Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers in 2024

Side sleeping is one of the most common sleeping positions, it helps decrease acid reflux, reduces snoring, and alleviates symptoms of sleep apnea. However, it’s not uncommon for side sleepers to experience pain in their shoulders and hips as a result of pressure build-up around those areas. When you sleep on your side, all of your weight is put onto your hips and shoulders, so it’s crucial to find a mattress that can accommodate this sleep style. To find the best mattress for side sleepers, you should look for a bed that offers an even balance of comfort and support.

In this guide, we’ll discuss what to look for during your search for the best mattress for you as well as our Editors’ recommended mattresses for side sleepers.

Best Mattress for Side Sleepers

Brand	Model	Highlights	Price (Queen)
	Amerisleep AS3	3 inches of pressure-relieving memory foam and zoned back support promote comfortable side sleeping and prevent discomfort.	$1099
	Zoma Mattress	2 inches of gel-infused memory foam and zoned support in the top layer.	$799
	Amerisleep AS5 Hybrid	3 inches of plant-based memory foam and zoned pocketed coils offer pressure relief and bounce.	$1679
	Vaya Mattress	3 inches of breathable Vaya Foam contour and cushion the shoulders and hips to ease pain and facilitate healthy alignment.	$599
	Purple. 4 Premier Hybrid	4 inches of "No-Pressure" Smart Comfort Grid™.	$2,999
	T&N Mint	Another non-memory foam that uses graphite to help keep you cool.	$995

Our Editors’ recommended mattress for side sleepers is Amerisleep’s AS3. Amerisleep makes and sells mattresses that each range in firmness and is recommended for types of sleepers. On their website, they specify their AS3 is a medium and recommended for side and combination sleepers alike.

“The Amerisleep AS3 is the perfect mattress for people looking for a bed that offers an even balance of support and comfort,” says Dr. Jordan Burns.  

Amerisleep designs their AS3 with four inches of pressure-relieving memory foam in the comfort layer, so it allows the shoulders and hips to sink in enough to receive adequate pressure relief but it’s also responsive enough to prevent you from sinking too far.

We’re confident with the top-notch materials Amerisleep uses in the design of their bed, side sleepers can get healthy, pain-free sleep on the AS3. Let’s talk about why their AS3 is a fit for side sleepers.

As we mentioned, the top layer of the AS3 is 3 inches of Bio-Pur®, Amerisleep’s plant-based memory foam. When you lay on this bed, the breathable, responsive memory foam contours to your body and allow your shoulders and hips to compress in the mattress. Below the layer of Bio-Pur® lies Amerisleep’s most significant pain-relieving technology, HIVE®.

The HIVE® layer is a layer of zoned support designed to offer extra support to your midsection, feet, and neck, and more cushion to your shoulders and hips; this design further reduces pressure points and promotes natural spinal alignment. These layers work in tandem to deliver more comfortable sleep, eliminate existing aches, and prevent you from experiencing new pain points.

“Memory foam mattresses like the Amerisleep AS3 are proven to provide supportive pressure relief to help maintain a neutral spinal alignment while side sleeping,” says Dr. Burns.

When you shop with Amerisleep your mattress comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty, so you have the opportunity to test your bed out and decide if it’s right for you. If so, it’s backed by one of the more generous warranties offered in the mattress industry.

Next on our list is the Zoma Mattress. Zoma is designed to help athletes leverage their sleep to perform better in their day-to-day life. Engineered to facilitate deeper sleep cycles and faster muscle recovery, Zoma can help you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day every day.

Even if you aren’t an athlete, you can reap the sleep-promoting benefits Zoma has to offer. We recommend those with frequent discomfort choose the Zoma because it contains pain-relieving technologies that promote proper posture.

Zoma’s Triangulex™ technology makes it ideal for side sleepers. Triangulex™ feels firmer around your midsection to offer extra lumbar support and prevent your torso from sinking uncomfortably. Then, near your shoulders and hips, Triangulex™ has triangle-shaped cutouts to allow for deeper compression and pressure relief under those major joints.

