picked Purple Hybrid is the fact that it has pocketed coils, meaning it’s superb in the support arena. And it’s not just that, if you’re sleeping on your side and have back pain, you still want pressure relief from this type of mattress might be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Tuft & Needle Mint will be a really comfortable mattress for strict side sleepers who need plenty of pressure relief around the shoulders and hips. The bed also doesn’t use any memory foam, which means it has an overall neutral feel, a bit like the original Tuft & Needle mattress, only softer. We’d put the Mint at a medium to medium-soft on our firmness scale, so you can expect to sink it, but not feel trapped.

Despite the fact that this is a thicker foam mattress, we still contend than T&N Mint is best for medium and petite individuals. And while we think petite sleepers can get by sleeping in any position, anyone that weights 180 – 250 lb should probably sleep exclusively on their side with T&N Mint. At the end of the day though, this is a comfy, neutral, soft mattress—if that sounds like what you’re looking for, T&N Mint might be your mattress.

It’s also fairly budget friendly. The queen size mattress is usually around $1,000 before any discounts.

A Great Option For Sleepers With Shoulder Pain

Many of these mattresses are ideal option for people with shoulder pain, so why did we single out T&N Mint? Great question. We selected this bed in particular because it is really good at limiting motion transfer and still offers a heck of a lot relief for your pressure points, particularly in your shoulders. You will sink into T&N Mint without feeling stuck. It’s also quite soft, meaning it will contour to your body’s shape, especially where you have curves (i.e. your shoulders). Again, you can pick just about any bed on this list if you’re a side sleeper with shoulder pain, but T&N Mint is a great place to start.

The Brentwood Oceano mattress is plush and features a luxuriously soft pillow top that hugs your body. This provides both comfort and pressure relief to side sleepers. The mattress is about 15″ thick and will be a good choice for people of all sizes with its pocketed coils for support and foam for comfort.

This mattress is also a good choice if you sleep with a partner or a pet. Not only does it do a good job of isolating motion, but it provides an adaptable surface, comfortable for multiple sleeping positions. This bed has a longer-than-average warranty, at 25 years. We also like that Brentwood Home makes an effort to use eco-friendly materials and manufacturing practices. Overall, we find this to be a super comfortable and accommodating bed.

Ultimately, however, we selected Brentwood Home Oceano because it has dual coil layers and is highly supportive. If you’re overweight, you need a supportive bed, and Oceano is just that. It’s not the cheapest bed you can buy, but it’s fairly affordable all things considered. If you just look at the queen size mattress, it’s not out of reach for the typical consumer, that’s for sure.

Other Innerspring Pillow Top Mattresses

Two very close alternatives are Saatva and WinkBed. We really had to make a tough call here. While we absolutely love Saatva and WinkBed, we felt that Brentwood Home was the quintessential pillow top mattress for side sleepers. Saatva and WinkBed are two phenomenal beds that are on par with Oceano, but we could only choose one. Interestingly enough, Saatva and WinkBed both are innerspring mattreses with two layers fo coils as well.

Casper is pretty much the bed in a box mattress online, especially for side and back sleepers. It’s constructed with foam and, while it uses memory foam, it doesn’t give you that stuck-in-the-mud feeling. In fact, we’d actually say it has a more soft foam feel to it, which we’ve found a lot of sleepers quite like.

Overall, this bed finds a nice balance between pressure relief and support. We can see why it’s become so popular over the last several years and we think it’s a great option for side sleepers or anyone that needs to think about getting enough pressure relief while they sleep. And, if for some reason, you find it to be too firm from the get-go, remember that all beds soften with use. You’d rather start with too firm of a bed than too soft of a bed.

Why It’s A Great Bed For Side And Back Sleepers

The main reason we selected Casper is because it’s so accomodating. It is a mattress that the vast majority of people are really happy with—and not only that, the firmness level is such that it can handle all sleeping positions, including (of course) side and back sleepers. Also, because Casper has the Zoned Support design we anticipate that you’ll be plenty happy switching between side sleeping and back sleeping.