Because your shoulders and hips take on most of your body weight when you sleep on your side, pressure-relieving technologies are needed to prevent pains. The infused gels similarly limit pain build-up.

“The Zoma mattress with its cooling gel memory foam helps provide pressure relief for side sleepers and keeps you cool and comfortable throughout the night,” says Dr. Burns.

Let’s talk about the rest of this bed’s construction.

Zoma contains three layers: gel-infused memory foam with Triangulex™ technology, a layer of Reactiv™ foam, and the Support+ core.

When you lay down on Zoma, the top layer of memory foam contours to your body and offers instant cushioning comfort. The gel within the foam combats body heat to keep you at a comfortable temperature. Triangulex™ comes into play to offer dynamic spinal support.

The second layer, Reactiv™ foam, gives the Zoma a bit of bounce. Reactiv™ is designed to be more responsive than memory foam, so it prevents you from ever feeling “stuck” in the mattress. Reactiv™’s bounciness also makes it easier to switch sleeping positions and climb in or out of bed.

The third and final layer is Zoma’s Support+ foam, a durable poly-foam. Support+ reinforces the two layers above and prevents sagging throughout the mattress.

Zoma offers a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty with each of their beds.

SEE ALSO: Most Comfortable Mattress

If you’re a side sleeper looking for a luxuriously thick mattress, we recommend Amerisleep’s hybrid model of its soft feel AS5. While soft, it has a bounce that prevents you from sinking in so deep that you become trapped in your bed.

You can also consider a memory foam mattress version of the AS5. We choose to recommend the hybrid for its extra bit of lift provided by its coils, but both models are excellent choices for a side sleeper.

There are four layers in an AS5 Hybrid. The top layer is 3 inches of Amerisleep’s breathable, pressure-relieving Bio-Pur® foam. When you lie on top of it, you won’t sink in too deeply thanks to the next layer.

Two inches of bouncy Active Flex supports the Bio-Pur® foam. Active Flex is specifically designed to add responsiveness without lessening the bed’s soft feel.

Next is the bed’s primary support, an 8-inch layer of pocketed coils. The coils are wrapped in fabric pockets to limit motion transfer and prevent sleep disturbances. Amerisleep groups the coils into three zones. There’s more pressure relief offered in the shoulders and legs areas, while the torso section focuses on support.

A 1-inch thick base of firm foam helps maintain the coils structure. Firm foams also surround the coils for added protection, providing you with edge support to make getting out of bed easier.

As we previously mentioned, all Amerisleep mattresses include a 100-night sleep trial and an extensive 20-year warranty. You can expect many years of cloudlike comfort when it comes to the AS5 Hybrid.

SEE ALSO: The Best Place to Buy a Mattress & 7 In-Store Myths

The Vaya Mattress is designed to suit side, back, and combination sleeping, but we love this mattress for side sleepers because it contains a 3-inch comfort layer to adequately cushion the shoulders and hips. Plus, the Vaya is medium in firmness, and many side sleepers find comfort on medium mattresses.

“Mattresses like the Vaya mattress have been proven to be a supportive mattress for those looking to reduce back pain and improve their quality of sleep,” says Dr. Burns.

Vaya Sleep is an online, mattress in a box brand who makes and sells only one mattress model, the Vaya. The Vaya brand appeals to many shoppers because of their incredibly low prices, as their queen size mattress costs only $599! The Vaya Mattress is another top-rated option to consider when looking for a comfortable mattress for side sleepers.

However, we like this brand for more than just their low prices—Vaya also uses innovative foams in their beds to offer a unique sleep experience. The Vaya Mattress stands 12 inches tall and contains two layers: 3 inches of Vaya Comfort Foam and 9 inches of thick, sturdy base foam.

Vaya Comfort Foam is contouring, breathable, and adaptable—it cushions your body and adapts to your changing movements, but it doesn’t trap heat or cause you to sink. Instead, Vaya Foam is lifting like latex to keep you propped in a comfy position.

The core of the Vaya Mattress is sturdy enough to prevent premature wear and tear and resist sags for at least 10 years. And Vaya offers a decade-long warranty to back their bed, as well.

Most Innovative Mattress For Side Sleepers: Purple Hybrid Premier

Purple’s new hybrid mattresses are excellent for side sleepers avoiding pesky pains, especially their Purple Hybrid Premier, their softest model. Purple has been shaking things up since they were launched in 2015, introducing a whole new material to the mattress industry— hyper-elastic polymer.

Purple’s aim was to develop the world’s first “No Pressure” mattress, which is ideal for anybody suffering from aches and pains.

Purple’s founders invented the machine that can fashion hyper-elastic polymer into mattress-size grids, and they use their innovative Smart Comfort Grid™ as the top layer of each of their beds. Their Smart Comfort Grid™ adapts to your body, eliminates pressure points, and helps keep you cool while you sleep, all due to its design.

When you lay on the Purple mattress, the grid will collapse under your weight and act as an instant cushion, but it still maintains its support and keeps your body elevated in the mattress.

When they first launched, Purple only sold one all-foam bed. Then, in 2019, they released 3 hybrid models, too: Purple.2, Purple.3, and Purple.4. The only difference between these models is the thickness of the Smart Comfort Grid™; so the grid is 2 inches thick in the Purple.2, 3 inches thick in the Purple.3, and— you guessed it— 4 inches thick in the Purple.4. You can choose which Purple hybrid is best for you based on your own firmness preferences and sleep needs, but for optimal pain relief, we recommend choosing their Purple.4.

Purple’s .4 hybrid is important for pain relief because it allows 4 inches for your body to compress, resulting in extra pressure relief. Plus, because the Smart Comfort Grid™ is soft but supportive, it promotes your body’s neutral alignment and prevents new pains from forming. The pocketed coil system Purple includes in each of their hybrids gives their beds a more bouncy feeling, but also offers zoned support for the sleeper above, too.

When you buy any one of Purple’s beds, it comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty.

Best Cooling Mattress for Side Sleepers:

Most Versatile Mattress for Side Sleepers: Tuft & Needle

Tuft & Needle is another popular online mattress company that specializes in making and selling all-foam mattresses. Since they were founded a few years back, they’ve released two mattresses: their flagship T&N bed and a more luxurious version of it called the Mint™.

Both mattresses are great for side sleepers, and the most significant difference between the two of them is that the Mint™ is designed with more cooling technologies to help hot sleepers snooze more peacefully. If you’re prone to sleep hot, we recommend choosing the Mint™. However, if you’re looking for a bed at a lower price point, you can certainly get good sleep on their more affordable T&N bed.

Featured as the top layer in both of their beds is their proprietary T&N Adaptive® foam— a poly-foam designed to be more pressure-relieving than memory foam. In the T&N bed, they feature 3 inches of the T&N Adaptive® foam, and in their Mint, 5 inches. When you lay on either of these beds, this foam will cushion your body to relieve pressure points, but it is a bit more responsive than memory foam, so it’ll provide a more “on the bed” feel rather than a “cradling” feel.

In the Mint, they feature a transition layer between the T&N Adaptive® foam and the core of the mattress for additional plushness. On the other hand, in the T&N, they skip the transition layer and go straight to the supportive core foam. All in all, the Mint® has 3 layers while the T&N has 2.

When you buy either of these beds, it comes with a 100-night sleep trial and 10-year warranty to protect your investment for the next decade.

Mattress Types for Side Sleepers

For the most part, memory foam, latex, and hybrid mattresses are all great for side sleepers— which leaves plenty of options.

Memory Foam

Memory foam mattresses are great for side sleepers because they have to cushion characteristics to prevent pressure points. Memory foam got its name because it “remembers” your shape and adapts to your body. Memory foam takes the pressure off your body which helps eliminate tossing and turning.

When shopping for a memory foam mattress for side sleepers, we recommend you stick with medium to medium-soft firmness. If you go too soft, your hips will sink so much and cause lower back pain. But if you go too firm, you’ll free aches and pains on your shoulders and hips.

Hybrid Mattresses

Hybrid mattresses are excellent for side sleepers who want more bounce from their bed than an all-foam counterpart can provide. Hybrids combine the best of both worlds— with cushioning top layers and a pocketed coil system, these beds are great at offering an even balance of comfort and support. Most hybrids contain a pocketed coil system to offer zoned support and prevent motion transfer, too. Meaning, you can have a bouncy bed without worrying about disturbing a sleeping partner every time you toss or turn.

Latex Mattresses

Latex mattresses are very responsive. Imagine a latex glove. If you pull it tight, the latex glove adapts to your hand and the moment you let the glove go it snaps back into its original shape. This natural characteristic of latex makes it a great option for mattresses. You want a mattress to bend with you and you also want it to snap back and support you.

However, if you are looking for a latex mattress there are a few important things to consider. First, latex mattresses are generally the most expensive mattress type on the market. When looking at a latex bed make sure it’s 100% latex and not a synthetic latex blend. Second, make sure it isn’t too firm. This is especially true for side sleepers who need more cushion from their mattress.

Innerspring Mattresses

The only type of mattress to be wary of as a side sleeper is innerspring because not all innersprings are built to offer conformity. The most important thing for side sleepers looking to avoid pain is finding a bed that will cushion the shoulders and hips. Unfortunately, not all innerspring mattresses do that. When you lay on an innerspring, it doesn’t mold or cushion your body like memory foam or even latex would. Instead, you’re left adapting to the bed, and not the other way around. If your body doesn’t conform to the mattress, it leaves opportunity for pressure points to form and can lead to increased hip and shoulder pain— which is exactly what most side sleepers are trying to avoid.

If you are mostly interested in a coil mattress, we recommend a medium-soft mattress with individually wrapped coils and a pillow top to provide extra cushion.

What Should Side Sleepers Look for in a New Mattress?

There are a variety of things to consider before settling on a new mattress. For starters, your personal preferences for mattress type and firmness play a significant role. Beyond that, side sleepers should look for a bed that offers pressure relief, zoned support, and is around a soft to medium firmness.

Pressure Relief

Pressure relief is by far one of the most important things for sleepers who are looking to relieve chronic pains. When you wake up in the morning with a stiff back and sore joints, it’s likely a result of sleeping on a mattress that isn’t providing you with the best support.

When you sleep, it’s your body’s time to recover and prepare itself for the next day. During sleep, your vertebrae have a chance to rehydrate and your back muscles can rest. It’s important your mattress is conducive to recovery— if not, chronic pain can be the result.

Memory foam is regarded as the best material for pressure relief. Developed by NASA in the 1970s, this material was designed for astronauts to alleviate stress during take-off.

Zoned Support

With side sleepers, a good supportive layer must back up the softer comfort layer. This design keeps curves of the spine and neck naturally aligned.

Having a supportive mattress is not the same thing as having a mattress of hard firmness. Well-built softer mattresses provide both conformity and support.

Side sleepers can benefit from zoned support, specifically. Zoned support can be achieved with the inclusion of a pocketed coil system, or it can be created using a layer of foam or alternative support technology. The goal behind zoned support is to cushion pressure points and support the spine.

For example, in many zoned support technologies, they feel firmer and offer better support underneath your torso, neck, and feet— this contributes to neutral spinal alignment. On the other hand, these technologies feel softer and offer more cushioning under your shoulders and hips to prevent aches and pains.

Firmness Levels

The best mattress for side sleepers allows the parts of the body that stick out to comfortably sink in— this allows the neck and spine to be supported on top of the mattress in alignment.

Soft to medium memory foam mattresses do an exceptional job of contouring to the curves and protruding parts of the side sleeping body. Firm and medium-firm mattresses are typically too firm to allow your hips and sides to sink in enough, so it’s usually best to avoid those.

A mattress that contours to your natural curves when you lay on your side prevents, or at least limits, pain caused by pressure points.

The exact firmness of the mattress depends on your personal preference, size, weight and body type. Ideally, look for a mattress somewhere in the range of 3-6 out of 10 on the firmness scale, with the higher numbers being firmer. This should achieve a good balance between support and conformity. More petite people may prefer softer, while heavier people likely need thicker and slightly firmer beds for long-term comfort.

Saving on a Mattress for Side Sleepers

Mattresses for side sleeping can cost a significant amount, due to the fact that they require thick cushioning layers to ease pressure points. Side sleepers can watch for mattress sales and deals that occur throughout the year:

• Best Memorial Day Mattress Sales
• Best 4th of July Mattress Sales
• Best Labor Day Mattress Sales
• Best Columbus Day Mattress Sales
• Best Black Friday Mattress Sales
• Best Cyber Monday Mattress Sales

Tips for Alleviating Back Pain for Side Sleepers

Due to a prolonged pelvic twist, a side sleeper’s spine may already be misaligned. Sleeping on too firm of a mattress that does not sufficiently absorb pressure points facilitates or worsens lower back and neck pain.

Along with switching to a mattress that complements the side sleeping styles, there are a few other preventative measures that help ease pain and misalignment.

One of the biggest ways to avoid pain? Training yourself to sleep more aligned:

• When first getting comfortable in bed, ensure that your hips and pelvis remain straight.
• Your spine and neck ideally should remain in a straight line, parallel to the floor.
• If needed, make adjustments before falling asleep or if you wake in the night.
• Try keeping a pillow in front of you to avoid leaning your torso forward.
• Use a small pillow between your knees, which helps minimize pelvic twisting. The Mayo Clinic recommends side sleepers do this to prevent back pain.

The pillow you use for your head also proves important. Look for one that supports varying pressures of your head and neck. Overly stiff or tall pillows keep your head too high relative to your spine, creating a new form of pressure. If it is too short, it won’t sufficiently cradle your head and neck. Keeping your neck straight with your spine is the goal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which type of mattress is best for side sleepers?

The best mattress for side sleepers is a medium to medium-soft memory foam mattress that helps take away pressure-points while still offering excellent support. The goal is to cradle your shoulders and keep your hips properly aligned. While other mattress types, such as latex and innerspring, can do this, memory foam is inherently built for this kind of pressure relief and support.

What firmness is best for side sleepers?

The best firmness for side sleepers is medium to medium-soft. Sometimes this is called luxury firm in the mattress industry. Typically, side sleepers need more cushion or softness than a back sleeper. This extra cushion helps fill in the gaps between your ships and your lower back.

What is the best mattress for side sleepers with back pain?

The best mattress for side sleepers with back pain is the Amerisleep AS3. The AS3 has three inches of pressure-relieving memory foam and comes with zoned back support designed to reduce pressure points. If you prefer a bed with some bounce, you might want to check out the AS3’s hybrid counterpart.

What is the best mattress for a side sleeper with shoulder pain?

The best mattresses for side sleepers with should pain are soft to medium-soft. A plush mattress will ensure the shoulder joint stays cushioned and protected from pressure points. When the shoulder is cushioned, the muscles can fully relax and heal during sleep.

Is a firm mattress bad for side sleepers?

A firm mattress can leave side sleepers feeling stiff and sore in the morning. The bed’s top usually can’t conform to the body as well as a softer mattress can. This lack of conformity lets pressure points in the shoulders and hips build up into pain, reducing a side sleeper’s restorative rest.

Conclusion

You can find plenty of high-quality mattresses available at a reasonable price, the key is just knowing what to look for. Side sleepers should ensure that the mattress they choose possesses a thicker, softer comfort layer to conform to and relieve pressure points. But, the bed must also provide adequate support so that the spine remains straight and parallel.

We hope this guide has been a helpful tool during your search for a new bed. If you’re still curious about other mattresses or haven’t found all you need here, check out our other guides to learn more.